CREDIT: This article has been prepared with the collective effort of ISS 2021 Batch (Recommended candidates of Indian Statistical Service (ISS) Exam.
Special Credit: Bhavna Mishra, ISS has compiled the interview transcripts and I (Sujit Padhan, ISS) have worked on the presentation.
Note: A similar collection of the Interview Transcripts can be obtained by requesting any member of ISS 2021 Batch.
INDEX
AIR-1 NIPUN JAIN
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS
RANK 1: NIPUN JAIN
Date – 19th Jul. 2021 (Morning)
Board – Shri RN Choubey Members – Chairperson (CP), Male Member (M1), Male Member (M2), Female Member (F1) Duration – 15-20 min Medium – English Hobbies – Cycling and Playing Table Tennis Interview Marks – 133/200
Before Personality Test (PT):
Entry started at exactly 9 am. The e-summon letter was verified with aadhar card at the main gate. All the candidates were provided with the COVID-19 kit (gloves, sanitizer, mask, face shield) and we could only carry the documents inside the hall. Everything else was kept outside safely.
I was the 4th candidate to be interviewed in the session. My Interview started at around 12:30 pm. I entered the room and greeted the panelists with a smile.
PT Transcript:
CP: Have a seat Nipun.
Me: Sure, sir. Thank you
(Chairperson explained me the PT process and made me feel comfortable)
CP: This is not an interview, Nipun. This is going to be a general discussion where we will try to learn something from you and we will try to make you learn something. We do not expect you to answer all our questions, if you do not know anything you can simply say “No” to that question and if you are unable to understand any of our question, you can ask us to repeat that question.
We will start with some basic questions on COVID-19. Do you know about the symptoms of COVID-19?
Me: Yes, sir.
CP: Do you have any of the COVID-19 symptoms right now?
Me: No, sir.
CP: Have you come in contact with anyone with COVID-19 symptoms in last 15 days?
Me: No, sir.
CP: Okay. Great, Nipun. You can now take off your mask and put it on the table in front of you.
Me: Okay, sure sir.
CP: Did you have breakfast?
Me: Yes, Sir I had it
CP: Great, What did you have?
Me: I had Uttappam and Milk.
CP: Okay, so are you currently staying in Delhi?
Me: Yes, sir. I am staying at my relative's place
CP: Where in Delhi?
Me: Sir in Shahdara....East delhi
CP: Okay great. Now tell us in brief about your educational and professional background
Me: Sure, sir. I have done my graduation and post graduation in statistics from University of Delhi and I am currently working as a statistical programmer in Novartis, which is a pharmaceutical company.
CP: Which year have you done your graduation?
Me: Sir, From 2015 to 2018.
CP: Okay, now tell me if you want to conduct a study in your district to find out the level of malnutrition in the school going children in a short time, then how will you approach this problem? Will you do census or will you so sampling?
Me: Sir, since the time is limited, doing a sample survey will be a better approach here.
CP: Okay, how will you approach?
Me: Sir, I will divide my districts in blocks and then I will select some random blocks. Then from each selected block i will select a sample of schools. And then from each school i will collect the data.
(Chairperson asked some cross questions on the survey questions)
M1 took over.
M1: You have mentioned in your DAF (Detailed Application Form) that you have worked at NITI Aayog in Atal Innovation Mission. Please brief us about the same.
(Briefly explained my work and M1 asked some cross questions related to data collection, then M1 asked some questions on Aspirational Districts Programme and SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) Index)
M2 took over.
M2: Have you heard about the word GDP?
Me: Yes, Sir. It stands for Gross Domestic Product. It is the final value of all goods and services produced in a country during a given period of time.
(M2 asked some questions related to GDP computation, GDP at constant and current prices and then moved to survey sampling question asked by the Chairperson earlier. He asked questions related to the sampling design that should be used in our problem).
F1 took over.
(F1 asked me some technical questions related to my job profile and time series. Most questions were based on my responses only.)
Some questions were:
Can you predict the COVID-19 third wave using time series data?
Which prediction technique will you use?
What is ARIMA (AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average)?
Tell me about your job profile.
Which software do you use?
What kind of data is there? How do you collect and create the variables?
Now Chairperson took over.
CP: Your interview is over, Nipun. If you have anything to share with us related to the application of Statistics in real life then you can go ahead?
Me: I would like to tell you about the application of Index Number in computing the CPI (Consumer Price Index). There are many types of CPI computed in our country targeting different populations and with different objectives. They provide us an idea about the inflation rates, dearness allowance etc.
Relevant Link:
Click here for personal telegram channel link of Nipun Jain
RANK 2: JAGRTI GARG
RANK 4: CHHAJED HARSHADA NANDALAL
RANK 5: PREETAM SEN
RANK 6: NAUSHEEN MUSHARRAF
RANK 7: SUJIT PADHAN
RANK 8: ANCHAL JAIN
RANK 9: KIRTI ARORA
RANK 10: SUTAPA GHOSH