Ashutosh Kumar Rank - 77, IAS - UPSC 2021| Mock Interview | Drishti IAS English

Thank you.

Ashutosh, you got your vaccine? Yes, sir. Both those? Yes, sir.

Since board members are also vaccinated, I'll advise you to remove your mask then. Okay, sir. Thank you, sir.

Comfortable? Absolutely, sir. Okay, so Ashutosh, to begin with, please introduce yourself to board. Sir, I'm Ashutosh Kumar.

I am from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. I have done my schooling from St. Fidelis College, Lucknow.

and I have done my engineering in electrical engineering from IIT Kanpur.

My interests are sun salutation, meditation and reading self-improvement books. You completed your graduation in which year?

Sir, 2017, sir. 17? Yes, sir. What are you doing since then? Sir, I've been preparing for the civil services examination, sir.

You're an IIT Kanpur graduate. Yes. I can see you have mentioned that you got a 9.9 CGP in IIT Kanpur.

Yes, sir. which is phenomenal, right? Have you received that gold medal from IIT Kanpur?

Yes, sir. The Academic Excellence Award. Yes, sir. And you're unemployed for five years.

Sir, I think that this process of preparation for the civil services, I had decided way back in IIT Kanpur.

So for me, it's a method of pursuing my own dream and a goal that I fixed for myself.

And it's more of a perseverance on my part to try and achieve, keep on achieving that goal as long as possible, sir.

As long as possible. Meaning, till the attempts are exhausted, sir.

Do you realize that you are an IIT gold medalist, 9.9 CGPA electrical engineering, appearing with political science and not electrical engineering.

The failure is written, I mean, on the very idea, very planning of it.

If IIT Kanpur cannot give confidence to its own gold medalist to appear in their own discipline, which is

Sir, first regarding the failure, sir, I think that we have to learn from the failures and they are there to teach us a lessons and learn from them.

These are for mediocers, man. You are not mediocre. I trust your institution. You do not trust your own institution.

Sir, absolutely I trust my institution and my decision to opt for the political science and international relation.

It was more back then at 2017 like I

had certain friends and I had guidance available from the seniors so I had decided back then itself and also because this option would help me in other GS papers that is why I chose for it sir.

That is again a mediocre reasoning you

you it is you've taken five years which effectively

means the reasoning is not working but anyways since

already you're here so to some extent it's working tell

me electrical engineering obviously you're a gold medalist so who

else will tell me tell me we used to have

dc traction yes sir and off late there are people who believe that the ac is better yes sir why this change of mind in the engineer's perspective?

Sir, I think that regarding the DC traction, sir, its starting torque issues are there.

Like in the case of the DC, the second option that second issue comes in is the power supply.

The most of the power supply that we have is AC, sir. So the main issue that comes in is that the starting torque in the case of the DC motors becomes a bit low.

And so that issue can be resolved if we use the induction motors that

are the ac driven motors that is why i think in my opinion this shift is coming sir tell me uh if we stay at the electrical engineering aspect yes can you mention three things vis-a-vis electrical

gt generation transmission distribution things that are that are affected by politics okay sir

um so first in the case of the power generation sir there

have been issues where the power purchase agreements have been cancelled by the government and this has been because of the like

they were the commitments made by the one government and the another government when

it comes in the power it does not want to honor those agreements which it thinks

are not are not according to what it

committed in the public the second issue

in the case of the third distribution sector it comes in that the subsidies

in the electricity that are provided the agricultural especially

for the agriculture sector they are primarily distorting

this kind of having negative impact on environment as well as the food production and other dimension

but still they cannot be done away with because a large water base