Sunday, April 25, 2010

UPSC interview 2010

Board : Shri P K Mishra
General Background: My name is Vikram Pagaria. I am a B.Tech in Biological Sciences and Bioengineering (IIT Kanpur). My birth place is Neemuch (Madhya Pradesh). This was my first attempt and my mains optionals were Geography and Psychology.

If you wish to read this in a pdf, then send me a mail. I'm facing trouble in linking the pdf on this blog. If you can help, it will be great.

Chairman - What are your service preferences? Why? Why did you choose irs above ifs?
Me - Sir, my first preference is ias followed by irs, followed by ifs. My intention of choosing ias as the top service is because of the diversity of the job, one can work at the village, state as well as the center. My experience with the ngos that i worked with has been phenomenal. I look forward to working at the grassroots.
The reason behind choosing irs over ifs is primarily in the instruments that you've only one instrument of action i.e diplomacy. I do not consider myself good at being very diplomatic. When i filled the form, i could not imagine myself as an ifs officer. However, if i become an irs officer, i can contribute by using my technical background and may be, we could help streamline the taxation system better.
Chairman - so, status doesn't mean much to you? IFS is a higly respectable and lucrative job.
Me - Not much (to the question if status means much to me).I thought that if i am not good for a particular job, i should leave it for others to contribute.
Chairman - what is cyber crime?
Me - It is a multitude of malicious and illegal activities on the internet.
Chairman - Go on..
Me - Sir, for exmple, hacking into government websites, leaking confidential information, hacking banking passwords and stealing money.
Chairman - what is email bombarding?
Me - It is also a case for email spamming. In this case, your inbox is flooded with a large number of irrelevant/spam messages that you are not able to figure out which mail is important.
Chairman - Also, the speed becomes low.
Me - Yes, the speed as well as storage becomes an issue in such a case.
Chairman - what is morphing?
Me - Sir, i am not sure.
Chairman - Morphing is putting the head of one person and body of another.
Chairman - is there any law related to cyber security in india? What is the full name of the act?
Me - Yes, i am sure that there is a law, something called information security act or cyber security act.
Chairman - Do you know the exact name of the law?
Me - No sir
Chairman - It is cyber security act 2002 .
Chairman - what is salami attack?
Me - Pardon sir. Can u say that again?
Chairman - Salami?
Me - You mean S A L A M I
Chairman - yes.
Me - Sorry sir, i've not heard that before.
Chairman - It is also a cyber crime where the bank account information is appropriated in such a manner that is inperceptible to the user.
Me - Yes sir, the similar thing happened in a bank where the missapprorpriation was of the order of 1 billion dollar. It happened when a bank employee transferred a miniscule amount from each bank account into his own account. E.g. If we see our account balance as Rs. 3600.63 , we don't worry about the 63 paisa. Sometimes, hackers appropriate this information and transfer some/all of the 63 paisa into some other account. So, the next time when you check your balance, it would be Rs. 3600.55 paisa and you think everything is fine inspite of the fact that a big scandal has happened.
Member 1 - what is the relation between a hardware & software? How does the hardware interact with software?
Me - Madam, the interaction is via an operating system.
Member 1 - So vikram, what is an operating system? Can you explain how does this relation work when we type something on the computer and this is printed? How does the bits sequence recognized again by the printer? How does the computer manage with 0 & 1?
Me - Madam, when we type a word, say 'abcdef' on a word processor, which is a software that converts 'abcdef' into a binary sequence which the computer understands. This binary sequence is then trasmitted to the printer which is then again decoded while printing. (i explained this on a sheet of paper kept there using general concepts and she seemed to be convinced. The chairman passed the questions to the second member)
Member 2 - Do you read newspapers? Which ones?
Me - Yes sir. I read ''the hindu'' and the mint (published in bangalore).
Member 2 - Nehru ji once remarked about this newspaper, ''Everything is good about the newspaper except the name''.
Me - Yes sir, i agree with that.
Member 2 - No, i am not asking about your opinion. I am just making a general comment. In the newspapers, there is a lot of mention about 'tightening of monetary policy''? What is it?
Me - Sir, this is an instrument that is exercised by the rbi to control the money supply in the market. We are amdist high inflation circumstances. So, rbi is trying to reduce the money supply in the market. The instruments that rbi uses are the repo rates, reverse repo rates and the crr.
Member 2 - What is crr?
Me - Crr stands for 'cash reserve ratio'. This is the ratio of the total money (of the commercial banks) that the banks have to keep with the rbi. Altering the crr would affect the total money available to commercial banks for credit.
Member 2 - what is the difference between monetary and fiscal policy?
Me - Monetary policy is the policy that the rbi uses to control the money supply in the market while fiscal policy is the policy used by government to control its expenditure, receipts and deficit.
Member 2: Why should there be fiscal regulation?
Me: Government handles it finances by regulating its borrowings and expenditure. Recently, the fiscal deficit of our country grew up to 6.5 % which is not good for the economy and the country. So, government tries to controls its expenses and increase its receipts.
Member 2 - which is the tallest building in New Delhi?
Me – Sorry sir, I am not sure
Chairman – Vikram, it was inaugrated only two days back
Me – Is it the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre.
(The chairman passed me to the third member)
Member 3 - what is morphine?
Me – (I thought that just now, the chairman had asked me about 'morphing' and when i couldn't reply, the chairman told me the answer too. So, I thought that this member is trying to check whether i still remember it or not.) Hence, I answered, “Sir, morphing is the “head of one person and body of another”.
Chairman – No, he is not asking morphing, he is asking morphine. (There was a big laugh)
Me – Ok. Morphine is a drug which is used as a pain killer. However, it is also used as a drug illegally. Morphine is a steroid.
Member 3 – What is morphine made from?
Me – Sir, I am not sure.
Member 3 – You are from Neemuch (my birth place) and you do not know.
Me – Is it made from opium (I realised that there is large scale farming of opium in Neemuch and he might be giving that as a clue).
Member 3 – Yes, it is made from opium. There are a lot of cement companies in neemuch district. Which cement company was closed recently?
Me – Sir, there was a PSU named CCI (Cement Corporation of India) which was shut down since it became a sick unit.
Member 3 - which is the most efficient cement company among all the companies there?
Me – Sir, I think it is Vikram Cement.
Member 3 – Why do you say that?
Me – Because the turnover of Vikram Cement is the maximum. I've seen CCI, Vikram Cement and J K Cement and the Vikram Cement cement factory is the largest.
Member 3 – The turnover doesn't matter. The installed capacity is what decides the efficiency.
Me – Sorry sir, I don't have those figures in my mind.
Member 3 - if you are a dm of a district, what will be your priorities?
Me – Sir, my fundamental priority will be health because I think that the public sector health system is in shackles. We don't have medicines there, we don't have doctors there.
Member 3 – But, doctors and medicines can be made available if one has funds. So, how will you raise funds for health? Also tell me, how does the government raise funds?
Me – Sir, if the available funds are not sufficient for raising the standards of the public health system in our district, then i will request the concerned minister to allocate funds for this.
The money that the government has comes from :-
a) the borrowings from IMF/World bank
b) money raised by rbi by selling government securities.
Member 3 – What else?
Me – (I was thinking about the other sources. Meanwhile, the chairman said taxes.) I am so sorry, I forgot that.
(The chairman passed me to the next board member)
Member 4 - you have graduated from bio engineering colleges studying in one of the best colleges of the country? Why do you not join research and contribute? Becoming a generalist or a postal/revenue servant could hamper your plans about improvements in public health? You are defeating the purpose of investement in you?
Me – Sir, I've thought about that. If I am not able to become an IAS and contribute to public health system improvement, then I've chalked out a plan. I would join whatever services that are allotted to me and would try my level best to bring about an improvement in that service because I believe that improvement is needed everywhere. I'll work for 10 years and if I feel that inspite of my best efforts, I am not able to bring welfare to the society, then I would leave the services and join research because the main pupose of research as well as civil services is to reduce the number of mortalities. The condition in our country is that half of the people die from hunger, diarrhea, malaria and other perfectly preventable diseases. Hence, I would like to work in this area of implementation
(The fourth member doesn't look satisfied. He passed it over to the chairman again)
Chairman - what comes to your mind when you think about ''vikram''?
Me – Sir, there is Vikram Sarabhai
Chairman – Who was he?
Me – He was a visionary. He designed our space research program.
Chairman – Who else?
Me – Sir, Vikram Seth, he is an author; King Vikramaditya; Vikram Rathore, he is a cricket player.
Chairman - Is there something called ''vikram'' in transport?
Me – (I was thinking)
Member 1 – It is not the name of a person. “vikram” in transport corresponds to a product.
Me – (I was still thinking. Chairman did a gesture of driving an auto.)
Me – Oh, yes sir, i remembered. These are the big “vikram” autos which are very common in Kanpur.
Chairman – Thanks Vikram, your interview is over.
Me – Thanks a lot.