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IAS Topper Tina Dabi tops Civil Services 2015-16 Results

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Syskool
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IAS Topper Tina Dabi

UPSC has declared Civil Services 2015 Results, 22 years old Delhi girl IAS Topper Tina Dabi has topped in this prestigious IAS exam in her first attempt. Second and Third positions were held by Athar Aamir ul Shafi Khan from Anantnag Jammu and Kashmir and Jasmeet Singh Sandhu respectively.

Acording to UPSC Civil Services 2015 results a total of 1078 candidates has been recommended for appointment by the commission. Out of these selected candidates top 172 will get chance to become IAS.

Tina dabi upsc 2016 topper
UPSC 2016 Topper Tina Dabi

IAS Topper Tina Dabi said that her success is all because of her mother who encouraged her to start preparing right after 12th. She was also a topper in her CBSE 12th Exam.

Second topper Athar Aamit ul Safi Khan said that he was sure about good result b but has never expected second position in civil services 2015 exams.

Competition Success Ms. Apurva Dubey, IAS Topper 2012-13 (19th Position)

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Syskool
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IAS Toppers 2012-13 Talk To You
Competition Success Review Is Definitely Very Popular Among IAS Aspirants And It Undoubtedly Provides A Very Comprehensive View Of All The Current Topics
—Ms. Apurva Dubey, IAS Topper 2012-13 (19th Position)

Ms. Apurva Dubey, a graduate from Delhi University, has achieved the 19th Position in the 2012-13 Civil Services Examination. We publish here an exclusive interview she gave to Competition Success Review.

Q. Which newspapers and journals have you been reading for the General Studies and other papers ?
A. I have been a regular reader of The Hindu, and so- far as journals are concerned, I read Competition Success Review regularly.
Q. Competition Success Review has been extremely helpful because…
A. It provides a comprehensive overview of all the current topics. So it helps a lot in focussing over the current topics, and thus keeps you updated.
Q. How did your parents, family and friends contribute to your success ?
A. Everybody supported me in every way that was possible. My father imbued in me great confidence and my mother and sister were a source of emotional support. And my friends wished well for me and helped me in many ways. Particularly, Shalabh, Rishi and Sharad.
Q. How do you visualise your success ?
A. When I look at it as a student, I think it is certainly a success. But more than that I am happy that it is the beginning of a new phase where I will be able to be a part of public service, a dream which I always cherished.
Q. What are your strong points which enabled you to achieve spectacular success in the Civil Services Examination ?
A. As far as strong points are concerned, I have been focussed and hard-working. So, with everyone’s support I could carry on with my work and that has finally paid off.
Q. What were your Optionals at the Civil Services Examination ?
A. Law and Public Administration.
Q. How many attempts had you made earlier before you got selected ?

A This was my second attempt. In my first attempt, I could not clear the Mains.

Q. What was your criterion for the selection of the Optional subjects ?
A. Law was something I was pursuing from the Delhi University Law Faculty, and so I chose this subject.
And I opted for Public Administration because of its general nature.
Q. How did you prepare for your compulsory papers ?
A. For Law I mostly referred to printed material of Ambition Law Institute. For the Constitution part in specific, I referred to a few other books also. For Public Administration, I read Mohit Bhattacharya, Synergy material and Fadia.
Q. Competition Success Review is the largest read youth magazine in English. How do you visualise the role of this magazine in moulding the careers of the youth ?
A. CSR is definitely very popular among IAS aspirants and it undoubtedly provides a very comprehensive view of all the current topics. Regular reading of it will surely help aspirants in brushing up on the current happenings all around.
Q. How did CSR help you in your preparation for the interview ?
A. I read the tips and guides for interview. It instilled confidence in me by giving tips about many normal things that I tend to skip.

Q. How do you look upon the publication of CSR in Hindi ? Do you think that the mindset and basic approach of Knglish medium students are fundamentally different from those of the Hindi medium students ?

A. I think it was much needed. There is a paucity of materials in Hindi and Hindi medium students are really benefited by the publication of CSR in Hindi.
Q. What is your opinion about Competition Success Review?
A. CSR is a must-read for UPSC exams. It is very lucid in its presentation.
Q. Since when have you been reading Competition Success Review ?
A. I have been reading CSRsince 2010 when I first planned to take this exam.
Q. Did your father and/or mother also read Competition Success Review when they were of your age ? If so, who read and when ?
A. My father has been a reader of this magazine. He still reads it.
Q. What is your opinion about General Knowledge Today?
A. General Knowledge Todayfocusses more on understanding and less on factual data. It is expansive, so reading it with understanding helps a lot.

CSR : Thank you. CJR wishes you all the best in life.

Source: CSR.

Blind girl from Tamil Nadu cracks UPSC exam

By
Syskool
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3
The dream is to enter the IAS cadre and N L Beno Zephine, who is visually impaired, is holding her breath until the marks for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam results are released in 15 days.
It was a tough few years of work, but Beno, 24, enjoyed it and has secured an all-India rank of 343 in the UPSC exams. “Preparing for the civil services made it easy for me to clear other competitive exams,” she said.
She got a few books Brailled, but much of her preparation was done with the help of her father and friends. “She would insist that her father read the newspaper to her every morning, and she was an exceptionally sharp observer,” said Sathya, MD of Strategy IAS Academy, who coached Beno to face the interviews along with experts at Manidhaneyam IAS Academy.
Beno is one of more than 100 candidates from Tamil Nadu who made it to the civil services this year. She had to juggle preparing for a PhD in English literature from Bharathiar University with a full time job as a probationary officer in SBI. “I learnt to balance both and understood how to use my time efficiently in the process,” she said.
She also downloaded the Jaws screen reader to get more information. Her father works for the railways and prompted her to get into a government job at a higher level and her mother is a homemaker.
Others like Sujitha from Chennai and Krishna Gopal Tiwari from Varanasi have made it to the IAS cadre, despite visual disabilities. Experts said that the uniformed services are, however, closed to people with disabilities.
Source – -TOI

IAS Topper Gaurav Agarwal UPSC Interview 2014

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Syskool
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108
gaurav agarwal ias topper

UPSC Interview questions asked by the interview board (chairman and members) and answers of Gaurav Agarwal, IAS Topper.

Cp: XXX, you did this, did that, worked here…why left that job for civil services?
Me: Mam’, it was due to a combination of professional and personal reasons. The professional reasons include the mature of the civil services job. It gives a wide scope for public service, it gives wide decision making powers at our age, and it is so challenging and dynamic. Personal reasons included I wanted to come back to India, parental aspirations and also this job has a lot of respect in the society.Cp: didn’t you like that jo

Cp: didn’t you like that job? There was so much money as well.
Me: Mam’, money is not everything. I realised that when one has to work for 30-35 Years money cannot be the motivation. One has to look at larger things, so I switches because of factors mentioned earlier.

Cp: What has been the role of media in influencing people in the elections gone by?
Me: Media played a very important role. For example, the way it covered Mr. Modi’s Varanasi road show… the way it was showing the massive crowd… all swayed the people. What was happening in UP was being seen right in our rooms 24×7 in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, all over India. Moreover, there was massive advertising

M1: what are biosphere reserves?
Me: they are regions of great ecological significance so notified by the government.

M1: difference between biosphere reserves, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries?
Me: Sir I am not very clear about it, but from what I know, sanctuaries are notified as such by the state government, and biosphere reserves by the central government.

M1: And the national parks?
Me: Sorry sir, I don’t know.

M1: You are from Bharatpur?
Me: Sir I was born there…

M1: Bharatpur has a national park or sanctuary?
Me: A national park… Keoladeo National Park

M1: have u been there?
Me: Yes sir, Bharatpur is my nanihal… so as a child I used to go there on morning walk with my nanaji (grandparent).

M1: how should we protect environment?
Me: First we need to empower and involve the local communities. Because they are the ones who are closest to forests, know best about it and are dependent upon it. On the contrary, our laws tend to centralize powers in the hands of the forest department. Second, we need to change our accounting system to one which includes the value of ecological services. Right now it is only GDP where these ecological services are given zero weight. We need to give these services a tangible value in project appraisals.

M1: In project appraisals, what are the social costs?
Me: Typical project appraisals only capture the market prices or costs to private parties. Social costs are the costs to the society. There may be instances where the cost to private party may be different from the cost to the society. For example, if a project is being setup which will lead to migration, the cost of migration for the private operator may be taken as 0, but it will have real costs on society in terms of destruction of family structure, destruction of social capital…

M2: u acted n edited a movie in the college. What was it?
Me: It was a small movie we made based on then released Kaante. 🙂 We were a group of students studying in our college who get caught by the dean while cheating in an exam. The dean expels us. So we decide to take a revenge on the professors by looting the bank where they used to keep their savings. 🙂 We get caught doing that also and end up as sweeper, waiter etc.

Cp: How did you loot the bank? Through computers?
Me: No mam, we looted it physically like in the movie kaante. 🙂

M2: what was the message of the movie?
Me: It was a fun movie sir.

M2: fun movie.. Still there would be some message.
Me: Sir the message was that if one resorts to shortcuts in life, bad things happens to him ultimately.

M2: You talked about media earlier Social media. What is it and what are its pros and cons?
Me: Social media is via internet, sites like facebook, twitter, Google, blogs where users can share and interact. Its advantage is that it can preserve freedom of speech, specially in cases of autocratic government. For instance, in Turkey, the government tried to curb Twitter but it failed. Now this advantage also leads to its disadvantage. Because of the anonymity it offers and difficulty in suppressing its content… if we suppress one handle, people can create a new one and publish… it can lead to many problems. We saw last year how it led to exodus of people of North East from Bangalore, Pakistan uses it to flare up communal tensions in India…

M2: u blog… What do u blog about?
Me: I write about the things which I am doing, my observations, inferences, learnings.For example, the last blog I wrote was on the budget and economy of India, what are the challenges, what should be done. When I used to work in XXX, I used to write about markets, how to trade.

M2: u want to write a book. What kind of book?
Me: Sir, I presently write about things I see, my inferences and observations. So the book would be about that only.. what I see and learn in the field over next 10-15 years.. the problems I see and what policy measures we can adopt to solve them.

M2: u have a well built body n good height… Don’t you play any sports?
Me: (I was thinking I played so many sports, but to answer like that may expose me to questions from any sport) Sir I used to play football in college.

Cp: Yes he has mentioned that in the form…
M2: what position in football?
Me: I was the goalkeeper.

M2: don’t you play cricket?
Me: Yes sir, but only at the gully, street level.

M2: what is the role of the leg umpire?
Me: Sir, first if there is any overhead wide, then he calls it because he is in a better position to see. Then in case of runouts, he can see better. Finally, if the main umpire has any doubts, he can assist him.

M2: should,’t we replace umpire by technology?
Me: There would be practical problems in that. The decision of the third umpire comes after a lot of delay. So if we keep referring each appeal to the third umpire, there would be too many breaks in the game. Secondly, even the technology is not so accurate and we have seen some glaring errors being committed by it.

M3: (Some long story of Bangalore local government acquiring land for a foreign company) government acquiring land for private companies.. Isn’t this abuse of governmental power?
Me: Sir, if we leave land entirely to private players i.e. the private company buys it directly from the owners, there would be a market failure. Because say a company wants 100 acres to build a factory and buys 99 acres. The remaining 1 acre guy would get a veto power on the project. He may say give me 10 times the price of land otherwise you will not have your project. So we need governmental intervention in acquisition of land. But the real issue here is that the original owners must get full compensation and rehabilitation. What we should do is to give a part of the developed land back to the original owners… the value of developed land is generally much more than that of undeveloped land… this way even they can become stakeholders in growth and there won’t be any protests and development can happen.

M3: difference between vision, Mission, aims and objectives?
Me: Sir vision is at the top… its the broad overarching destination. For example, the government can have the vision that the governance reaches to that last person..the poorest man. Mission are the strategies which one can adopt to reach vision. The mission can be, use of technology for better delivery of services, climate friendly (:O I don’t know how this came to my mind) mission, poverty elimination mission…

M3: Aims and objectives?
Me: (thinking and trying) Aim could be we will reduce poverty by 2% per annum.

M3: Isn’t that target?
Me: Sorry sir, I am unable to tell about aims and objectives.

M3: difference between planned and market economy?
Me: Market economy is one where private sector plays a dominant role. The decisions of price and quantity produced are governed by market forces of supply and demand. Planned economy is like the one we have. There can be 2 types… one we had before 1991 where state was dominant, it used to fix the price and quantity produced mainly via PSUs. Then after 1991, we have moved to indicative planning.

M3: what are SEZs and your view on it?
Me: SEZs are special economic zones where the private operators are given a host of incentives to operate. It was a good concept… We have seen how SEZs have led to huge development in China. But the SEZ policy has come in for criticism that it has become a land grab scheme. Private operators are acquiring land in the name of SEZ but are not setting up any industry there, merely using it for real estate. Then the idea behind SEZ was to provide good infrastructure facilities also. But the size of our SEZs is so small. China has 5-6 large SEZs where it has provided all facilities. What we really need is a proper implementation of the policy. We need to have a few large SEZs instead of hundreds of small ones and then provide good governance and infrastructure there.

M4: your hobby is following macroeconomy and forming trading views. How?
Me: Sir I used to do this earlier in my job.

M4: but that was ur job, not hobby..
Me: Yes sir, earlier it was my job. But after quitting, I have pursued it as a hobby.

M4: Do you know about the trends in TV sector? Do you watch TV?
Me: No sir, not much (watch). As for the trends, I don’t know about the individual Companies but for the sector overall…

M4: ownership of media houses (Ambani deal) by corporates and politicians. There was a news even today. Is such a thing dangerous for economy, for democracy?
Me: Yes sir, it is very dangerous for the economy and democracy because freedom of media may be compromised. Most of these media houses are running into losses which lead them prone to such acquisitions.

M4: The media can also blackmail the government and corporates..
Me: Yes sir, and as we saw in the coal scam coverage last year, Zee news was accused of demanding bribes from Jindal for suppressing the adverse coverage.

M4: can we prevent it? How?
Me: By separating the editor team from owners.

M4: but is separation of editing team and management possible? How is it possible when both are in the same company?
Me: It is possible. In my previous job, there was a part of the bank which worked closely with companies and had access to private information. We, on the other hand, were on the public side and had no such access. This separation was made possible by our internal compliance team, auditors and central bank. Similarly in media, this
separation should be enforced by their compliance, auditors and an external regulatory.

M4: what are the things the new government should be doing in the economy?
Me: Sir, firstly, the new government should address the policy issues. For example, retrospective taxation, increasing FDI, cutting red tape, giving more confidence to bureaucrats…

M4: but they are against FDI in retail.
Me: Yes sir, FDI in retail is a bit of a grey area. But in other sectors, they are saying to allow FDI up to 49% via automatic route except for 3-4 sectors. Even in defence they are allowing FDI up to 49, 74 and 100% depending upon the kind of technology which is brought in.

M4: what other things?
Me: They should control the fiscal deficit. Although the previous government claimed reduction of headline number to 4.6%, but the quality of this fiscal deficit adjustment has been doubted by many experts. They say the government has merely pushed many subsidies to the next year. So some of these subsidies have to be removed.

M4: which subsidy they should remove?
Me: The fuel subsidy…

M4: won’t increasing diesel prices lead to higher inflation? There are so many critical Sectors like railways, trucks which need it.
Me: Sir there are 2 things here. One, yes higher diesel prices will push up inflation, but at the same time, the reduction of fiscal deficit due to lower subsidy will have a reducing effect on inflation and will offset at least a part of it. Next, what we can do is that we can compensate these critical sectors directly via direct cash payments. This way we can reduce the inflationary impact as well as prevent wastage of subsidy. Clearly we don’t want to subsidise the luxury cars running on diesel. 🙂

M4: is it possible politically to remove subsidies on gas cylinders?
Me: It is difficult, but given the strong mandate the new government has, it is possible.

Interview of IAS Exam 2011 Topper Prince Dhawan

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Syskool
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prince dhawan ias topper

Question: Please tell us about your childhood, family background, schooling and higher education?
Prince Dhawan: I am Prince Dhawan. My father was in the revenue service that is why my childhood had been spent in seven to eight cities across India. My schooling had completed from various schools. I had enjoyed my exposure to diverse crowds. Moreover, I had successfully completed my 10+2 from the city of Indore. Further, I had completed my B.Tech and M.Tech as a dual degree in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi. I always believe to do efficient work and want to enjoy it.

Question: When did the idea of becoming a Civil Services Officer strike your mind?
Prince Dhawan: I had felt that there were many opportunities in life to serve the society in different ways. As I always have an open mind, so, I had realized that Civil Services is one of the way through which I can serve the society and can enjoy as well. So, I was trying with this idea from my graduation time only.

Question: what kept you motivated towards the Civil Services in the course of rigorous preparation for the exam?
Prince Dhawan: The motivation in me came by the fact that I had enjoyed the preparation phase. I loved staying away from my home and spending time with my friends. I think that Civil Services are not just an exam it’s a journey and I was enjoying the journey a lot.

Question: Please tell us about your icons, hobbies and interest?
Prince Dhawan: My icons are my Parents i.e. My mother and my father. My hobbies are teaching, debating and mentoring junior students at IIT Delhi.

Question: How many attempts did it take to taste success?
Prince Dhawan: It is my first attempt and I believe that success is a very subjective concept. I define success when you sleep peacefully at night and you remain happy.

Question: How much time one should devote in preparing for the Main exam? What according to you is the ideal time to start the preparation for Main exam?
Prince Dhawan: I think it is not about the time. I had never thought of time while preparing my exam. I use to set some short term targets or long term targets and my main strategy was to achieve those targets.

Question: How helpful are coaching institutes?
Prince Dhawan: I don’t prefer coaching institutes. I had taken electrical engineering as my optional and my IIT teachers had helped me out for that. Moreover, in public Administration exam I had taken guidance from some experienced teachers.

Question: Did you take the help of internet while preparing for the examination? How helpful did you find it? Did you use any current affairs website?
Prince Dhawan: As it is a proven fact that UPSC had became very dynamic in today’s scenario. So, it requires lot of awareness in your surrounding and that is the reason that internet was very crucial part of my preparation. I often read from jagranjosh.com and I believe that this site is regularly updated.

Question: How much time did you take to prepare for the CSE?
Prince Dhawan: I think that it is a very subjective question. I cannot give answer to this question but, I believe that it depends upon the individual and every individual should devote as much time until and unless they are not confident about the subject and their preparation.

Question: Given the extensive nature of contents asked in the preliminary exam, did you apply any specific method for the preparation?
Prince Dhawan: My only aim was to prepare for the main exam. To keep an eye on the main examination I had prepared my subjects.

Question: When did you start preparing for the Main examination? What was your medium of the written exam? What were your optional subjects for the Main exam?
Prince Dhawan: I had started preparing for mains and the prelims together. I had not taken the peace-meal approach. Although,my strategy was also similar for both examinations.

Question: not audible
Prince Dhawan: It is a very subjective question. Some might find the prelims easier or some might find the interview easier. It depends upon the perception of different people with accordance to their mindset.

Question: How much time one should devote in preparing for the Main exam? What according to you is the ideal time to start the preparation for Main exam? 
Prince Dhawan: One thing that one should keep in mind while preparing that one should be confident and comfortable about the subject and preparation respectively.

Question: What were your optional subjects? 
Prince Dhawan: My optional subjects were Electrical Engineering and Public Administration.

Question: What was the basis for choosing these optional subjects?
Prince Dhawan: Electrical Engineering was a natural choice for me as I had done both B.Tech and M.Tech in electrical Engineering and as far as Public Administration is concerned, I felt that it suited my personality bit more as I had led certain student bodies in my college and I was very eager to know that how they can be managed. These are the reasons or we can say basis for choosing my optional subjects.

Question: Do you think that public administration should be a compulsory subject as the nature of duties required and administrating things on the field so everyone should be aware through this?
Prince Dhawan: I think that training exemplifies everything. So, I don’t think that it should be a compulsory subject.

Question: What is your approach while preparing Public Administration? Which books, notes and things you had preferred? What was your strategy to prepare that strategy?
Prince Dhawan: I believe that that there is no substitute for self study. No amount of coaching can help a person if he/she is not putting an effort to his own. My first approach towards Public Administration is to get a grip on the study material and practice for writing answers regularly.Which

Question: Which Indian Language you chose for the Main exam?
Prince Dhavan: I had opted for Hindi.Which Indian Lan

Question: How did you plan for the General Studies in the main examination? 
Prince Dhawan: I read newspapers and prepared some notes and I revised them periodically. Apart from that, I used to check the websites of Ministry on regular basis. In addition, I constantly keep revising my fundamental subjects-Politics, geography, history, economy, science etc- so that I can remember the right things at the right time.

Question: Do you think that Current affairs news is helpful while preparing the subject-Public Administration?
Prince Dhawan: Yes, certainly. Public Administration is a dynamic subject and one should constantly places the subject in the current context for that one should keep an eye on current happenings specially in the field of administration and gain and learn from them.

Question: For essay paper, how did you prepare?
Prince Dhawan: For essay paper, I had read that what UPSC wanted in essay paper. It requires concise, original and innovative thinking. Students should keep their essays to the point and they must stick to the topic. I feel lot of writing practice is required with ideal thinking over issues. This will help candidates to think over essay writing.

Question: Would you like to give any tips for the preparation of Essay paper to the future aspirants? 
Prince Dhawan: For essay paper, I would say that calm your mind and gather through thoughts before you pick up the pen.

Question: What was your plus point?
Prince Dhawan: I think my mistakes were too many while interview and plus points cannot be pinpointed. It is over all personality appeal and, board was very learned, experienced and respectable members. Therefore, they are able to gauge the personality of an individual easily.

Question: Who was the chairman of the interview board?
Prince Dhawan: Mr. P.K. Sharma was the chairman.

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