UPSC Interview 2024] – Transcript #81: Sheel Vardan Singh Board, Books, movies, cricket Hobbies

Date of Interview: 07/04/2025
Board: Sri Sheel Vardan Singh
Hobbies: Books, movies, cricket
Afternoon Session,
Time: 2:10 to 2:40 PM
DAF keywords: Books, movies, cricket, seismic base isolation, AE PWD, Constitution,

• To view all IAS Interview Transcripts 2024, visit this page

Chairman

Very Good Afternoon. Welcome. Take your seat.

Q. You have mentioned your hobby as Reading and Collecting books. It’s fascinating. Given that the attention span is decreasing in today’s time.
It is said “Either sit with a man of books or a man of experience” So very good.
Q. Why attention span decreasing? Doomscrolling? What is Digital fasting?
Q. Do you follow any social media policy as an individual to tackle this?
Q. Should then we impose it on all? (I said no sir, its an individual choice)
Q. How many books do you have in your collection?
Q. What’s the difference between bibliophile, bookworm and wordsmith?
Q. What does language mean to you? What is script? Can language exist without script and vice versa?
Q. Script of hindi language is Devanagari. Whats the script of Kashmir language called?
Q. What is the old name of Jhelum?

Member 1

Q. What fiction books have you read? (I mentioned agatha christie and Jeffrey archer)
Q. Favorite agatha christie book?
Q. Your favourite agatha christie detective? Hercule Poirot or Mary Marple?
Q. What’s the speciality of Poirot? What do you like his character more?
Q. Have you read Sherlock Holmes? (Mentioned that i just watched the tv series)
Q. How is his way of deduction different from Sherlock Holmes?

Member 2

Q. Do you read non-fiction books? What genre? (Constitution and law)
Q. Constitution genre is very large. Any specific books you’ve read? (Mentioned Gautam Bhatia’s Constitution of India: Conversation with Power)
Q. What do you think about the language of India’s Constitution? Don’t you think its difficult for common man to understand the text of it?
Q. Any other books apart from Constitution in non fiction? (I mentioned Courtroom Genius – biography of Nani Palkhivala)
Q. Nani Palkhivala used to give speech about something and somewhere. Do you know it?
(Post budget discussions in Brabourne Stadium Mumbai)
Q. You mentioned you follow cricket. Make a playing XI of indian team including players from 70s to present. (I mentioned Anil Kumble in the XI, so he asked “karnataka quota”?)

Member 3

Q. Cybercrimes are increasing in india. What is the current cybercrime framework.
Q. Changing nature of cybercrime?
Q. Any measures you’d want to suggest?
Q. Do you know any plays by Girish Karnad?
Q. Your favorite part in Constitution?

Member 4

Q. PWD and corruption go hand in hand, this is a wide spread public perception. Do you agree with it?
Q. Reasons for such perception?
Q. Measures taken. What steps do you think are needed to reduce it on ground level.
Q. There’s a increasing trend of Freebies including your state. How do you view them? Whats the difference with welfare measures? Do you support them? (I said they are needed, but targeting has to be better)
Q. So free electricity shouldn’t be given to farmers? (I said depleting GW levels in Punjab haryana)
Q. Issues with giving free electricity to everyone?
Q. What changes will you make with existing freebies. (Linking with Renewable energy instead of free electricity, skilling instead of unemployment allowance)

Chairman:
Thank you _. Your interview is over.

I said thank you sir and said Namaskara (folded hands) to chairman and everyone. He reverted back with Namaskara (and a gentle smile)

Mocks: 10+ One to one: 5. Helped very much for confidence building and some questions repeated.
Notable ones: SriramIAS, Samkalp, Unacademy, VisionIAS.

Board was very very cordial according to me. No grilling whatsoever. Totally DAF based. Enjoyed the process.
Good luck to everyone.
Thank you to Transcripts Community.