[UPSC Interview 2022] – Transcript #228 : Lieutenant General Raj Shukla Board, Punjabi literature Optional, Punjab Home State

Date of Interview: 22.03.23 Afternoon Session
Board: Lieutenant General Raj Shukla Sir
Home State: Amritsar, Punjab
Work experience: Union Bank of India (4.5 yrs)
Workplace: Surat
Optional: Punjabi literature
Time: 31 minutes (attendant himself told me precisely that how long it went )

• To view all IAS Interview Transcripts 2022, visit this page

Chairman

(He asks very long questions, so many questions in a single question sometimes you can’t get what exactly he’s trying to ask. Below written questions are shortened version of his monologues)

1. What is your hometown
2. Amritpal’s issue what is the situation in Punjab.
3. Do Pakistan has a role
4. Pak is itself grappling in economic stress why will it fund disturbance in India.
5. Pakistan army is getting involved in internal politics of Pakistan how you see it.
6. Do you think Pakistan can get stability in near future when both govt and army don’t wanna change themselves.
7. Is Imran Khan a populist leader or inducted by army.
8. How you see future prospects of Imran Khan
(I said I don’t have this much idea about Pakistan’s internal politics , he said okay so let’s go farther 😉
9. Taliban regime is getting stronger in Afghanistan, can they sustain?
10. Taliban has hard core philosophy they don’t wanna change, so how you see future of Afghanistan.
11. China has a role in Saudi Iran deal. Do you think it has diminished the role of USA or USA is over-ocuppied in other regions
12. Is this a one time event or China will interfere in other West Asian nations
13. How US oil imports from Saudi Arab will be impacted due to this deal. Will US move to other regions.

Member 1

1. 3 judges recently gave interview to media including chief justices. (I confirmed twice that this incident is recent or 2-3 years ago because I read about it back then not recently). He said recent one. Then he asked should judges answer such questions (I asked about questions) . Then he said leave it if you haven’t watched that interview
2. SVB bank crisis reasons
3. Impact on Indian Banks, difference between US and indian banking regulation.
4. So what should India do to prevent banking crisis
3. MDR (merchant discount rate)
4. MDR on UPI, why zero, isn’t this unfair with other platforms.
5. HDFC vs Union Bank share price why the difference.( I told about that UBI share price had also risen )
6. Why Union Bank share price rose.

Member 2

1. Live court proceedings, your opinion
2. Privacy issue who will decide privacy in live proceedings
3. I gave an example of girl who got his name removed from a case available online. So he asked how as a lawyer I’ll be able to get that case. I said lawyers have their internal portal or reasearch libraries. Internet is not their principal source. He said we don’t have any research library. I said some internal portal must definitely be there. Then he agreed.
4. NPAs are due to target based banking. You people are pressurised for targets, Won’t you be completing targets till 31st march, Some people do run for targets what about them.
5. You have done graduation only and immediately joined bank after graduation. You haven’t done masters. You become IAS and some PCS or junior who is MBA, masters degree holder or has higher educational qualifications. Won’t you feel complex?

Member 3

It was more of a normal conversation with her rather than question answers

1. You studied Punjabi literature in Gurmukhi
2. Which places you’ll take me to as a tourist in Amritsar
3. Blogging on which topics , how many followers (Hobby)
4. You write poetry in which language (hobby)
5 . Surat vs Amritsar compare. Don’t you get issue with food as it’s totally different from Amritsar
6. You are doing so well in banking you can reach greater heights why Civil Services then

Member 4

1. You were answering about share price, P/E  ratio of HDFC vs Union Bank is 20 and 6 respectively. What does it signify
2. You said USA will diversify it’s imports, do you know by next year it will become net exporter of Oil .
3. Impact of Social media on polity and governance.
(2-3 more questions he asked that i am not able to recall)

Chairman Sir : (Again many questions merged in each question)

1. Why Bank nationalisation
2.  Why nationalisation pre-liberalisation and privatisation after that .
3. Why private banks when ultimately govt has to bail them as in SVB case.

Overall experience: Shukla sir’s questions may seem hard by reading transcripts but in actual he gives so much intro of everything and asks open ended questions on which you can comment if you can’t answer
It was 60% Daf based + 20% IR + 10% Judicial issues+ 10% miscellaneous for me. Cordial board no issues as such.

Mocks experience: Didn’t attend any so no comments