My UPSC-Indian Statistical Service Interview Transcript
Date: 20–07–2021
Name: Raghvendra Pandey
Board: Dr. TCA Anant
Marks Obtained: 140/200
Home State: UP
Interview Transcript:
Since there were 4 members on the board including Chairman. I will address them as Chairman, M1, M2, and M3.
At the beginning of the interview, Dr. TCA Anant Sir started talking about my educational qualification and professional experience.
Chairman: You have worked with SGS and EXL Service. Describe, what have you done in those companies?
Me: Sir, I worked on Propensity to default modeling, churn model, and attribution model in SGS.
Chairman: So it is financial data where you are predicting the probability of default, right?
Me: Yes
Chairman: What are you doing in your current organization?
Me: In my current project, I am working on the identification of relevant calls using NLP and Deep Learning techniques. (I explained the meaning of ‘Relevant Calls’ in a detailed manner, I don’t think it’s needed here)
Chairman: You have such a good rank in GATE. Are you planning for Ph.D.?
Me: Yes, I will pursue Ph.D.
Chairman: You were associated with Tarun Shanti Sena and its wall magazine. Name some article that was published during your time.
(Context: Tarun Shanti Sena is a debating society in Ewing Christian College, Allahabad which publishes its student-led wall magazine, Tarun Mitra.)
Me: Sir, during my time we published articles on the Shikshamitra issue and Semester/annual system in college since during that time my college changed its Undergraduate courses from annual to semester system and lots of debate were happening on this issue.
M1: How will make your sample representative?
Me: Ma’am, using Stratification( I explained the concept of Stratification in a detailed manner)
M1: On what basis you will make strata?
Me: That will depend upon Sampling Objective. If we want to take care of income heterogeneity then we can create strata on the basis of income. Similarly, we can create strata on the basis of gender, education too if required.
M1: How will you improve stratified sampling.
Me: Using multistage stratified sampling.
M1: Do You know where multistage stratified sampling is used.
Me: In NSSO Surveys.
M1: What are the things that need to be considered while preparing the sampling questionnaire?
Me: Questions in the sampling questionnaires should not be confusing it should be very precise.
M1: And….. What about length?
Me: Length shouldn’t very large.
M2: So Raghvendra you are from UP. Recently Panchayat election was conducted in UP. Tell me about the Panchayati Raj system. Who conducts the Panchayati election?
Me: Panchayati raj system came into existence with the 73rd constitutional amendment. Panchayat elections are conducted by State Election Commission. Within a district, District Election Officer is in charge of the election. DM works as DEO of the district.
M2: What are the power of Gram Panchayats?
Me: They work in the area of drinking water, rural roads, etc. Different government schemes like MNREGA and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana are implemented through Gram Panchayats.
M2: What do you think, are they working properly?
Me: Sir, I think they are working more efficiently now. In the past, there was some corruption in different schemes, but Direct Benefit Transfer has reduced the corruption up to a certain extent.
M3: What do you know about the Pradhan-Pati system?
Me: Ma’am, when seats are reserved for women in Panchayat elections, women win the election on paper but in reality, their husbands do all the work and work as a representative of Pradhan. This type of system is known as Pradhan-Pati.
M3: How can we solve this problem?
Me: This thing can be improved by women’s education. For example in UP as well as in my district, the female literacy rate is very low. I think with the help of education, women empowerment will happen that will make the Pradhan-Pati system defunct. Government should make a law also that Pradhan-Pati can only participate as an ordinary citizen in Gram Panchayat’s work. Working as de-facto Pradhan should be made illegal.
M3: What is your opinion on the love triangle?
Me: …. love triangle?
M3: Yes, love triangle. Okay, tell me what are the problems of youth?
Me: Unemployment….
M3: Okay. What about the problem of employed youth?. Isn’t love triangle a problem? There are many cases of suicide due to this issue. How will you prevent suicide due to this reason?
Me: Suicide is a mental health issue. In India, mental health is still taboo. There is a need for rapid expansion of mental health counseling centers. The second thing is that in India, parents and their offspring often don’t talk about these issues. Parents should talk to them and behave like a friend so that they can know what’s going on in their minds and prevent any eventuality.
M3: You have mentioned in your DAF that you write poems. Which type of poems do you write?
Me: I write on social issues, love ….
M3: Read one of your poems.
(I was prepared for this question but I got stuck…)
M3: It’s not a problem if you can’t recall.
Me: Ma’am I can recall.
मेरे शब्द अंदर ही अंदर घुटते हैं
मै अपने शब्दों के दुर्भाग्य पर रोता हूँ
वो कभी अपने इंगित जगह नहीं पहुंचे
पिछले जन्म में वो ऐसे बादल रहे होंगे
जो कभी नहीं बरसे
M3: It’s a very pessimistic poem. ( Bahut Hi Nirashavadi Kavita hai.)
M3: Thank you, you can go now
The End.
