From Football to Tea Gardens along with the Economic ups & down : Ashish Kumar, IAS (AIR-53, CSE-2019) sharing his Interview Transcript with ipsacharya.in

Ashish Kumar, IAS is presently posted as Assistant Collector, District-Purulia, West Bengal

My interview was originally on 31st March, 2020. But then happened Corona! It got postponed to 30 July (the last date for interviews). After a long wait, my time had finally come.

I woke up at 6 in the morning after a good sleep of around 7 hours. I hurriedly freshened up, brushed, ate some toast. I checked my suit, tie to do a final check on whether they were spotless and ensured that i looked smartly dressed. I was staying at the West Bengal Guest house and the vehicle to drop me off at the UPSC building was scheduled to arrive at 8. I re-checked all the documents, took passport size photos, called my parents and close relatives to get their blessings before the interview.

Finally, i got in the car and reached at 8–15 am sharp. After interaction with fellow aspirant and discussing the major points of New Education Policy (it had come out last evening itself), we got entry into the UPSC building We were given masks, face shields, gloves, sanitizers and we wore them as our documents were verified and we waited for our turn for the interview.

I was the 3rd person to go. The official came at sharp 11 and said “Ashish Kumar?”. I said “Yes sir, it is me” and he began escorting me to the place where interviews were conducted. On route i asked him, “whose board is it?” out of curiosity. He said “Air Marshal Bhonsle sir’s board”.

i was made to wait just outside the interview room. I thought i would have to wait for 5–10 mins but the wait extended to almost 30 mins and i was finally called in at 11–30. The bell rang. My time had come.

I entered and said “Good Morning sirs” and then greeted “good morning Mam” to the lady member. They were seated in a U shaped pattern. Bhonsle sir then told me to have a seat and told me to remove the face shield. However i still had to wear the mask and gloves. Moreover the board was also wearing masks and sometime it would become difficult to find out exactly what they were thinking

Bhonsle sir starts

“Mr Ashish, you have a great academic profile. You’re also an economics graduate. Great to see that, we have mostly people from technical fields trying for the civil services.”
I just smiled within the mask. Btw Bhonsle sir does this quite a lot as i read from transcripts to make candidates comfortable
You are a footballer? Which position do you play in?
Sir, i play as a central midfielder. Sir was like yes yes that is a very crucial position.
you have a great physique, you must have a really intimidating presence on the field – i (greatly amused) said Yes sir.
Ok Mr ashish, i wanted to ask this quote to the previous candidate but i couldn’t. So i want your opinion on this “Hard work and Talent have their limits”
I said “Yes sir, i do partially agree. Other things like resources, opportunities, teamwork, etc also matter”
All that is fine Mr Ashish, but i wanted to take you to the nature v/s nurture debate. Do you think a person’s background, friends, teachers, etc are more important to their success. if a person has all of this, do you think hard work and talent are required much?
I said that sir i partially agree. While background, etc does matter, hardwork, perseverance to realize one’s talents are a bare minimum for success
right, right. So Ashish tell me what are your qualities
I said sir im a very calm person, im optimistic, a quick learner and a person of high integrity.
How did you develop these qualities over time?
Gave examples from school, stay in Delhi, etc
Also Mr Ashish there is a talk of U shaped recovery of our economy, V shaped and the other alphabets. Which alphabet is your favourite and what kind of recovery and within what time frame can we see our economy recover?
Sir, it would be difficult to exactly predict given the uncertainty surrounding the Corona virus (he prodded me to tell any guesstimate). I said sir if we have a vaccine within 1 year, it will bring certainty into the economy and we may start seeing a V shaped recovery after 1 year (in retrospect, i could’ve answered this much better by pointing to the already present green shoots in economy, etc – but UPSC is UPSC and this point didnt come to my mind then)
Bhonsle sir points to Member 1 (M1)

M1 – so Mr Ashish your father is a tea garden manager. Give me a brief overview of the tea industry and answer from the perspective of an economist, since you are one.

Sir the tea industry is an imp indsutry for employment, tourism, revenue generation, forex, etc with a size of 28k crore, blah blah. However it is suffering from certain challenges like low productivity, stagnant demand and poor price realization (again could’ve been a better answer)
Ok Ok, so tell me how is tea manufactured – answered
What is green tea – answered
What is white tea and which tea would you recommend to us
explained. Then i said sir i would recommend green tea given its health benefits and also that it contains strong anti-oxidants which is good if one is living in the polluted environment of Delhi (Everyone laughed here)
Since you come from a hill area (darjeeling), tell me the problems one may face in hilly areas
i said connectivity, water, unregulated development, congestion
and what are the advantages an administrator will get in managing a hilly district like Kalimpong or Darjeeling for instance
For some reason, i couldnt think of many points here. I said sir from my experience, people in hilly regions are very welcoming and helpful
I couldnt think of anything more here so i just said in a half-joking tone that “sir, the climate in the hills is also very good” (again most points were striking me after the interview). Everyone laughed when I said this. At that time, i thought that i have made a major mistake, but in retrospect, maybe it wasnt that big of a mistake

Member 2

Again gave a long speech on how economics is the most important subject. After this long speech, sir asked “What is the trickle down theory”
I said sir it is a growth based theory whereby high growth rates trickle down to even the lower rungs of the economy
Do you think it has worked in India?
i said that sir it has only partially worked, as we’ve never had a sustained period of high growth, esp till 1991.
what about after 1991?
I said sir it has partially worked but the state has had to intervene to provide social security and other benefits to the most vulnerable sections of our population
So youre saying, a certain threshold level of growth is needed for the trickle down to work ( i said Yes sir)
So if the trickle down effect hasnt worked, then why are we still focusing on it. Why not focus on the social sector and support for the vulnerable sections?
I said Yes sir, we need to focus on both. High growth rates are also imp as only then will we have resources to spend on social sector, infra, etc
It also seems, you’ve taken History as an optional. What is history?
Sir it is the study of humans and human civilization. It studies various dimensions of it like eco,pol, etc
Rousseau had said that “man is born free but everywhere he is in chains”. In light of this, dont you think civil society and state are binding man and curbing his freedom. Do we need state and civil society?
I said yes sir, we do need the state. Although we do give up certain rights, however we gain much more esp in terms of protection of our life, liberty & property. M2 wanted more – so i continued. Sir, if there is no state, rights are meaningless as an individual himself cannot protect this own rights. An overarching authority like the state (e.g. police, admin, etc) is needed to protect our rights. Also , the state can ensure that benefits reach the most vulnerable sections while if there is no such authority, this may not happen and it may be every man/women for himself/herself
Member 3

Give me a 1 minute speech on why civil services is the worst job
I said sir it is very challenging, one may have to sacrifice a lot, work pressure is there, family life may be affected, etc. However for a person like me, who is looking for a challenge, willing to sacrifice for the nation and willing to solve the challenges that may exist in the civil services, it is the best service (sir seemed very happy here :D)
So, the RBI governor said that Rural economy and Rural infra can be game changers. What do you think?
Yes sir, i do agree. This is because ppl in rural areas have higher propensity to consume, so the effect on demand will be much greater. also investments will also help agri, food processing, connectivity, etc
Right Right, so tell me problems with our Infra sector. problems with PPP? why it hasnt worked? and asked me few related questions which i cant recall – answered
You’re also interested in football it seems from your DAF. So tell me why is football so popular in West Bengal
Sir it is due to historical reasons. When the British introduced Football here, they excluded the ppl of Bengal from their football teams saying they werent “sporty” enough. This hurt the ppl and also gave a sense of motivation to show that we were equal and even better than the British
why popular in NE
Close to British capital , cultural reasons (e.g. some cultures there have a game which is played with a fruit and is similar to football)
Knew more points, but sir cut me short here
why not popular in rest of India
lack of institutionalization at local level, improper domestic league structures, not an attractive career, governance issues (funding, lack of promotion)

Member 4 (Lady member)

So Mr Ashish, why switch from Economics (graduation) to History
Tell me what is helicopter money? – answered
why do you think widows in West Bengal are in such bad condition? we hear of many widows from WB in mathura, etc
Mam it may be due to a few reasons – practice of kulin polygamy, violence against women (WB is 1st in human trafficking, 3rd in domestic violence as per NCRB data), lack of financial empowerment
what do you mean by women empowerment – answered
as a DM how will you improve women’s education? and Mam said im specifically talking about women who are 30, 40, 50+
I said mam we can
Mobilize existing teacher pool if they can teach in extra time
Mobilize local volunteers like college students, etc to teach
use tele-education
the young kids themselves can be exhorted to teach their mothers, grandmothers, etc
2–3 more questions which i cant recall
do you see any similarities b/w rise of Hitler and rise of China?
Mam, i see more differences than similarities, Similarities are that both are authoritarian regimes, blah blah and differences are that China is part of global governance institutions and its economy is so interconnected in the world that it cannot be openly aggressive

Back to Bhonsle sir

you talked about China’s economy being interconnected into the globe. Do you think we made a mistake by leaving the RCEP
Sir, in my opinion, globalization should be on mutually beneficial term and since RCEP wasn’t benefiting India, we decided not to join it in the form it is today. There are some specific reasons like :
It may lead to reduction in tariff barriers which may lead to flood of goods from China, SEA, etc ( Sir cut me off here)
I think tariffs are a medieval concept. Then followed a long speech by sir.. Why do you think we are focusing on labor intensive goods when we should focus on producing quality goods?
i gave China’s example to explain as to how China began producing lower quality labor intensive goods, assembling products in order to integrate into the global supply chains. and after doing so, it began graduating up the supply chain and producing more quality goods.
But Mr Ashish, why should we follow the China way. wont we be 30 years behind?
I said sir, it is necessary b/c it will ensure that our huge population gets employment, better standards of living while at the same time we integrate into global supply chains and also focus on producing quality goods simultaneously
1–2 more questions on this discussion which i cant recall
Last question – so Mr Ashish, what are your plans for today?
I said sir, ill first talk to my parents regarding how the interview went and then maybe watch a movie or tv series.
Bhonsle sir – also visit the UPSC Museum nearby
i nodded. Apparently the museum was closed that Day (haha!)
I wished everyone and as i was leaving, i had forgotten my face shield. Bhonsle sir called me and smilingly said that please take your souvenir from UPSC (:D)
Approx Length of interview – 40 minutes

• Interview was more like a conversation than a Q&A session. Answers could’ve been much better, but hey it is what it is. I felt satisfied and relieved that the long process that had started in June 2019 was finally over. I wasn’t expecting a very good score, but i had done decent. There may be a slight variation in the content and length of the answers compared to the actual interview – but this is what i remember currently

Amit Verma, IPS also shared the interview details. To Check, Click Here.