UPSC Interview Transcript of Dhruv Sharma
I was feeling good when I left for UPSC, I was confident to get questions on women empowerment as it was 8th March(the international women's day).
I reached UPSC, entered the main hall, submitted my phone, went and sat on the table assigned to me and then the supervisor said all off you take out your photographs!
F********kkkkk!!!!! I f**ked up real bad.
I realised that in all of the excitement I had forgotten my photographs at home.
I called my dad, he ran to home, my little brother ran from home to meet my father midway.
The biggest stress was that my wish of giving the interview first in the session had come true!!!
And I didn't know should I be happy that my wish came true or should I blame myself for making a stupid wish!!!
But somehow GOD was with me and my dad brought the photographs. At the same instant I entered the hall with my photographs, a lady entered the hall and asked my supervisor - is your first candidate ready.
He looked at me, I nodded and then he smiled and nodded to the lady.
Just after 2 minutes I was taken outside AIR MARSHALL AJIT BHOSLE SIR's board room.
The attendant asked me - sir, would you like to have water or something else.
That 'Sir' calmed me down instantly and took a gulp of water.
The bell rang, I went inside.
Wished the chairman and the other members.
Bhosle sir asked me to sit and started some words of praise to make me comfortable.
Ch(chairman) M(member)
Ch - Dhruv you are suitable candidate for the services, well built well dressed and with good qualification( I was like thank you sir , thank you sir) , now with a line of questions we'll affirm our faith so be comfortable and take out the pencil and paper.
Ch - today is a important day, what day is celebrated today internationally?
I said international women's day
Why is it celebrated?
Me - to Honor and pay tribute to women for all they have done for the society and move forward in our pursuit towards their empowerment.
What do you mean by empowerment?
A freedom of choice in every domain be it marriage or career, equality in every sphere of like ranging from politics to economy to household.
Ch- Indian cricket team is on a winning spree and people say it's because of the captain, What do you think? (Not my hobby)
Me - the captain brings leadership, gameplan strategy as well as in current scenario the required aggression however it works only if the team is committed to his leadership and gives its 100% so I think team is as important as the captain is.
So you say team is important too?
Yes definitely.
M1 : what are the security challenges for India as nation?
Me - first and foremost and biggest challenge is the act of terrorism by non state actors
Interrupted in between- what are non state actors?
Me - organisations separate from state and having a different agenda, for which they adopt methods that may include violence
M1 - Don't you think Pakistan uses the excuse of non state actors to perpetuate terrorism and achieve its own agenda?
Yes sir you are right, however theres a complexity in Pakistan's structure of power where there are two power centres a democratically elected government and the military, and both work independent of each other so on one hand where military and ISI support terrorist and on the other govt. Is incapable of doing anything about it.
M1 - If you are the DM of a district facing high incidence of stone pelting what would you do to reduce such instances within 6 months?
Me - Sir as you mentioned the time is limited, I would reduce the amount of army personnel stationed in the volatile districts as stone pelters have problem with the army and removing them from the immediate neighbourhood just for a while will reduce such incidents, secondly to complement this effort I will increase the presence of state police to keep up the surveillance and vigilance
What's AFSPA?
Me - sir it's an extraordinary tool for extraordinary situations as in J&k
What do mean by extraordinary situation?
Me - sir when terrorism is deep rooted in a society and the stakeholders have strong grip on the community, it is extraordinary
M1 - There is lot of migration to cities like Delhi which leads to huge pressure on infrastructure, what do you say is the right approach to solve this problem?
Me - sir I think the solution lies in developing both the cities and the villages as well as the tier 1 and tier 2 cities so that we can divert migration towards other cities from metros, secondly we should further improve the capacity of the present infrastructure in the metro cities
M2 - did you watch the yesterday's match ( referring to Juventus vs Tottenham)
Me- sir are you talking about real Madrid vs PSG
He said no Juventus one( I hadn't so I said no , he told me the score then)
Who is your favourite goalkeeper and why?
Me - Manuel Neuer he plays for Germany and Bayern Munich
Tell me Dhruv, the role of psu in India after independence.
Me - sir public sector units have helped us deliver services and goods to citizens of lower strata and upper strata in a equality and help our country go forth with the development and growth in a planned manner
Don't you think they outlived their utility in today's world?
It's not true for all of them however psus dealing in services such as MTNL and BSNL have, as they are in present scenario huge loss making companies, on the other hand PSUs like ongc and cil have had a huge success and should carry on to work
M2 - But these organisations have mandate to serve the poor man and operate in remote location where private sectors don't naturally operate so won't it be unfair to just compare private and public sector on the scale of balance sheet?
Me - sir I agree that they have inclusive mandate however a company needs to make profits to be sustainable apart form that these companies suffer from losses not because of the mandate but because of the approach they have towards the market, they lack R&d, market research and required work culture as well as the infrastructure which private companies bring to the market
M2 - So AIIMS and Apolo hospital should seen through same parameters?
Me - sir health and telecom sector are completely different in today's India, India is one of the most developed country in terms of telecom, where as we are even behind Bangladesh in terms of health parameters so comparing PSUs with health establishment would very unfair
M3 - so Dhruv, talking about empowerment, we often say empowerment is coequivalent to access to information, do you agree?
Me - mam, empowerment is a very broad domain and an end to achieve which there are several means, access to information is one of them which in a simpler terms can be called as education. So yes access to information is important to achieve empowerment but there is a need to combine other aspects too.
M3 - I see that you did your 12th in 2009 and graduated in 2014, was theres a year gap and why?
Me - smiling, mam I tried to get into IITs so gave myself another chance to achieve that goal
M4- how old is women's day?
Me - sir it was first celebrated in 1908 in USA so I would say 110 years
What was USA's role in International women's day?
Me - I am sorry sir I am not aware of that.( He said USA declared 8th March as international women's day in 1975)
M4 - how many islands are there in Japan
Me - sorry sir I have no idea because there might be thousands.
M4 - right, there are 6852 islands in total.
M4 - when was nuclear bomb dropped on Japan.
Me - sir 1945.
M4 - so Japan must have suffered a huge setback in economy and development ( I nodded), and India got independence in 1947, so how come Japan has reached such heights and India has lagged behind.
Me - sir, I think a comparison between Japan and India would be unfair at many levels, as Japan was very much developed much before the second world war happened and that was the reason why it could become a direct participant in the war, secondly it was not a exploited colony like India which had a huge colonial legacy of poverty exploitation and underdevelopment. India had very little avenues to exploit resources and suffered continuous attacks from neighbours, plus having a closed economy till 1991 also slowed down growth to a certain extent, hence I don't think we can compare Japan and India in terms of performance.
M4 - Tell me three things you didn't like about the budget?
Me- sir the spending on education and health is really sub-par apart from that I think the budget was good
He said that the government also didn't come through with providing farmers with more minimum support prices, I said that sir I as per my knowledge the government has gone through with that and has come up with a formula to provide for greater prices to farmers, then he moved on to next question.
You have to build a reservoir in a area where a very ancient temple stands which is dear to the residents of the area, how will you proceed?
Me - sir religion is very emotional topic for people of our country, and as you said the temple is ancient so I am sure there must be sentiments attached to the temple, so I my first priority will be to persuade the people and explain them the benefits of a reservoir, and come up with a middle approach of shifting the temple or the idols in it, if even that doesn't materialise and the political will is also with the people I think we would have to relocate the reservoir.
He said can't we raise the temple by pillars and build a reservoir around it, I said if technologically possible then why not, it would be the best strategy.( He and I both started grinning)
Ch- why don't you write Sharma after your name? Why is it just dhruv?
I said, sir my mother and father both share the same first name and once I get successful I want to join there name after my name as a token of respect and gratitude so I removed Sharma from my name in 10th class to constantly remind myself of my end goal and promise( he and the lady member looked really impressed by the answer)
You are interested in astronomy and also your name is Dhruv, so tell me Why pole star called pole star?
Sir because it's constant and is situated right above north pole , however it does move but very very slowly
Ch - Oh, so after some time the current pole star won't be the one above north pole?
Yes sir, after thousands of year, another star would take its place.
Ch - So right now it's exactly above north pole?
No sir not exactly, the declination is about 1 degree apart from the true position of North pole
Ch - Dhruv you are the goalie and penalty shootout is going on, with score of 4-4, it's the last penalty and you are defending,the shooter can shoot with both legs, what would be your approach?
Me - I said won't do what I have done in the first 4 defends as I didn't stop the goals( to this he laughed a bit, and asked but what next)
I said sir I think following the basics would be the best approach as there is nothing extraordinary I can do at that moment, I would look into the strikers eyes and stretch my arms to intimidate the striker.
Ch - hmm, good enough.
Thank you, your interview is over. All the best and have a good day!!
And I moved out of the room, smiling to everyone who saw me on the way.
Went outside, and hugged my father and went back to home.
And that's how the day went.
