Date of Interview: 5/04/22 9: am forenoon session
Board: Smita Nagraj
Optional: history
Background: civil engineering from DTU, MA in modern history from JNU
Hobbies: Reading Travelling numismatics
Chairman
- why do you think about freebies
- Should they be discontinued, or modified in any manner
- Farmers and electricity
- do freebies encourage individuals to not work, remain dependent on govt
Member 1
- how can civil engineering (graduation subject) help in civil services.
- issues behind time and cost overruns
- insisted on giving practical and on ground problems faced(follow up) rather than theoretical/bookish issues in civil engineering
- difference and similarities in crisis going on in Pakistan and Sri Lanka
Member 2
- how can we keep the bureaucracy motivated?
- (A number of follow up questions on similar lines)
- Issues about bureaucracy,
- Why the image is bad ? etc.
Member 3
- Don’t remember specifically but questions related to application of civil engineering on problems in infrastructure
- Why India’s infra growth is shabby when compared to that of china.
Member 4
- Just asked about comparison between the response of indian and Canadian govt to protests in respective countries
- Reasons behind why Canada is considered liberal and India is considered authoritarian
- Were the measures used by Canada authoritarian or democratic ( follow up )
- Experience- no hi hello no chit chat no questions related to daf( apart from grad subj- civil Engineering)
- I felt the questions were really good, especially the ones related to infra and civil engineering. I wasn’t able to satisfy the demands with respect to practical issues, a point that was raised twice during the interview. Not unnecessary grilling if a person could answer these questions he/she would definitely make a really good addition to services.
- Mocks- focussed majorly on daf, and I felt the interview was of a whole another level- they knew what they knew what they were looking for.
Source: Forum IAS
