[UPSC Interview 2022] – Transcript #85 : Lt. Gen. Raj Shukla Board, Sociology Optional, Bihar Home State,

Date of Interview: 31st Jan. 2023; Forenoon; First one to go
Board: Lt. Gen. Raj Shukla (Retd.)
Optional: Sociology
Background: IIT Kanpur, Computer Science & Engineering
Profession (if any): Software Development Engineer @ Amazon for 2 years till mid-2019
Hobbies: Long distance Running, Watching Historical movies
Home state: Bihar

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Chairman

1. EWS reservation – Your Views
2. Minority judgement opposed More than 50% reservation – Your views
3. Of the two hobbies(Long Distance running, Historical movies), which one do you prefer for stress busting. => told Movies
4. You don’t feel your stress relieved after Running?
5. Which movie did you watched recently => Told -> Re-watched Gandhi yesterday(30th Jan), before that Parmanu: the story of Pokharan.
6. What this quote means to you “History never repeats itself, but it often rhymes”
7. Diff. b/w Spanish flu and Covid-19
   a. Told -> vaccine -> reduced Deaths in COVID-19
8. Total deaths by Spanish flu, covid-19 world wide -> said don’t remember
9. It was there in Europe. Then, how it came to India.
   ○ Answered -> He replied – It seems you have good grasp on history.

Member 1 

1. What were you doing for the past 3 years?
2. What is the Occupation theory of caste?
3. Is politics becoming the next caste => she clarified -> politics is an occupation; and politicians are dynastic & thus hereditary.
4. Amazon is doing good business but why is it laying off people?
5. What was the difference in work culture there at Amazon?
6. Told – much informal grouping and working
7. Counter question -> But it is true for all IT companies
   a. My team -> 6-8 people all of similar age => more informality
8. Is eCommerce good for the economy?
9. Is it good for the small sellers?
10. Is it good for the tribals?
11. Is it good for the small sellers which are not well versed with tech or have small scale.

Member 2

1. You belong to Bihar Sharif. So why is it called “Sharif” => Told that there is tomb of important Sufi saint “Sheikh Makhdoom Yahya Maneri”.
2. Which Silsila did he belonged to? => Firdausia
3. What was the philosophy of that silsila. => Don’t know
4. Why was he called “Maneri”? => Not aware
5. What other silsilas are there?
6. What was Important features of the Sufi movement.
7. Equivalent in Hinduism and its feature. => Told “devotion to god” as one of its feature
8. But, isn’t devotion to god common to everyone. How is it different?
9. Why Nalanda is important? When was it active?
10. So, you watched Gandhi movie. Which scene did you liked the most => Told Dandi march and Salt Satyagraha
11. Why Salt was chosen?

Member 3

1. You talked about constitution. So, tell me what are the provisions in constitution regarding International relations => Told Article 51 and its provisions.
2. So, do you think the Gandhian philosophy and these provisions for IR is relevant in present time. => Told yes, gave example of how Arbitration on maritime boundary with Bangladesh and its acceptance led to much robust Indo-Bangladesh relations presently.
3. So, do you think that even for India-China border we should go for arbitration?
4. Asked few seconds to think on it. => Told no and gave logic that First, there is chances of us losing the arbitration. Further, even if we win China may not respect it as seen in South China Sea Arbitration case. Thus, negative for us on both count.
5. It is said that “Data is the new oil”. Why Data is important?
6. Data privacy importance?
7. I Gave example of Facebook & Cambridge Analytica -> used data for political advertisement and mobilising favourable opinion for a particular candidate by targetted advertisement => These targetted advertisement could be used for nudging attitude of people in any direction.