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Brief ProfileBirth place- Fazilka, PunjabSchooling- Upto 8th class (Fazilka, Punjab), 9th-12th class (Raipur, Chhattisgarh)College- IIT Delhi, Electrical Power Engineering, Batch of 2016.Work experience- Boston Consulting Group (Aug 2016- Mar 2020)I was last candidate to get interviewed in the Forenoon session and entered with 2 things in my mind. The interviewers would already be tired by 5 interviews before me and they would want to finish fast as its already around 1 pm and Afternoon session interviews are to begin soon. I wished everyone Good Afternoon. Chairman sir asked me to sit and got to the Q&A without any small talk. Also, the below answers might at times sound free flowing but there many awkward breaks for adjusting mask, umms…, you knows…., time for thinking answer etc, So any perception you make out of my answers must be discounted accordingly. Chairman- Started by reading aloud my educational, work experience and multiple places that I have stayed over course of my schooling, college and work life (I nodded at some places and said yes at others)Q1- You have been working after college, tell me about your work (Though this was my area of expertise and answer was prepared, I was audibly nervous) I talked about BCG work profile and mentioned that my recent project was with Govt. of Rajasthan school education department on learning outcome improvementQ2- Key issues in this? (I clarified whether he meant school education sector and he nodded)Sir, there are 3 types of issues spanning inputs, process and outputs. In input, there are staffing and infrastructure issues. I have also experienced that focus is more on syllabus completion and there’s limited focus on learning outcomes. Thus, the quality of education is poor and pressing economic needs of certain sections leads to high dropouts in government schools. (By end of this answer, I was feeling more confident, maybe because I got to talk about a few things I was comfortable with)Q3- Are you aware about dropout trends in India?Sir, by the end of 12th class approximately 50% of students drop out. The drop significantly increases after elementary classes.Q4- How would you solve these issues Firstly, to solve inputs issues- there’s a need to expedite teacher hiring, more funding is also needed. To address, process issues- teaching learning process needs to be aligned to learning outcomes. Teachers can even be provided incentives for achieving learning outcomes. For reducing dropouts, better parent reachout is needed, vocational education needs to be improved as well to increase value of education for lower socio-economic strata of society. Chairman looked at M1 to take over. Post this, CM was disengaged, constantly looking in his mobile. I chose to not bother much about it as it was not in my control. Mock interviewers suggest looking at all members, specifically chairman. I chose to not do this as it did not make sense to me.Member 1- He sounded most professional amongst the membersQ0- Whose tie is this? What is the brand of tie you are wearing? I said it is my father’s tie. To which, he clarified that he meant the brand. Firstly, I blurted out Rayband and corrected it to Raymond’s. (I was not lying here. I somehow recalled looking at a Raymond’s tag on my tie in the morning, but I was not right. It belonged to a local brand Mayor’s)Q1- You live in Fazilka which I corrected and said that I was born there and stayed there till 8th class. He then said, so you hail from Fazilka- can you tell me the key significance of place during the unrest in Punjab?Sir, Rajiv Longwal Accord was signed in 1985. As per this, Hindi speaking regions of Punjab- Fazilka & Abohar were to be transferred to Haryana and in exchange Chandigarh was to become the capital of Punjab only. Q2- Punjab went through long phase of insurgency- why did it last so long and how was it finally tackled?It started due to communal politics by Akali dal and continued due to inaction by central govt. as also suggested by KPS Gill in his book on Punjab insurgency. It was countered by comprehensive action by central govt. under Operation Blue Star and then under Operation Black thunder. Later under tenure of H’ble ex- PM Narsimha Rao, a stable coalition govt. was formed in Punjab.(I later found that last statement is factually incorrect, under PM Narsimha Rao, congress govt. was formed in Punjab. Coalition govt. was formed by BJP and Akali dal)Q3- You mentioned about KPS Gill- in what capacity was he involved Sorry sir, I don’t know.(I knew vaguely that he was involved in policing capacity but chose to not answer this)Q4- There were reports about Police excesses during the time- What were they? Don’t recall my answer exactly but I talked about HR violations, fear of police etc.Q5- Do you think situation was this bad that such severe measures had to be taken Sir, in a democracy both rights and L&O are important, and a fine balance is needed. Then I narrated a story that my grandfather had told me about a girl getting raped in broad daylight and inability of anyone to help her. I also mentioned that one of such brutal incidences led to my Chachaji getting scarred mentally for life. (Somehow, I got a tad bit emotional here, it was not intentional, and I quickly regained back to stable self)Q6- Judiciary is also blamed to be reticent through the phase- you think that was the case I was not sure as I had not read about it and conveyed the same to the interviewer. To this, he said that judiciary was silent during the peak of insurgency but was very active about HR violation related prosecution once situation stabilized. I said that sir based on what you just said, possibly they were afraid for their own lives during insurgency. (Then he just nodded and indicated Member 2 to take over)Member 2- This section was focused on government audit. The interviewer must have assumed that as BCG is a consulting firm, it is involved in auditing too (like Big4s). I could do much about this perception as he did not specifically say this out loudQ1- Long monologue through which he meant to ask ways of parliamentary checks on expenditure of public money by executiveI listed down some of the methods-Auditing by CAG Review of CAG reports by parliamentary committees Opposition can also move motions in the house like cut motions, no-confidence motion in case of corruption etc.Q2- What does CAG stand forSorry Sir, I am not able to recall the full form of CAG.(I was not able to recall something this basic, but I did what I could have done in the moment which was to keep calm and move on)Q3- Have you heard about progressive auditing (or something like this which basically meant evaluating not only fund utilisation but also effectiveness)Sorry Sir, I haven’t heard about it, but I’ll read about itQ4- He explained it for a while and then said, as you are a BCG consultant, explain us the ways in which we can include this in auditing. I paused for a while here and then listed 4 ways to do thisClearly identifying the funds allocated and outcomes to be achieved Funds utilization will still remain a crucial component of auditingImpact assessment to assess whether there is actual on ground impact or not. We can use RCT method for which this year’s Nobel prize was awarded in Economics. We can have a control group and group to which intervention will be provided and then comparative study can help us assess the impact objectively We can also use social audits to take people feedback and on ground realities. But we will have to make surveys objective to ensure comparison across different audits.(I latched on this question to make up for previous 2 Qs and I think M2 was reasonably satisfied with the answer as he was nodding all along)Q5- He said you must be already aware about a more formal EEE approach (Efficiency, Economy, Effectiveness) and asked me to explain what each of this means in context of public expenditure(Firstly, I wasn’t aware of EEE- good that he expanded it for me and secondly, I was not able to think of a good definition of efficiency then). So, I said that sir, I’ll firstly take up economy. Economy means reducing public expenditure on ongoing schemes, policies etc. Effectiveness means whether the public expenditure is translating into desired outcomes (By then I was able to think of efficiency definition) and efficiency means output to input ratio. If we are spending X and getting out Y, to increase efficiency we will have to increase the ratio of Y/X. (The interviewer seemed to accept my definitions and indicated Member 3 to take over)Member 3- He was aged and was wearing 2 masks thus listening to his voice was a challenge but otherwise he was very nice and was smiling throughout. In this interview I also realized that even our eyes can tell whether a person is smiling, laughing, frowning etc. Q1- You mentioned about dropouts in school- do you know about the differential between male- female dropout I do not know the data for general times but in times on COVID there is 20% higher chance of dropouts. He clarified, in whose favour? I responded, sir there is 20% higher chance of girl drop out vis-à-vis boysQ2- Then, there was an awkward silence as if he were expecting more from me. So, I asked should I list down the reasons for the same as well. He said yes, yes go ahead.Sir, based on my experience in Rajasthan, I have seen that girls are made to take care of their younger siblings by staying back home. Secondly, parents feel that the girl will go to her sasural and they will not gain anything by investing in her. So, instead they focus on educating their boys. More recently due to COVID, technology access has become a key factor in education access. In India, especially in rural areas, boys have better technology access in comparison to girls which hampers their learning and increase dropouts. Q3- Can you relate water also to girl dropout? Sir, in Rajasthan as drinking water is scarce, girls are expected to fetch water. This leads to girls being engaged in household chores during school hours (Then I realised what he was intending to ask because I had missed a very important reason of girl dropout). Also, sir as girls have special need of water during menstrual cycle, absence of water in toilets lead to girl dropout during adolescent age.(He then shared his own experience in the field and mentioned that in our future projects, we must include water-based dimension to tackle girl drop. I said most definitely sir)Q4- What is your view on organ donation?I was surprised by this sudden change of topic and awkwardly said that I feel good about it but then explained. Sir, this gives a person a chance to not only extend his life in someone else but also helps saving multiple lives from a single life. While organ donation must be promoted, we must try to regularize it to avoid illegal organ stealing rackets Q5- Have your heard about xx event? (don’t recall, I am guessing it’s related to organ donation)Sorry sir, I haven’t heard about it. (He said. Okay, No problem. He also jokingly laughed here)Q6- Then he said if you become IAS, which state will you choose? I said xyz stateQ7- Why not Chhattisgarh (state where I did my high schooling)?Sir, as I have stayed in different parts of India, I don’t have strong affiliations to any specific state. I chose xyz as my first cadre preference because scale excites me and xyz would give a huge scale to create impact. Not only that, xyz state will give me broader sectoral exposure as well. (It seemed he wanted to talk more but Chairman indicated to him that we are running late. Then he passed the baton to member 4)Member 4- (He was very aged, seemed 80+ but he seemed to not care much about it. He was not covering his mouth or nose with a mask. As it was COVID time, I was very conscious of the fact that he is highly vulnerable to infection and throughout my discussion I kept pulling my mask over my nose which came down while talking inadvertently.)Q1- Avadh you have been working in BCG for quite some time now. Give me details of the projects you’ve done and your contribution in the same. I talked about projects in school education, airports and power sector. Then briefly discussed my contribution/scope of workQ2- Do you think you made any meaningful impact in these projects I discussed numbers here to establish impact (will skip the details)Q3- On explaining- he said if you are creating such impact why civil services Sir, after having worked in public and private sector over past few years, I realized that public sector is a right match for both what I like in a job and my skill sets. Through discussions with seniors and civil servants, I understand whatever you do in a public sector is at large scale which is very exciting, and your work directly or indirectly impacts society at large which gives me a sense of contribution & satisfaction. At an early age, this job gives decision making authority, which is very empowering, something lacking in private sector. So, after I got promoted at BCG and had some financial & professional stability, I decided to appear for the examination.Q4- What about the money? You will be significant pay cut.Sir at BCG, I experienced the high-flying life, stayed at 5-star hotels, travelled by flights every week but the charm of such life fades after a while. I have realized that money has declining marginal utility and for job satisfaction you need to like what you are doing. Q5- How are you sure that civil services will not have declining marginal utility?Sir I have a philosophy in life. Nothing in life comes easy. Everything you do will have challenges and issues. Whether you can handle these challenges well depends on the fact whether the challenges itself feel worth the effort. The life of an IAS officer and potential it offers for public service gives me the conviction to say that any challenge I face in the services will be worth the effort. Even if there’s a declining utility, I am hopeful that I’ll be able to find something within the services and I won’t have to look outwards again.Post this, he smiled and wished me luck for results. Chairman again- As it was already about 1:30 pm, He said, thank you. I was feeling very thankful and impressed by the effort put in by UPSC to conduct the postponed interviews amidst COVID situation and conveyed the same to board and left. As I left the room, I was feeling extremely relieved that a crucial component of CSE 2019 process got over without any major setbacks. ................
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