IAS INTERVIEW 2011 OF MR. CHAKRESH MISHRA (March 24, 2011)

It was board of Shashi Uban Tripathi. I was second last candidate to be called on date. It went on for around 35 minutes.
me: may i come in ma’am
cp: please come in
(I walk in)
me: good afternoon ma’am, good afternoon sirs
cp: good afternoon, have a seat
me: thank you ma’am
cp: so you are a m.tech. from IIT Delhi
me: yes ma’am
cp: what was your branch?
me: instrument tech.
cp: when did you completed?
me: 2010
cp: oh, so no work experience?
me: no ma’am
cp: you are also a debater and blogger?
me: yes ma’am.
cp: how much traffic your blog get?
me: it varies, as I am a politico-socio blogger, so at the time of last general election it was at 5000 per day. Now after my prelimsI am not writing regularly, so it has declined to 200-300 per day.
cp: thats very impressive
m1 (laughs): so your chamchas left you
me (smile): one has to be regular in blogging to get a good number of visitors.
cp: you blog everyday?
me: once a week generally ma’am.
cp: what is the last topic you wrote?
me: I wrote about this years budget.
cp: what about budget?
me: it was a link post and I collected views of many important thinkers on budget and analyses that. As there are many good expert opinions available on net, I wanted to have a discussion with my readers on budget.
cp: what do you follow regularly in economics?
me: I read newspapers and editorials. Then there is lot of material available on net.
cp: yes thats true, why you didn’t join the DU? they have a very good debating team?
me: ma’am I met with them in many competitions and yes, they are very impressive. But I chose IIT Kanpur for career prospects.
cp: IIT Kanpur? you are from IITDelhi.
me: I did my B.tech. from IITK and M.tech. from IITD. I was a part of IITK debating team.
cp: your hobbies are very helpful in your future work, you know that?
me: yes ma’am, it is a major positive out of it.
cp: good. (points to m1) now answer something on economics.
m1: what are the main problems with indian economy these days?
me: sir, inflation is the most worrying problem. Then there is need of fiscal consolidation, increasing tax to GDP ratio, problem of proper implementation of social sector schemes, trade imbalance etc.
m1: what do you know about medium, small, micro enterprises?
me: MSM enterprises are defined as enterprises with small core capital. Official definition defines it at 10 crores, 5 crores and I dont remember the limit for micro enterprise. Basically these enterprises are labour intensive and run by small group of people.
m1: government defines two types of MSM, what are those?
me: I dont recall sir.
m1: they are manufacturing and service sector MSM, what is the difference in their limits.
me: I do not know exactly sir, but service sector limit is more than manufacturing.
m1: it is () for medium.
me: yes sir.
m1: it is () for small
me: yes sir.
m1: what yes sir? i am telling them, not you.
me: that’s right sir.
m1: (smiles) do you think india has capability of being best global economy some day?
me: yes sir, if we keep on improving our infrastructure and human resources, we will definitely become best some day.
m1. thats all right. (transfer to next)
m2: it says here that you stayed 2 month in Italy for your internship. what is the italians are best known for in engineering field?
me: their beautiful cars, sir.
(everybody laughs)
m2: yes, thats true, but more general?
me: sir, they are hard working and have closed type of organization in companies.
m2: no no, its design of products.
cp: thats what he meant by beautiful cars.
m2 (laughs): ok ok, in 1987 nintendo became the most sold item in world, leaving behind GM’s cars, what does that represented?
me: it represented that japan is becoming new power in world economy.
m2: what else, dont worry, i will get it out of you only, do you understand what is dematerialization?
me: sir, it is the move of engineering from hardware to software and after 1980s software have emerged as new arena of engineering by IT revolution.
m2: why it is called dematerialization?
me: as softwares are not made of any physical material, we can not touch and feel it, still they are there in our lives. that is why dematerialization term.
m2: very good, do you think India has advantage in this area?
me: yes sir, Indians are supposed to be better at soft skills, that is why software and service industry is booming in india.
m2: very good (points to next person)
m3: you pub ad as optional, what are the component of a state?
me: defined territory, a constitution, people of country and a government.
m3: what is constitution?
me: sir, it is the supreme law of any land that defines the structure and powers of government and provide basic laws for society.
m3: but UK doesn’t have a constitution, is it not a state?
me: sir, they do not have a written constitution, but there are laws by parliament and conventions that are followed, so it is an unwritten constitution.
m3: do you think population of India, largest young population is an asset or liability?
me: sir, in short term it is an asset, but in long run we have to control the population as natural resources are not going to increase with increase in population.
m3: but as you said we have advantage in service sector, so why not have ever increasing skilled man power?
me: sir, as I said resources, food etc are not going to increase exponentially, so we have to keep a limit to population. there is also issue of sustainability of environment and I am talking about hundred years frame of reference.
m3: ok, you have written socio blogging, what is that?
me: I have written politico-socio blogging sir, I blog on issues related to politics and social problems.
m3: what social issues you discussed recently on your blog other than budget?
me: women empowerment ..
m3: what is the best way of achieving women empowerment.
me: sir, most basic thing is the attitude of society towards women, it starts from family, neighborhood, government. The attitude can be generated by proper education. So we should focus on imparting values of women equality by our education. Then there is other methods such as women reservation, health care for women, employment, nrega etc.
m3: do you think nrega has empowered women?
me: yes sir, to an extent, it has put money in hands of rural women specially poorer section of society.
m3: in one word, nrega is successful or not?
me: successful, sir.
m3: ok, (pass to m4)
m4: how can your technical education will be of any use in civil services?
me: sir, as one of my proff used to say that at IITs the most important thing is not content of engineering but the attitude, scientific temperament, rational mind and I think that I will go with those qualities in civil services. Nitty gritty is always learnt in training.
m4: ok, coming back to MSM enterprises, why government in andhra trying to restrict them?
me: there is a problem of loan given to MSMs and people are not able to pay it back on time. so gov wants to reduce the bad money of banks and wants to impose a limit on security below which loans will not be given.
m4: loans are given to individuals or some other entity?
me: sir, SHGs are involved in most cases.
m4: right, but why specifically in AP.
me: sir, this problem is in other states also, AP is first to bring a bill.
m4: why problem overall?
me: sir, i am not aware of actual ground situation.
m4: make a guess?
me: may be due to alcohol problem of men of family.
cp, m4: (laughs loudly) no, i have worked 20 years in AP for SHGs, it is not that
cp: (smiles) no, no, men are drunkard everywhere.
me: (smile) yes ma’am.
cp: ok, chakresh, why Afghanistan important in India’s foreign policy?
me: ma’am, it is a neighboring country and Pakistan uses it as training ground for terrorists. There is also issue of economic cooperation in gas pipeline.
cp: Pakistan trains terrorist in Pakistan itself.
me: also in Afghanistan ma’am.
cp: yeah, thats sadly true, but you know Afghanistan is extended neighborhood of India, have been a part of India.
me: yes ma’am, it comes in cultural sphere of India and we have very good people to people relations.
cp: we say that Afghanistan is on our side. Do you think afghan think of us as friend?
me: afghans throughout the history take anyone attacking second as friends ma’am, so yes right now there is a goodwill for India.
cp: (laughs) oh thats true, wait wait, not always true. So, sum up what should be India’s afghan policy
me: yes ma’am, it is a very important state in Indian foreign policy and a gateway to central asia. we should promote democratic government there.
cp: ok, chakresh, good, you can go now.
me: thank you ma’am