Interview Date: 17/02/2020, Forenoon, First to go
Duration: approx 30 min
Board: Bassi sir
Background: Graduation in Political Science
Optional: Political Science
Employee: EPFO
Home State: Maharashtra
Hobbies: Film, TV series, and Teaching

After entering the chamber wished the CP and lady members and then the other 3 members. CP asked to seat.

Chairperson

1. (Called me by my father’s name. Politely told my correct name.)
2. You like to watch TV series. Any specific genre or everything? (Told everything)
3. Still, you will have some favorites, right? Tell me your favorite TV series? (Game of Thrones)
4. Give me an introduction to Game of Thrones. What is it about? (Gave brief introduction)
5. I want you to speak for 2 minutes on Game of Thrones.
6. Why those kingdoms are fighting among themselves?
7. What msg we get from this line of thought of fighting among ourselves. (Told United we stand and divided we fall)

Member 1

1. So, You’re working in EPFO. Tell me how you decide the interest rates.
2. You have studied in Pune. Do you know about NDA?
3. What is the role of NDA in our nation-building?
4. What do you think is the advantage of training cadres of all three forces together?
5. You have studied IR. Tell me what is our relationship with Afghanistan?
6. How it is different from other countries? (Told we are more focused on the development of Afghanistan while others are more interested in their strategic interest. Bassi sir smiled)
7. Do we have our troops in Afghanistan? Should we send our troops there?
8. What is our official policy about sending troops to Afghanistan?

Member 2

1. Have you heard about the merging of banks? Which are the banks been merged? What is your view about this bank merging? Is it good or bad?
2. Have you heard about Bank Nationalisation?
3. When did it happen? What exactly was done in nationalization?

Member 3

1. You have done a certificate course in women and development. Tell me about the course, its duration, syllabus, and what you learned?
2. Tell from independence till now how do you see the development of women in the country in various fields like social, economic and political, etc.
3. So you have studied PSIR. Tell me about UNSC.
4. There are some countries that are demanding changes in UNSC. Can you name them? Why they are demanding the changes?
5. Okay, tell me why India is demanding a seat in UNSC and whether India deserves it? I want your view on this, not a yes or no answer.

Member 4

1. So you like teaching. What is the age group of children you teach?
2. You have studied Marathi in your school. Suppose u have to teach Marathi to non- Marathi how will you teach them? What methods you will adopt?
3. You watch TV series also. Tell me about OTT platforms.
4. Tell me the advantages and disadvantages of platforms like Netflix?
5. How should we regulate them? ( I told about censorship)
6. So, how censorship can be imposed? How the producers of films and tv series earn money by releasing their content on Netflix.
7. Suppose you are traveling in a car with your family. your passing by a small village where people are Protesting for some demands. you come across them, they are angry. How will you handle the situation? What will you tell them?

Chairperson

1. Have you heard about BRI?
2. Tell me about it. (Fumbled here. So I asked for some time and started again.)
3. We were hearing about it a lot last year now we are not hearing about it much. What were the reasons then and what are the reasons now?
4. Is china back rolling the initiative? Thank you. your interview is over

(Overall very cordial interview. Had a good feeling at the end. Hoping for the best now)
Thank you Mahesh Bhagwat sir and all the seniors and friends for helping with the preparation.

Source: Forum IAS