Interview, or the Personality Test, as they call it, is the final stage of this examination process. It carries 275 marks of the total 2025 marks, on the basis of which final rank-list is made. Although 275 marks appear a small proportion of the total marks, it has a huge sway in deciding your rank as well as deciding whether or not you will be in the final list. Therefore, one must take it as sincerely as the first two stages of the examination.

How to Prepare for the interview?

To be updated soon

My Interview Transcript

I had my interview on 11th February 2019, which was the D-Day of the interview round. The interview panel was chaired by Mr. Bharat Bhushan Vyas. The panel comprised two ladies and two gentlemen apart from the chairman. I was the last candidate for that day. The interview went on for 30 minutes. I scored a 176 in the interview.

****Transcript Begins****

Chairman

Chairman: You’re the last candidate today, you must be waiting for all the day! We are sorry to make you wait but that’s how the process works. So when did you come to the UPSC today?

Me: Sir, I came at 1 pm.

Chairman: Did you have lunch today? Are you hungry now?

Me: Yes sir, I did have lunch. Yes, a bit hungry.

Chairman: So you have done mechanical engineering and then a masters in economics from the National University of Singapore. That’s amazing!

Me: Yes sir.

Chairman: So Akshay, let’s start with something topical. Can you tell us what is the current discussion on unemployment in India?

Me: Sure Sir. The current discussion on unemployment has been triggered by the leaked NSSO data on unemployment. This data says that the rate of unemployment is the country is at about 6.5% which is highest in the last few decades. Although the data is not confirmed yet, we can actually feel that there is high unemployment in our country. The high GDP growth of 7-7.5% is not getting translated into adequate number of jobs.

Chairman: Have you heard of SDDS?

Me: I am sorry sir, but I haven’t.

Chairman then went on to explain to me what it was.

Chairman: Do you know what is CPHS?

Me: I am sorry sir, but I am not aware of it.

Chairman: CMIE?

Me: Yes sir. It is Centre for Monitoring of Indian Economy.

Chairman: Is it government owned?

Me: No sir, it is a private organisation.

Chairman: What is Labour Force Participation Rate?

Me: Sir, it means the proportion of people in working age group who are employed or are actively seeking jobs.

Chairman: Yes. Do you know how much is it in India?

Me: Sir, I am not sure of the exact number but it is low in India. Especially the ‘young’ population, i.e., in the age group of 18 to 28, it is very low for various reasons.

Chairman: Okay. How about female labour force participation?

Me: Sir it is around 28%.

Chairman: So it is very low. Can you tell us the reasons why so?

Me: Sir, there are both demand and supply side reasons for it.

Here, the chairman smiled and said, “that’s the very economist way of saying it”.

Me: Yes, sir. Sir the demand side reasons include less number of suitable jobs available, safety concerns, low pay, some compliance issues like maternal leave law, etc. The supply side factors include greater enrolment into higher education recently, husbands’ income being so high that women choose to remain at home and look after the kids, etc.

Chairman: Do you know about the Composition Scheme in GST? What is it?

Me: Sir, GST Composition Scheme is meant for small traders who have annual turnover below a certain threshold. In this, traders or firms pay GST at flat rate without any input tax credit.

Chairman: There may be situations where firms may not want to opt for it?

Me: Yes, sir. For example cement traders. Their profit margins are around 0.5 to 1%. So even if their turnover is below the threshold they will not choose the Composition Scheme.

M1

M1: So you like teaching? Who do you teach?

Me: Ma’am, I was working with an NGO which was involved in teaching children of slum areas near my college. So I used to teach the children of around 8 to 12 years basic subjects like Math, Science, etc. Apart from this, I also teach my cousins back home and sometimes, even my mom.

M1 (wide smile): Your mom? What do you teach your mom?

M2 interrupted and said, “he must be teaching his mom how to cook.” M3, the lady member, said, “I am sure you must be teaching your mom how to use mobile phones. We old people have to learn a lot from you.” M4 said, “You must be teaching your mom how to do WhatsApp and YouTube, etc.” Everyone was jovial. I continued.

Me: Yes ma’am, I teach my mom some basic scientific principles like how monsoon winds come to India or why cancer is not curable. I also teach her technology.

M1: Nice! It is also mentioned here that you were the Welfare Secretary in NUS. What was your role exactly?

Me: Ma’am, my primary role was to look after the graduate students’ welfare. We organised team building activities, stress relief workshops, camps, psychological and counselling seminars, and distribution of goodie-bags before exams.

M1: Goodie-bags? What was inside the goodie-bag? (laughing)

Me: Ma’am, it was a token of best wishes for students before the university final exams. The bag contained pen, pencil, notebook, basically all exam related stuff.

M1: Okay, that’s nice (with a wide smile). Was there ragging problem in NUS?

Me: No ma’am, not at all.

M1: What about your college in Pune? Did you face ragging there?

Me: No ma’am, there also, I didn’t face ragging. It was actually quite strict in my college.

M1: So you have never experienced ragging in your life?

Me: No, ma’am, I haven’t.

M1: Are you telling the truth?

Me: Yes, ma’am (with a smile).

M1: Okay (again, with a smile. This time, the chairman was also smiling). What should be done to contain ragging?

Me: Ma’am, I think the laws must be strictly enforced…

M1: But law enforcement on students? Isn’t that a little harsh?

Me: Yes, ma’am, I was coming to that. Second thing we need to do is to work towards bringing about an attitudinal change. One batch has to decide that they will not indulge in ragging and the culture can then continue. This is how things change.

M1 nodded and passed on to the next member.

M2

M2: Akshay, tell me the difference between the FTA and the PTA.

Me: Sir, FTA means free trade agreement and a PTA is preferential trade agreement. In an FTA, the trade is almost completely free while in a PTA, countries lower the trade barriers and give ‘preferential’ treatments to the each other’s goods, not necessarily complete removal of tariff barriers.

M2: Do you know about RCEP? What is India’s stand?

Me: Yes sir. RCEP is Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. It is under negotiations between the ten ASEAN countries and six other countries including India. India’s stand currently is that the agreement should benefit all parties and since India has a comparative advantage in services trade, liberalisation of services trade alongside goods trade must be taken on board.

M2: Should India be so rigid on its stand?

Me: Sir, I don’t think we are rigid. If we do not stand to benefit from an agreement, it is of no use. So, India must remain firm on services trade liberalisation. At the same time, we must develop our capabilities in manufacturing sector as well.

M2: You must be knowing ‘entrepreneurship’, do you know what is ‘intrapreneurship’?

Me: I am sorry sir, but I do not know.

M2: Okay, don’t worry! Tell me what do you mean by Global Value Chains?

Me: Sir, any good or service goes through a series of processes right from its conception till its marketing and selling. These processes form a value chain, i.e., value is added in every step. If this process takes place across several countries, it becomes a global value chain.

M2: What are the major challenges before India in integrating into the GVCs?

Me: Sir I believe there are a few major challenges. One is policy uncertainty. For example, investors are still not very sure about tariff policies and also about our tax regime. Secondly, we lack skilled workforce which can take up high-skilled jobs like electronics manufacturing. Another challenge comes from the global uncertainties.

M2 then passed on to the next member.

M3

M3: Long explanation about issues in India’s FTA with Japan and South Korea. Then asked, “should India continue with these FTAs or just wriggle out of them?

Me: Ma’am, I do not think that wriggling out should be a solution. There are a few concerns on both the sides and those must be worked out. For example, these countries use some non-tariff barriers such as child labour or sanitary reasons to block our exports. We can negotiate with Japan and Korea about this and find out how can we benefit the most from these FTAs.

M3: We have so many institutions like SC, NGT, etc which many a times leads to lot of frictions. Should we do away with all these institutions and just have one instead of many?

Me: Ma’am, scrapping these institutions is not a solution. India is huge country with various problems. So we need different institutions to look after these diverse issues. There are frictions and may be some ambiguities in the jurisdictions but these can be worked out. Scrapping institutions is not a way ahead.

M3: Do you think we are underutilising our mines, the nature’s gifts? Don’t you think we should use them up for our economic prosperity?

Me: Ma’am, as you rightly mentioned, these are nature’s gifts and therefore must be used judiciously. At the same time, it must be noted that most of the mines are located in tribal areas. So there are concerns of rehabilitation of these communities. We need to see while we utilise these nature’s gifts for our economic prosperity, justice is done with the locals as well.

M4

M4: You mentioned that we have unemployment. But on the other hand, farmers complain that they face labour shortage. How do you reconcile these two things?

Me: Yes sir. That’s true. Farmers do complain about labour shortage, especially during peak seasons of sowing and harvesting. That is partly due to MGNREGA whereby labourers get employed in alternative works. Also, the unemployment that we are talking about is one about unemployed engineers, doctors, etc. These people though unemployed will not work in farms. So there is a kind of structural unemployment here.

M4: So what’s the solution to it (MGNREGA)?

Me: Sir, there can be some collaboration between the farmers and the state about it. A cost sharing model can be worked out whereby a labourers shall be employed in farms during season period and the cost will be shared between the state and farmers. My own state, Maharashtra, has already implemented this model whereby the state and farmers share 50-50% cost. During non-season period the labourers may be employed in other work by the state government.

M4: Do you know how much was the share of agriculture in GDP in 1950s?

Me: Sir, I am not sure of the exact number but if you allow me, I would like to hazard a guess.

M4 and Chairman: Yes, yes, sure, go ahead.

Me: Sir, I think it was around 40%.

M4: So, that means it was very high!

Me: Yes sir.

M4: And how much is it now?

Me: Around 16%

M4: So how do you explain this fall in share of agriculture in GDP while the food production has gone up by so much?

Me: Sir, the relative share of agriculture has declined but in absolute terms agriculture has grown. Food production has increased because of several measures like Green Revolution and technology adoption. It is just that other sectors which are industry and services have grown more rapidly than agriculture that the share of agriculture has reduced over the years.

M4: Yes, that’s correct. But it is not simple. But anyways, we do not have time to discuss that it detail now so what you said is correct for this conversation (smiling).

Chairman again

Chairman: Akshay, I will now ask you only one thing. Tell us about your experience in Singapore. What we can learn from them in terms of policies, governance and society?

Me: Sir, firstly I would like to say that as we all know Singapore is just a city-state so we cannot really compare it with India. But I will talk about some policies that we can learn and easily adopt. Firstly, economic policy of formalising the economy. Explained about the lottery system. Secondly, Singapore has space constraints so it has built vertical gardens to keep environment green and clean. On this, the chairman said, ‘Oh yeah, I know the vertical gardens.’ We can adopt the same for our cities like New Delhi or Mumbai. Thirdly, about governance. I would like to talk about an incident if you allow me.

Chairman: Yes, yes, sure.

Me: Told about an incident. We should aim for ‘citizen delight’ and not just ‘citizen satisfaction’.

Chairman: How will you do it if say you were the Commissioner of BMC?

Me: Sir, it is more about attitudes. It will take time and cannot happen overnight. We need to work towards skilling and reskilling our bureaucracy, and especially the lower bureaucracy. That is where the citizen has interface with the government machinery and we have the maximum skill deficit there. Also, we need to give them their charters, SOPs, and make sure that everyone is doing the assigned duty.

Chairman: Okay. Smiling. That should be all, Akshay.

I began thanking the panel. Suddenly the Chairman again said.

Chairman: Wait Akshay! One last question and you have to answer it correctly!

I got a bit scared. Chairman flashes my photo and asks.

Chairman: Who is this gentleman? (laughing)

Me: Sir, it’s me.

Chairman: Correct! You may now go. (smiling).

I left thanking them again.

Interview Transcript of Snehal Dhaigude, IAS 2019, AIR 108 (CSE 2018), Agriculture Optional

Date:22/02/2019
Afternoon session (last to go)
Chairperson : M. Sathyawathi madam

Chairperson:

She read major points from DAF loudly and asked me whether she is pronouncing my name correctly or not.
Q. What is the meaning of every word in your full name? Specially asked about my surname.
Q. What was the National Integration Camp? (mentioned in DAF) At which exact place in Nagaland? Had you visited the war cemetery in Kohima? A famous qoute written there?
Q. What is your view about GM crops? Should it be permitted?
Q. What happened with Bt cotton?
Q. Still will you advise the cultivation of GM crops? How can we make GM affordable or reduce monopoly of MNCs?
Q. Why India is lagging behind in Horticulture and why aren’t we self sufficient in fruit production?What is the status of value addition and food processing sector?

Member 1:

Q. What is the uniqueness of kohima war cemetery?
Q. What did see in Nagaland? How is it different than other parts?
Q. How many tribes are there in Nagaland and how they are different? Asked about their clothings. Which type of dress did you like? Did you purchase any of it? (I said no) then he asked why?
Q. Are you aware about the genome sequencing research which is going on Arhar(Pigeon pea) to use it as GM in future? What is it about?

Member 2:

Q. As most of the agriculture in India is rainfed which technologies will you suggest for rainfed conditions?
Q. Tell me the ranks in army in a descending order?
Q. Why antibiotics are not useful against the viral diseases? Compare the size of bacteria and virus? What is the difference regarding cell wall of both?
Q. What is the accuracy level of weather forecasting in India? What are the reasons behind?

Member 3:

Q. Which countries export flowers and where in floriculture is prominent?Compare it with India.
Q. What is the scope of floriculture in India? Which flowers are suitable in Indian agroclimatic conditions?
Q. What is Orchid,tell me in detail?where does it grow?
Q. Where is the International Rice research institute? What are the other international institutes in which Philippines is member country?
Q. How can we use ASEAN for development of Indian economy? What are cultural linkages between ASEAN countries and India?
Q. Why do we practice Shavasana at the end of all yogasanas? The me what process happens during shavasana. (Yogasana in DAF)
Then he asked about certain place in Nagaland but I had not any idea of it.

Member 4:

Q. Why did you choose Agriculture stream?
Q. What are your service preferences? Why do you prefer IAS over IPS? Didn’t your father force you to prefer IPS as he is also in police service?
Q. Do you have any solution to solve the dilemma of whether to focus on increasing productivity or to reduce use of chemicals to maintain sustainability?
Q. What is integrated approach? Is it economically viable?
Q. What will be your priorities if you have to work in tribal areas like Dantewada?

Chairperson:

Thank you, your interview is over.