[UPSC Interview 2020] – Transcript #191 :TCA Anant  Board, Andaman and Nicobar Home State, PSIR Optional, Reading books, Travelling Hobbies

Date of Interview: 07 Sep 2021
Board: TCA Anant
Optional: PSIR
Background: B.Tech in Petroleum Engineering, 2018 – IIT ISM Dhanbad
Working in Schlumberger (oil and gas firm)
Hobbies: Reading books and Travelling
Home State: Andaman and Nicobar/ UT
Preference: Indian Foreign Services

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Chairman

1. No introduction, no time to calm down or get acquainted
2. Basic questions on what I am doing, what is my role in the company, what does it do, all this in a casual manner while flipping through DAF
3. Where all I have actually lived? – no follow up
4. From DAF – About an international organisation I worked with in university that facilitates student exchange – what did I learn from foreigner interns who visited India?

Member 1

1. What is Quad? Who are the members? Is it beneficial for India?
2. Did India do the right thing by aligning with the unipolar world leader (I respectfully argued that world is not unipolar and then defended the stance)
3. With crude oil running out in next 40 years (I respectfully argued that not in 40 years) – he gave space for me to counter mid question by asking whether I agree or not (in both unipolar world questions and crude oil question)
4. Assume oil ending in 100 years – paint a picture of that world without oil, how will it be?

Member 3

1. Making handsome money – Why Civil services?
2. Which book you read – it was an IR book so directed to another question on Indo Pacific and what it means, why important

Member 4

1. Asked about have you worked in any NGO in Mumbai? – said no, she didn’t follow up
2. Name any three Heath sector schemes – I named any random three, no followup
3. How to handle COVID (took a moment for fake thinking – she further expanded the question in that time to clarify that I can also say what is being done)
4. How to handle COVID in congested spaces – I explained Dharavi Model
5. Out of the blue – what is Account? (I have zero background in the subject) – I looked surprised, she explained she just wanted to know my understanding of what accounting is – explained that simply, no follow up

Member 5

1. Name the Submarine that was grounded in an accident in Visakhapatnam (I can’t recall Sir)
2. Which tribe is going extinct in Port Blair (my birth place, also asked how did I end up being born there )
3. Important monument in Port Blair
4. Marine life of Andaman – I can’t recall Sir
5. According to us, your firm, Schlumberger is not doing well, what is your opinion (perhaps a loyalty test: I defended my firm)
6. Questions of Petroleum engineering – what is the use of Bentonite clay? What are it’s alternatives? What is 80/20 in bitumen? – didn’t know that last two so said I can’t recall sir, he said okay and pointed to Chairman sir to carry forward

Chairman sir – pointed for me to leave, you can go now, done.

Observations:

1. By design or inadvertently – the board didn’t ask follow-up questions for any question at all. There was zero grillings on any stance.
2. I tend to move my hands a lot while speaking, one board member was continuously watching that.
3. M5 ended eye contact the moment I started answering anything confidently
4. No in-depth questions on IR, nothing out of DAF, it did feel like the last interview of the day for them.