{"id":354181,"date":"2026-01-16T19:09:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=354181"},"modified":"2026-01-16T19:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:39:47","slug":"upsc-interview-2025-transcript-100-lt-gen-raj-shukla-board-cooking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/upsc-interview-2025-transcript-100-lt-gen-raj-shukla-board-cooking\/","title":{"rendered":"[UPSC Interview 2025] \u2013 Transcript #100: Lt Gen Raj Shukla Board, Cooking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Date of Interview:<\/strong> 8-1-26<strong><br \/>\nBoard:<\/strong> Lt Gen Raj Shukla sir<br \/>\n<strong>Hobby:<\/strong> Cooking<br \/>\n<strong>Slot:<\/strong> AN<br \/>\nHobbies: historical cooking; yoga and meditation; talking to people from different countries and cultures<br \/>\nLeadership: vice president of english literature club in college<br \/>\nself employment: freelance content writer<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>To view all IAS Interview Transcripts 2025,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/interview-transcript\/#it2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">visit this page<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Chairman<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>on my free market debate prize<br \/>\n* what do you think is free market? (i mentioned competition and social upliftment)<br \/>\n* does it need regulation? (i said yes)<br \/>\n* do you think india&#8217;s early mixed economy model was right (i said not fully right, the state had to intervene to resolve inequality)<br \/>\n* gave a monologue on indigo crisis<br \/>\n* what is a strategic sector?<br \/>\n* should there be monopoly in strategic sector<br \/>\n* whats the best feature of SHANTI bill (I mentioned about SMR)<br \/>\n* should gov monopolise SMR? who should run SMRs? who has technology for SMR (i said sorry sir i will read on that)<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Member 1<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>on english literature club leadership<br \/>\n* who are your favourite writers (i said daphne du maurrier and edgar allen poe)<br \/>\n* what works have you read by &#8217;em (rebecca and tell tale heart)<br \/>\n* what have you learnt from people of different countries (we have more in common than there are differences)<br \/>\n* what countries&#8217; people have you spoken to (I said Togo, Zambia, Uganda, Nigeria, Afghanistan)<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Member 2<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>because i had filled IFS 1st preference<br \/>\n* whats NATO<br \/>\n* article 5 of NATO (collective security)<br \/>\n* will NATO lose relevance (trump will fund it less but it will remain strategically important in eastern europe and atlantic)<br \/>\n* what did trump say about NATO (US is bearing burden)<br \/>\n* what happens if a NATO country attacks NATO country (Greenland situation)<br \/>\n* how is europe dealing with trump&#8217;s behavior<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Member 3<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>on my freelance content writing work<br \/>\n* where did you work? (my ex school)<br \/>\n* what was your work? (english literature content writing for school students)<br \/>\n* oh, then you must be good with communication; how can a civil servant do better communication with people? (i mentioned emotional intelligence and hearing people more; learning their culture; e.g. durga, lakshmi, barqat analogies for beti bachao)<br \/>\n* your hobby is talking to people from different countries and cultures &#8211; how can it help you in IFS (built empathy, people to people ties)<br \/>\n* benefits of yoga<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Member 4<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>on my IGNOU degree<br \/>\n* whats the 1st open uni in India (i said sorry sir)<br \/>\n* take a guess &#8211; i said Nalanda, immediately realised its not open so i said im so sorry sir, its not an open uni; he said, its okay doesnt matter<br \/>\n* benefits of IGNOU degree; for remote people (i said 40 lakh certificates distributed, important for women and all people to learn flexibly; its affordable)<br \/>\n* minister said there should be one open uni per state; whats the progress on that (i said sorry sir, i will read on that)<br \/>\n* in hindi: aisa koi neta ho jo bol raha hai ki mujhe toh attack hi karna hai; toh phir hum kya karein (i said sir, such statements are transient, what matters is long term engagement and actions e.g. quad, military exercises and strategic engagement)<br \/>\n* so you think such statements are irrelevant? (i said, not irrelevant but we should continue backchannel engagement because one statement cannot undo decades of diplomacy)<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>To view all IAS Interview Transcripts,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/interview-transcript\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">visit this page<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>For full Interview Preparation Guide:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/interview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click Here<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Current Affairs For UPSC Exam 2026:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/current-affairs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click Here<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<div><strong>(This transcript has been posted by a community member of ForumIAS)<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Date of Interview: 8-1-26 Board: Lt Gen Raj Shukla sir Hobby: Cooking Slot: AN Hobbies: historical cooking; yoga and meditation; talking to people from different countries and cultures Leadership: vice president of english literature club in college self employment: freelance content writer To view all IAS Interview Transcripts 2025,\u00a0visit this page Chairman on my free&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/upsc-interview-2025-transcript-100-lt-gen-raj-shukla-board-cooking\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">[UPSC Interview 2025] \u2013 Transcript #100: Lt Gen Raj Shukla Board, Cooking<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12147],"tags":[12150,7990,12148,12165],"class_list":["post-354181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview-transcripts-2025","tag-12150","tag-cooking","tag-interview_transcript2025","tag-raj_shukla2025","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}