Third Time Lucky?

Date   :  20th May 2015

Time  :  11:55 AM

Board :  Prof. H. C. Gupta (Chairperson) and 4 other members (M1, M2, M3 and M4)

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[Neeraj] May i come in Sir?

[CP] Yes

[Neeraj] Good morning Sirs

[CP] So you did your 12th from Dr. V S E C Kanpur, who was Dr. Virendra Swarup?

[Neeraj] A famous educationist and former chairman of UP Legislative Council

[CP] What is legislative council?

[Neeraj] Second house of state legislature

[CP] How the members are elected?

[Neeraj] through electoral college, teachers, some graduates, nominated by Governor, co-operative societies etc

[CP] some graduates ? and , so there is no definitive way? Lets say if there are no co-operative societies

[Neeraj] I meant teachers, all graduates, co-operative societies etc. Sorry Sir, i dont recall

[CP] What is the reason behind this second chamber? Some states have it while others dont.

[Neeraj] Sir, according to article 169, if a legislative assembly endorses then Parliament can create or dissolve this house. 

[CP] How many states have this house?

[Neeraj] Sir, 6. UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra, J&K

[CP] which is 6th one?

[Neeraj] Sorry sir, i don't recall

[CP] So why some states have it?

[Neeraj] Sir, i dont know. May be historical reasons

[CP] Do you think making colleges/universities like Roorkee, IT BHU and now ISM make sense? These universities have a definite culture while IITs have a different culture?

[Neeraj] Sir, culture takes time to change. May be in 5 to 10 years it will change in those colleges as well. It means upgradation though they are premier institutes in their own way.

{CP does not look convinced with my answers}

[M1] So do you know what NRHM is?

[Neeraj] Its National Rural Health mission

[M1] what it does?

[Neeraj] Upgradation/provision of rural health infrastructure

[M1] How it is centred around?

[Neeraj] Sir on ASHA and ANM

[M1] Has it really made an impact?

[Neeraj] Yes sir, IMR and MMR numbers have come down drastically in these years. IMR has come down from 55 56 to 40.

[M1] What will be your prime focus areas if you become DM?

[Neeraj] Health and education

[M1] What else comes to your mind?

[Neeraj] Providing leadership to the department, making the government departments more humane. Currently people face a kind of fear while going to the government department eg. Police

[M1] Why leadership? There are many departments. They do it.

[Neeraj] Some times we have to think out of the box. Sir, DM of Gwalior curbed the practice of female foeticide by fixing active device tracker to the ultrasound machine. So leadership becomes very important. 

[M2] What do you think about India's growing relations with Africa? Are they in national interest?

[Neeraj] They are in our national interest.

[M2] How?

[Neeraj] Africa is rich in mineral resources. Hydrocarbons, and India has stakes in South Sudan, Nigeria and Mozambique.

[M2] What else?

[Neeraj] India provides generic medicines to Africa. Most of those countries suffer from AIDS etc. They care a lot about these medicines.

[M2] What else?

[Neeraj] We are developing associations in case of Climate talks etc

[M2] What in WTO?

[Neeraj] To provide generic medicines without succumbing under pressure of MNCs like Beyer, Nexavar etc.

[M2] Has any country supported India?

[Neeraj] Many countries supported India during liberation of Goa.

[M2] That was long time back.

[Neeraj] Many countries are there in G-77 and they support India in Climate talks etc.

[M2] You like visiting historic places {mentioned as hobby}

[Neeraj] Yes sir

[M2] What places you visited recently?

[Neeraj] Elephanta caves, Ajanta and Ellora caves, Hampi, Qutub Complex, Udaygiri Hills, Sanchi Stupa, Mammalapuram....

[M2] Ok, is this true that large boulders in Hampi were brought down by Hanuman ji

[Neeraj, I slightly smiled] No sir, those can be carried by Elephants as well as those are no so huge.

[M2] No, they are immense

[Neeraj] Sir, not in Hampi but may be in Kishkindha, it is on the other side of Tungabhadra river.

[M2] How come you like Archaeology? {another hobby}

[Neeraj] studied in IT BHU, Sarnath is close by, Archaeological site and my manager gifted me a CD "In search of Troy" the excavation of Troy in Turkey. These caused my interest in Archaeology

[M2] Have you ever visited J&K?

[Neeraj] No Sir

[M2] There is a site, shown in film Haider. Have you seen Haider?

[Neeraj] No sir, i have not seen it

[Neeraj] But sir, its in Anantnag

[M2] No its not it

[Neeraj] May be then Burzhom/Gufkral

[M2] This is a temple

[Neeraj]Sir its a Sun temple

[M2] Yes, Martand Sun Temple

[M2] You also like reading books. last book read

[Neeraj] Yes i do. i also run a blog. The story of integration of Indias princely states by V P Menon

[M2] Do you have an interest in war history?

[Neeraj] No sir, but i do like intelligence/spy history. I recently read Kaoboys of R&AW by B Raman.

[M2] So what are two main points?

[Neeraj] East Pakistan operations in 1971 and during Khalistan movement.

[M3] So you are in IP&TAFS service?

[Neeraj] Yes sir

[M3] What is your job profile?

[Neeraj] Collection of license fee, spectrum usage charges, disbursement of USOF subsidy and its inspection etc

[M3] So who does finance work for BSNL?

[Neeraj] Their own officers. We work only for DOT. 

[M3] But some officers are in BSNL

[Neeraj] Yes sir, They joined before the formation of BSNL and they took absorption there.

[M3] You were working in British Telecom and took a heavy cut to join Indian civil Service why?

[Neeraj] Mutiple reasons - Most important i always wanted to join Indian civil service, while working for BT during London Olympics i decided to work for my own country instead of working for some other country. So i decided to write Civil services.

[M3] So your optional is History? Describe Tamil problem of Sri Lanka and its progress.

[Neeraj] I described from the Independence of Sri Lanka in 1940s to the Sinhalese language act, Sinhalese thought Tamilians as British Collaborators etc. and then LTTE and now Maithri Pala Sirisena. Recently Sirisena has replaced military governor of Northern Sri Lanka by a Civilian Governor. Its trying to mend the bridge.

[M3] Who are the Tamilians of Sri Lanka?

[Neeraj] They can be divided in two classes. Ancient migrants and people brought by Britishers as labourers. 

[M3] Recently there was some controversy between India and Sri Lanka

[Neeraj] Yes Sir, on fishing.

[M3] Describe

[Neeraj] Sir, its about fishing. During LTTE war the Sri Lankan tamils could not fish in those waters and Indian tamils exploited this. Now the war is over and Sri Lankan tamils are back so this tension.

[M3] Indian fishermen faced capital punishment in Sri Lanka

[Neeraj] But they were pardoned by Rajapaksa

[M3] You are 32, you wont become Additional secretary and yet you want to join IAS

[Neeraj] Yes Sir

[M4] You like reading biographies {another hobby of mine}

[Neeraj] Yes ir

[M4] Give me the biography of Dr. Ambedkar in brief

[Neeraj] Born in Mhow tehsil to a soldier working in British Army, he faced caste based discriminations one was vividly described by him at railway station. He got scholarship from Baroda King to study in Colombia university then he joined London school of Economics. He practised Law in India and signed Poona Pact.

[M4] What was Poona Pact?

[Neeraj] Ramsay Mcdonald announced separate electorates for Dalits. Gandhiji was against it. While Ambedkar was for it. Actually he was the one who demanded it. But under pressure he signed the Poona Pact. 

[M4] But later he regretted it

[Neeraj] Yes Sir, He gave few years to Caste Hindus to fix the caste based discrimination but this was not possible and he decided to renounce Hinduism.

[M4] Which religion he eventually adopted?

[Neeraj] Buddhism, in 1956

[M4] Which year he died

[Neeraj] 6th Dec, 1956

[CP] Thank you Neeraj

[Neeraj] Thank you Sir

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Time 12:15/12:20

The interview was not flawless and many a times i fumbled. I could not convince the Chairperson and came under heavy pressure. I tried to fix the course but could not succeed. I will be lucky if i get above 150. I got 195 when my interview was like this 

P.S. Results were declared on 4th July and i got AIR 140. Marks were published by UPSC on 13th July and i got just 150 marks in Interview, so indeed i was not lucky :(; 160 marks would have given me AIR 90 and 170 marks an AIR in 60s. Fate is a cruel monster.