ISS Series 2: Interview Transcripts of Recommended Candidates of ISS Exam, 2020

INTRODUCTION / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Main Credits: This article has been prepared with the collective effort of ISS 2021 Batch (Recommended candidates of Indian Statistical Service (ISS) Examination, 2020). The interview transcripts have been written by the corresponding members in their own words.

Bonus Credits: Bhavna Mishra, ISS has compiled the interview transcripts and I (Sujit Padhan, ISS) have worked on the presentation. 


INDEX




      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


      About me:




      Before Personality Test (PT):

      Entry started at exactly 9 am. The e-summon letter was verified with aadhaar card at the main gate. All the candidates were provided with the COVID-19 kit (gloves, sanitiser, 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 panellists 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 Links:



      RANK 2: JAGRTI GARG


      Date – 19th Apr. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Shri RN Choubey

      Duration – 30 min

      Medium – English

      Hobby – Rangoli Making

      Interview Marks – 130/200



      The questions asked to me were-

      CP: 

      First he made me comfortable by explaining the interview process and asked me whether I had breakfast or not, what I had in the breakfast (He even explained me the importance of breakfast), where I was staying in Delhi.

      1. Okay so tell me about your educational background and work experience.
      2. In which year did you complete your graduation and post-graduation?
      3. What is the difference between WPI (Wholesale Price Index)and CPI (Consumer Price Index)?
        • Which one of them is used to calculate inflation?
      4. Do you know what is the principle of least square?
        • How many lines does it give?


      M1:

      1. As sir asked you about inflation so tell me which ministry releases it.
      2. CSO (Central Statistics Office) and NSSO (National Sample Survey Office) have been combined to form which ministry?
      3. Whether CPI is released monthly, quarterly or yearly.
        • So we don't have quarterly and yearly estimates?
        • Does the ministry collect separate data for quarterly figures or does it extrapolate the values?
      4. Why is economic survey released before budget?
      5. How to measure income inequality in India?
      6. What do Gini coefficients 0 and 1 mean?
      7. Some hobby related questions.


      M2:

      1. What do you mean by positively skewed, negatively skewed and symmetric data?
        • What is the relationship between mean, median and mode in such cases?
      2. Which distribution is symmetric?
      3. Give a practical example of normal distribution.
      4. What do you mean by skewness?
        • How to measure it?
      5. What is kurtosis?
        • How to measure it?
      6. What is the general relationship between mean, median and mode?
      7. What is the purpose of Indian Statistical system?


      M3:

      1. What are type 2 error and power?
      2. What is critical region?
      3. Give some practical examples where power curve is used.
      4. As I can see you were good at the academics, so let me ask some difficult questions. Why normal equations are called as normal?
      5. So tell me what all subjects have you studied in your post graduation?
      6. What is stochastic process?
        • Give a practical example to explain it in a better way.
        • The example which you gave is which type of stochastic process? (It was a poisson process)
        • Tell us about its state space and time space.
      7. What is the difference between poisson process and poisson distribution?
      8. What is the probability generating function of poisson distribution?
      9. What is compound distribution?
      10. What is your favourite subject?
      11. What is the difference between cluster sampling and stratified sampling?


      CP:

      Okay, Jagrti. This is your last question. Tell us something about statistics which we haven't discussed in this interview.


      Relevant Link:


      Back to Index


      RANK 4: CHHAJED HARSHADA NANDALAL

      Date – 19th Jul. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Medium – English

      Hobby – Solving Sudoku, Writing Diary

      Interview Marks – 122/200



      Questions:
      1. What did you have in breakfast?
      2. How long does it take you to come here?
      3. Is this your first visit to Delhi?
      4. Don't you feel that UPSC did unfair with you by not selecting you in the last attempt.
      5. How is the industry sector affected due to COVID-19?
      6. If data is not available for some reasons then how would you give its estimate (like for GDP)?
        • What steps are taken by the government to cope with it?
      7. What are the reason for the second wave and still increase in number of patients?
      8. What can you do statistically to create awareness among people?
      9. What is ANOVA? Give its real life application.
      10. What is confounding?
        • Give its real life application.
      11. What is MANCOVA?
      12. Tell me something that you want to share.



      RANK 5: PREETAM SEN

      Date – 19th Apr. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Board – Dr. TCA Anant

      Medium – English

      Hobby – Cricket

      Interview Marks – 116/200


      Questions:

      1. Basic interaction about my job (I was working as an undergraduate teacher).
      2. Misuse of statistics.
      3. About my hobby, cricket:
        • What is V-zone for batsman?
        • Which hand's grip should be loose/tight while playing various shots in cricket?
      4. About AI, ML. Their applications and differences.
      5. What is CLT? Who invented it? In which year? Which one is the first CLT to be used?
      6. Who used variance first? In which year?
      7. Who is RA Fisher and what was his contribution to statistics?
      8. In which year he invented index number? (The one who was asking me these questions later clarified that since I was a teacher, I was supposed to know the histories as well)
      9. Use of moments.
      10. About MLE and Least Square Estimator.
      11. Rationale behind same MLE and Least Square Estimator for normal mean.
      12. What are Shepherds' correction and finite population correction?
      13. Why is there a need to have so many index numbers?
      14. Importance of ISI (Indian Statistical Institute).
      15. What are some important research works from ISI?
      16. Name some important personalities coming from ISI.


      Relevant Links:




      RANK 6: NAUSHEEN MUSHARRAF


      Date – 22nd Jul. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Ms. Smita Nagaraj

      Duration – 30 min

      Medium – English

      Home State – Uttar Pradesh (UP)

      Interview Marks – 106/200


      Since there were 4 persons in the board including Chairperson (CP), I will address them as CP(Female), M1 (Male), M2 (Male), M3 (Male).

      Smita Nagaraj Ma'am (CP) asked me to sit and made me very comfortable.

      CP:

      1. You have mentioned that you are pursuing M.Phil from DU.
        • Ans: Yes ma'am. I am also working as a Statistical Assistant in GTB hospital.
      2. What is your job profile at GTB hospital?
      3. When have you joined there?
      4. How is "you in GTB hospital" related to statistics?
      5. What trend do you see in birth rate during last one year?
      6. What is your area of research in M.Phil?
      7. What type of work have you done in Bayesian Inference?
      8. Bayesian inference has been applied in many areas. Can you tell me its uses in Artificial Intelligence?
      9. Difference between Bayesian and Classical inference. Support your answer with an example.

      M1:
      1. What is classical inference?
      2. Can you tell the concept of sufficiency?
      3. There is one important theorem to find sufficient statistics. Tell me about this.
      4. What is prior belief?
      5. Difference between subjective and objective sampling.
      6. What is stratified sampling?
      7. What are the criteria used to form a stratum in stratified sampling?
      8. Suppose you have to conduct a survey to assess standard of living. What will be your criteria to stratify the given population?
      9. What steps would you take as an administrator to increase data quality in a survey?

      M2:
      1. Can you tell me an application of Bayesian inference in marketing field?
      2. Any other field which uses Bayesian technique? Give an example.
      3. In Artificial Intelligence, MCMC technique is used. Tell me about this in detail.
      4. There are various types of indices in official statistical system. Tell about them.
      5. What are CPI, WPI and IIP?
      6. If you do not get selected this time, then what would you do?

      M3:
      1. Can you tell me about the importance of health statistics in India?
      2. What type of data is collected by Government of India related to health statistics?
      3. Madam, do you know about demographic dividend?
      4. What are SDGs?
      5. Name some SDGs.
      6. Tell me about the SDGs related to health statistics.


      CP: Thank you, Nausheen. You can go now.

      Relevant Links:



      RANK 7: SUJIT PADHAN


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Board – Dr. TCA Anant

      Duration – 15-17 min

      Medium – English

      Hobbies – Reading Fiction, Travelling

      Interview Marks – 124/200


      I reached Delhi two days prior to the Interview. The next day I carried out a dry run from the hotel to UPSC Bhavan. I did this to get a familiarity of the route and reach the premise on time on the day of interview. I was relaxed after this.

      I reached UPSC Bhavan on 20th July, 2021 around 12:30 pm. The candidates were allowed to enter UPSC premise at 1 pm. After the security check up, we were given kits regarding COVID-19 appropriate behaviour. The package consisted of hand-gloves, sanitiser, face mask, face shield. We were made to wear these things. All our personal masks, sanitisers were deposited in the locker-room. Then, we were ushered into a hall where document verification was carried out.

      The interviews started at 2 pm. There were three boards for ISS interview. Six candidates were interviewed by each board. I was interviewed second in my group. After waiting for 20 minutes, I was escorted to the interview hall. I had to wear face mask and shield during the interview. No pen/paper was allowed inside.


      The interview panel consisted of Chairperson Dr. TCA Anant (CP), Madam 1 (M1), Madam 2 (M2) and the other Sir (SR). When I took my seat after greeting them, they first confirmed with me about my career path as it was unusual (From Civil Engineering to Finance to Statistics).

      The interview continued as below:

      CP: What was your role at CRISIL Limited?

      Me: Briefed him about my role

      CP: Why did you switch to Statistics instead of pursuing MBA after your job?

      Me: I have a love for numbers and I like analysing data from my childhood. In spare time, I do personal analysis. I have been doing this for a decade. This has helped me in improving myself. I want to implement the same on the job. Also, I want to help the poor and rural people of India by socio-economic planing and policy formulation. I believe ISS to be the best platform where I can showcase my helping nature and passion for statistics.


      M1: Why did you take a job at CRISIL after pursuing Civil Engineering from IIT Kharagpur?

      Me: Very few core companies visited the campus. I applied to various non-core companies and got selected at CRISIL.

      M1: So, you completed your MSc recently. Tell us what all subjects did you study there?

      Me: Statistical Inference, Regression Analysis, Multivariate Analysis, Linear Models, Time Series Analysis.........

      M1: (i) What is Regression Analysis?

      (ii) Describe Least Squares Method.

      (iii) What are the components of Time Series?

      (iv) Define Moving Average.

      (v) Differentiate between Seasonal and Cyclic variations.

      (vi) What are complementary goods?

      Me: I fumbled a couple of times while answering these questions. I feel that I did not give satisfactory answers to some questions.


      SR: Tell me about Ratha Yatra.

      Me: Ratha Yatra is an annual festival associated with Lord Jagannath. It is celebrated in Odisha. The most famous Ratha Yatra is held at Puri. The deities Lord Jagannath, Maa Subhadra and Lord Balabhadra visit their Mausi’s place, Gundicha Temple.It is celebrated for nine days in the Hindu month of Ashadha. Today is the last day of the festival and is known as Bahuda Yatra.

      (My eldest brother, Sudam Dada, suggested me to prepare for this question as it was very much expected)

      SR: Who was Shri Chaitanya?

      Me: Shri Chaitanya was a Vaishnavite in the 15th-16th centuries. He was a Krishna (an incarnation of Lord Vishnu) devotee and was a prominent figure in Bhakti movement in eastern India (predominantly in Odisha and Bengal).

      SR: Very good.

      Me: Thank you, Sir.


      M2: Can you tell us about the prasad at Jagannath Temple, Puri?

      Me: The prasad at Jagannath Temple is known as Abadha. This is also called Chhappana Bhoga as 56 different dishes are included in the prasad.

      It is also famous for the way in which it is prepared. The various pots are stacked one on the top of another and are ignited. Usually the heating should start from the bottom (Bottom up). But in the case, the pot at the top gets warm first and the others get warm in a top-down manner.

      M2: What are your views on Artificial Intelligence?

      Me: Artificial Intelligence is the future of automation. It is a good servant and bad master. If we use it for the betterment of the humanity, the world would achieve great heights. On the other hand, if it is used for destruction, it would not take much time to annihilate the planet.


      CP: (Looked at the wall clock) Your interview is over.

      Me: Thank you, Sir. Thank you, Mams. Thank you, Sir.


      Relevant Links:



      RANK 8: ANCHAL JAIN


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Ms. Smita Nagaraj

      Duration – 25 min

      Medium – English

      Interview Marks – 128/200


      Questions:

      1. Why do you want to be ISS having PG in Bio-statistics?
      2. Difference between Statistics and Bio-statistics
      3. Questions on COVID-19:
        • How are trials conducted?
        • Can we compare data of several vaccines?
        • What is meant by efficacy of a vaccine?
      4. What is machine learning?
      5. Questions on non-parametric methods
      6. Bio-statistics: survival, hazard rate, life table
      7. Questions on Numerical Analysis: Why do we use Simpson's rule?
      8. Questions on Official Statistics (Since I did internship at Field Operations Division (FOD), Lucknow):
        • What work did you do there?
        • Which surveys are conducted?
        • How is the quality of data collected at ground level?
        • Time Use Survey (TUS): Objective of TUS and its duration
      9. How to improve the quality of medical data?
      10. Any software learned at the university?
      11. Difference between population growth rate and rate of population growth.
      As I did PG in Bio-statistics so most of the questions were based on that.


      Relevant Link:


      Back to Index



      RANK 9: KIRTI ARORA


      Date – 19th Apr. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Duration – 30 min

      Medium – English

      Hobby – Mental Mathematics

      Interview Marks – 118/200


      The board consisted of 3 members and Chairperson (CP). They made me really comfortable and asked me how my day was. Then the interview began with chairperson asking first:


      CP:

      1. Tell us about yourself.
      2. He asked me about the work I was doing ( since it was very different from usual, I was a data science freelancer).
      3. What softwares do you and use and how the mechanism works?
      4. About the ethical aspect of my work.
      5. How work force of USA is different from that of India?
      6. How does education affect us as individuals?


      M1:

      I had MSc in Operations Research (OR). So, he asked me questions from the same:

      1. What is dual programming? Give one example..
      2. How does duality affect optimality?
      3. How and why are artificial variables used?
      4. Why and when to use branch and bound method?


      M2:

      1. What are alpha value, p-value and how are they related to each other?
      2. Concepts of hyper-geometric, binomial, poison and normal distributions.
      3. How would you define and formulate alternate hypothesis?
      4. He gave me certain conditions and asked me which distribution was to be applied in such scenario.


      M3:

      1. What is sociology economics?
      2. Who is the director of MOSPI (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation)?
      3. Why was MOSPI recently in news?
      4. (I had mental Maths as hobby ) Tell me if the number 1234567 is prime or not.
      5. Explain the process of solving the previous question.


      Back to Index


      RANK 10: SUTAPA GHOSH


      Date – 19th Jul. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Dr. TCA Anant

      Medium – English

      Hobby – Swimming

      Interview Marks – 116/200


      Questions:

      CP:

      1. Why ISS?
      2. What does an ISS officer do?
      3.  Importance of ISI (Indian Statistical Institute)?
      4.  Details of previous job.


      M1:

      1. Questions on Hobby (I mentioned swimming).
      2. Olympics 2021
      3. How will you treat your seniors and juniors if you face any problem?... Cite incidents if you have faced similar situation in bank?


      M2:

      1. How will you use statistics in analysing COVID related data.
      2. Basic questions on collection of data
      3. Sampling, Estimation, sigma limits


      M3:

      Opinion based questions on:

      1. Importance of sports in women's life.
      2. If you were an administrator,  what steps would you take?
      3. Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

      Relevant Links:




      RANK 11: HARSHVARDHAN SINGH GARHWAL


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Board – Shri RN Choubey

      Members – Chairperson (CP), Panellist 1 (P1), Panellist 2 (P2), Panellist 3 (P3)

      Medium – English

      Interview Marks – 120/200


      Before entering I reminded myself to stay alive and smile. After entering I wished all board-members and the chairperson offered me the seat.


      CP: Harshvardhan Singh Garhwal. So Harsh, do you have any COVID-19 symptoms?

      Me: No, Sir

      CP: Did you meet any COVID positive in recent days?

      Me: No, Sir

      CP: Fine. You may take off your mask.

      (I removed my mask)

      CP: Harsh, this is a personality test. Consider us as your friends. Please be relaxed. Take your chair a bit forward. There is no compulsion of answering every question. In fact we will be surprised if you answer all the questions. And if you are not able to hear or comprehend the question, then please do not hesitate in asking to repeat the question. So shall we start?

      Me: Yes Sir

      CP: Please tell about your education and job experience.

      Me: Sir, I chose statistics as a core subject in my higher education. I did B.Sc. (Honours) Statistics from Kirori Mal College and M.Sc. Statistics from Hindu college, both in Delhi University. I interned at Pratham Education Foundation, which is one of the largest NGOs in our country. My work consisted of data analysis. Apart from this, I have experience at various other positions. I served as the General Secretary of college students’ union. I have been a member of the 2nd oldest debating society of our country, i.e., KMC’s. 

      CP: And which is the oldest society? 

      Me: Sir, St. Stephens College. 

      Chairperson smiled and asked me to continue. 

      Me: I also have organised various guest lectures at university and college levels.

      CP: If I toss a coin 1000 times and it results in head all 1000 times. What is the probability that 1001st toss will give a head?

      Me: Sir, I think we must check the biasedness of the coin and find the probability of a head.

      CP: Coin is unbiased and probability of getting a head or tail is half.

      Me: Sir, then my answer is half for getting the head in event of 1001st toss.

      CP: Okay. But what if 1 million people toss an unbiased coin 1000 times and every one gets a head?

      Me: I tried to use the concept of independence and answered accordingly, but Sir complicated the question further. I chose to move to next questions and answered, “Sorry Sir, I am unable to find the answer.” But from then I got very nervous. I answered every question very carefully and sometimes took more time.


      P1: Harshvardhan, do you know about National Health Mission?

      Me: Sir I only have an idea. I know that 2-3 years back Ayushman Bharat was announced in the financial budget and it is a part of National Health Mission. I know more about Ayushman Bharat, Sir.

      P1: Do you know about CMIE? What is its full form?

      Me: Yes, Sir. CMIE stands for Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. It is a private statistical organisation that releases important statistics on Indian economy.

      P1: There is NSO (National Statistics Office) which brings out PLFS - Periodic Labour Force Survey. CMIE also generates unemployment data. Which one would you choose between these?

      Me: Sir, NSO has a rich history. It is formed by recognised statisticians. It has made its own credibility. Whereas CMIE is very new. Very recently economists have criticised its Consumer Pyramid Survey for biasedness. So I would prefer NSO’s PLFS because of its credibility but I will not ignore CMIE because it is also a growing organisation.

      P1: Good answer (Some relief to me). Do you know MSP - Minimum Support Price? Which organisation decides MSP?

      Me: Yes Sir, CACP (Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices) recommends MSP.

      P1: But who decides?

      Me: Sir, CACP recommends and government decides.

      P1: Which organisation or body of the government?

      Me: Sir, I am not sure but I think it is Ministry of Agriculture.

      P1: Correct. What is the MSP of wheat?

      Me: Sir, I do not know. Can I make a guess? (Sir nodded). I think it is Rs. 1900 approximately. Rs. 1900 per quintal.

      P1: Yes, correct. What is the total wheat production in India?

      Me: Sorry Sir, I don’t know.

      P1: Any idea about total food grain production?

      Me: Sorry Sir I don’t know (nervous now).

      P1: In which crop, do we have deficiency?

      Me: These days we are importing a lot of edible oil. This is causing inflation due to its rising global prices. Definitely we are importing because we have deficiency. So I would say oil-seeds.

      P1: Any idea about pulses?

      Me: No, Sir.

      P1: And which food grain crops are we deficient in terms of production?

      Me: We are getting production deficiency in local crops like Makka in Punjab and Bajra in Rajasthan. This is happening because we are shifting towards wheat and rice.

      P1: Do you know about poverty line?

      Me: Yes, Sir. It is a criterion to decide whether a person is poor or not. There are two methods: income based and calorie based. The latest poverty line adopted is given by Suresh Tendulkar Committee (He nodded).

      P1: What is the poverty line in India?

      Me: Sorry Sir. I am unable to recall.


      P2: You know about gold and silver. How will you find if their prices are related?

      Me: Ma’am, we can find through correlation coefficient and linear regression.

      P2: What do you think – are these positively are negatively related?

      Me: Through past observations of prices I can say positively related.

      P2: Any guess about the value of correlation coefficient? 0 to 0.5 or 0.5 to 1?

      Me: (After taking some time) 0.5 to 1.

      P2: What is canonical correlation?

      Me: It is the maximum correlation between linear combinations of two random vectors.

      P2: What is partial correlation coefficient? How can we find it?

      Me: Madam, these are elements of the Sigma(11.2) matrix. (I forgot to tell the exact definition)

      P2: What are the benefits of canonical correlation and principal component?

      Me: Both canonical correlation and principal component are methods of dimension reduction. These are beneficial in dealing with big data.

      P2: Is simple correlation coefficient a case of canonical correlation?

      Me: Ma’am, I think it is but I am not sure.

      P2: And is multiple correlation a case of canonical correlation?

      Me: Yes, Ma’am. It is a case of canonical correlation.


      P3: You mentioned Ayushmann Bharat. What is this scheme?

      Me: Ayushmann Bharat is a government scheme that offers insurance to 10 crore families. The insurance cover is of Rs. 5 lakh. It is meant to reduce the burden on public health institutions and make health accessible and affordable. I also think that this scheme will lead to increase in investment in health sector.

      P3: You worked in education related NGO. But there is a general tendency of NGOs to show that government institutes do not provide good education. How to get a clear picture?

      Me: Sir, I agree that we do not have a clear picture of our education system. I can say this because both my parents have been teachers. To have a clear picture we can have surveys on line of ASER (Annual Status of Educational Report) which is conducted by Pratham. More powers should also be given to District Education Officer.

      P3: Do you know about Skill India?

      Me: Yes, Sir. I have some idea through a lecture of the MD & CEO of NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation) which I organised when I was the General Secretary at college. This is a scheme that works on improving the skill set of country’s youth. It can give the best use of our demographic dividend.

      P3: Suggest a method to find who is deserving or non-deserving for this scheme.

      Me: Sir, the core idea of Skill India is to make a non-deserving into a deserving one. I do not think that there should be any such restriction. Instead, we can have methods to know the specialisation or interest field of a candidate.


      CP: Do you want to share any experience or idea related to your field?

      Me: (Thought a bit. But nothing substantial was coming.) No, Sir.

      CP: Thank you, Harsh.


      PS: This is the original transcript of my interview. If you find any incorrect answer please mail me at harshvardhan.garhwal.stats@gmail.com

      I have scored only average marks. Definitely, you should not completely adopt this approach. Learn and modify. Best wishes.


      Relevant Links:




      RANK 13: BHAVNA MISHRA


      Date – 22nd Jul. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Ms. Smita Nagaraj

      Medium – English

      Hobbies – Making innovative items using waste materials and Diary writing

      Interview Marks – 112/200


      These are the questions which were asked in my interview of ISS 2020:

      1. What are you doing at present?
      2. What is your Plan- B for your career?
      3. In MSc , what was your favourite subject?
      4. You belong to Uttar Pradesh, so can you tell us some positive points about UP? 
        • I said agriculture, because contribution of agriculture in State Domestic Product is close to 24% and human resource
      5. You are saying population is a positive point for UP. Give us some statement to support your point.
        • Ans: Demographic dividend can be a positive point, as UP has younger population in the working age group 15-60. So these people will contribute to our economy.
      6. Axiomatic definition of probability.
      7. What is the probability that this fan will fall and how will you find it?
      8. Definitions of Subjective probability and Geometric probability.
      9. Difference between 2 stage and double sampling schemes?
      10. Difference between Cluster and Strata?
      11. Can you explain ratio in stratified sampling scheme?
      12. 6 sigma limit.
      13. Snowball sampling.
      14. Difference between real and nominal GDP.
      15. Have you heard about some index related to GDP in which environment is included? If yes, then name the index.?
        • Ans: Green index
      16. Sigma field in measure theory.
      17. Per capita income of India and UP.
      18. What is the relation between Lorentz curve and Gini coefficient?
      19. If Gini coefficient is 0 and 1, then what does it mean and if it is 0.4 and 0.7, then what must be the interpretation of this?
      20. Name the parameters of HDI (Human Development Index)?
      21. What is the current HDI value of India and UP?
      22. Do you know any survey which measures weekly unemployment rate?
      23. What is Periodic labour force survey (PLFS)?
      24. What have you made from waste material? (Hobby related)
      25. Have you done some project in MSc? What was that?
      26. What was the sample size taken in your project?
      27. You've studied Physics in BSc. So, tell us some uses of Statistics in Physics.

      ISS 2018 Interview Questions:

      1. Your hobby is making crafts using waste materials. Can you explain the problems of waste materials and how to overcome them?
        • Ans: Soil pollution is a big problem and waste is being one of the major reason for it, using organic farming can be a solution to overcome it.
      2. In which state, organic farming is currently going on?
      3. Some questions were from some current affairs topics:
        • In which states elections are going on? (Telangana was one of the states where elections were about to held)
        • What is the capital of Telangana? 
        • What is famous in Hyderabad?
        • Is there any link between Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Hyderabad?
      4. What is your favourite subject in Statistics?
      5. What are Statistic and parameter?
      6. What is sampling?
        • Stratified sampling.
        • Multistage sampling.
        • Cluster sampling.
      7. What is the difference between chance and assignable causes of variation in SQC (Statistical Quality Control)?
      8. What is NPA (Non-performing Asset)?
      9. Give any 2 statements to defend public sector banks?



      RANK 14: DIVYANSHU MISHRA


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Shri RN Choubey

      Duration – 25-30 min

      Medium – English

      Interview Marks – 125/200


      Questions:

      1. GDP growth:
        • Why is it not a good measure?
        • How does it works?
        • What does it mean?
        • Methods and their differences.
        • Why is it the best?
        • Which method is the best? What is its formula?
      2. IIP (Index of Industrial Production) and GDP relationship.
      3. Why production methods?
      4. What is private final capital expenditure?
      5. Real vs nominal GDP
      6. DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer)
      7. Case study for school children
      8. Government plans for MOSPI (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation)
      9. Remote sensing in mining
      10. Inference questions:
        • Error
        • Type A (Type I) CR (Critical Region)
        • Power
        • Randomised test
      11. Give a speech on any statistical topic for 5 minutes (Delivered on CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) vs NSO (National Statistics Office) methodology)



      RANK 15: SHIKHA RAI


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Ms. Smita Nagaraj

      Medium – English

      Interview Marks – 130/200


      Questions:

      1. If Govt. wants to transfer direct benefit in the form of cash to the accounts of the families who have lost their jobs during the pandemic and are the only sole bread earners of their families, what is the existing source of data that we can refer to to identify such people? Consider that we are not doing any additional surveys/registrations and we have to identify the people from the existing resources.
      2. You have got the job, you are well settled. Then, what do you see yourself doing as an ISS officer?
      3. About Numerical Analysis: Numerical integration
      4. When do ratio and regression estimators are equal? Where do we use both? What is the difference between them?
      5. What is the power of a test ? What is MPCR?
      6. What are you doing right now?
      7. About the RBI internship.
      8. Macroeconomic indicators: Repo rate, Reverse repo rate, SLR (Statutory Liquidity Ratio), CRR (Cash Reserve Ratio)
      9. What is inflation and RBI's contribution in managing it?
      10. RBI's statistical publications
      11. Difference between stratified and cluster samplings
      12. We have to evaluate the progress of a particular scheme, say, Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan. How would we do it? We also need to find the drop out rates and the reasons for the drop out.
      13. How to monetise data?
      14. Will you sell public data to the private companies for money? What if it is an anonymous data?
      15. What motivates you? 
      16. Something about yourself which is not in the DAF (Detailed Application Form). 



      RANK 17: NEETESH KUMAR MISHRA


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Ms. Smita Nagaraj

      Duration – 25 min

      Medium – English

      Hobby – Cooking

      Interview Marks – 114/200


      Questions

      1. What are you doing at present ?
      2. Why two-year gap ?
      3. Is there any match between data availability and data utilisation?
        • If there is a mismatch, then give a simple example.
      4. What has changed in statistics in last 100 years?
      5. Name 3 statisticians whose contributions you consider important.
        • What are the major contributions of these 3 statisticians?
      6. What are the latest tools to deal with huge amount of data ? Have you used any of them ?
      7. What is vector subspace ?
      8. What is the contribution of Prof. CR Rao in statistics?
      9. What is CR Rao inequality? What does it give us ?
      10. What do we call an estimator which attains CR Rao lower bound?
      11. If an estimator is unbiased as well as it attains CR Rao lower bound, then what will it be called?
      12. Define SRSWR and SRSWOR (Simple Random Sampling with and without Replacement). Which one is better and why ?
      13. What is axiomatic probability? By whom was it given? Tell us the three axioms of probability.
      14. What is block-chain technology?
      15. Is tampering of data possible in block-chain??
      16. If you are posted in DES (Directorate of Economics and Statistics), Lucknow what project or task will you undertake as a statistician?
      17. If you have to use statistics for improving the quality of life of people in your district what statistics will you use?
      18. What will you do with the data you've collected through various surveys?
      19. How will you detect the level of poverty in the society?
      20. What is consumer expenditure survey?
      21. What is multidimensional poverty index? Who publishes it?
        • What are the parameters involved?
      22. What was your rank in intermediate examination?
      23. In how many subjects did you score 100 marks?
      24. Maximum and minimum marks scored in intermediate examination.
      25. To estimate the number of houses in your locality which sampling-scheme will you use?
      26. If the sampling units are moving from one place to another, in this case which sampling scheme will you use ?
      27. What are livelihood Census and agricultural Census?
      28. What is the per capita income of India?
      29. What are population growth and rate of natural increase?



      RANK 18: VASUMANA PUNJ


      Date – 19th Apr. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Ms. Smita Nagaraj

      Medium – English

      Hobbies – Writing short snippets of Poetry and Practising Yoga

      Interview Marks – 146/200 (Highest)


      Questions:

      1. What are the statistical techniques used to design exit polls and how effective are they?
      2. Difference between efficiency and precision.
      3. How can you improve public trust in national statistics?
      4. Tell me about your role in your current organisation (Job Profile).
      5. The role of Sustainable Development Goals in national statistics. How are they computed?
      6. What is the response of economy in terms of IIP and CPI due to COVID-19? How can this be tackled?
      7. What is your take on change of base year in GDP calculation and what is its impact?
      8. What is the difference between operational research and observational research?
      9. Tell me more about operational research.
      10. t-test, ANOVA, goodness of fit tests.
      11. What are the basic factors considered while deciding a sample size?
      12. What are CPI, IIP? What are their calculation techniques and data sources used in the calculation?
      13. Tell me about MSP of any food-grain.
      14. Which is the farmer scheme that gives direct benefit transfer to the farmers?
      15. Which quarter in 2020 reported the lowest GDP?
      16. Why do you want to do ISS?
      17. What is the use of statistics in public welfare?

      Relevant Links:




      RANK 19: KUMAR SKAND

      Date – 19th Jul. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Dr. TCA Anant

      Duration – 30 min

      Medium – English

      Hobby – Badminton, Reading

      Interview Marks – 116/200


      Questions:

      Chairperson (CP):

      1. Some questions about my background, gap in career, NET, other exams I had appeared in etc.
      2. Which part of statistics are you interested in? (Probability)
      3. Give some applications of probability for our country.

      M1:

      1. You are from DAV. Give the full form (Dayanand Anglo Vedic). How was it established?
      2. How many Vedas are there? Name them.
      3. What does Vedas say about caste system? (I answered varna system is in Vedas bit it depends not on birth)
      4. What was the view of Ambedakar on caste system?
      5. Who was Ambedakar? (Answered writer of constitution) Asked for more answer about other aspects.

      CP: What can you say about the education of Ambedkar? 
      Me: He was a PhD from Berkeley (right answer was Columbia).
      Some more discussion about him between me, Chairman and M1.

      M2:
      1. You are interested in probability. Name some distributions.
      2. Which is the most common distribution? (Normal) Why? (CLT)
      3. What is the relationship between normal and poisson distribution? (Limiting case but she was not satisfied. Asked for the difference between them but I was unable to answer.)
      4. You have complex analysis as a subject. Can you give some applications? (Mentioned about their uses in probability)

      CP:
      1. What are complex numbers? What is the need for them? (Mentioned about the need for solutions of quadratic equations)
      2. How do you represent a complex number? (I answered about the three ways and then asked about Argand plane and drew the diagram)


      M3:

      1. Can you calculate the probability of the rain stopping in next half an hour? (I tried various definitions and got nowhere after some time. She said, "Let me ask you a simple question."
      2. Can you calculate the probability of you clearing the interview? (I said that it depended on my marks in written. After long back and forth I answered that total 150 students had been called for interview and 50 would be selected, so my probability would be 1 by 3 assuming equal chances. She agreed and asked what this method was called. I said total number of favourable outcomes by total number of outcomes.)

      CP: What is the name of this approach? (I said I didn't know)
      M3: Was statistics used in vedic time and ancient India? (I gave some examples)


      Back to Index



      RANK 20: ARCHANA SHUKLA


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Board – Dr. TCA Anant

      Medium – English

      Hobby – Watching Short Films

      Interview Marks – 122/200


      Questions:

      1. Introduce yourself.
      2. Which discipline of statistics do you like and why?
      3. Which statistic will you use to reach any conclusion in the testing of hypothesis?
      4. What is p-value?
      5. What is the difference between one-tailed and two-tailed tests?
      6. What is the difference between a statistic and a parameter?
      7. What is the contribution of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar? In UP, do you think marginalised sections have been given required privileges?
      8. What is disaster management?
      9. Which authority (particularly department) is there for disaster management?
      10. What is the cycle for disaster management?
      11. What have you learned from NSS camping and scout guides?
      12. What have you learned from the workshop on data analytics on R? 
      13. If you have been given a chance to make India equivalent to a developed country, what will you do?
      14. What do you mean by Education? (This question is related to the previous answer)
      15. What can be your role as a Statistician in this case?

      RANK 23: NIGAR FATMA


      Date – 19th Jul. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Board – Ms. Smita Nagaraj

      Medium – Mixed (Hindi and English both)

      Hobbies – Making crafts using household waste and Calligraphy

      Interview Marks – 128/200


      These are the questions which were asked in my interview of ISS 2020:

      1st Interviewer (M1):

      M1: What are you doing at present?

      Ans: Working as a subject expert in Chegg and course hero.

      M1: Earning?

      Ans: 3 dollar per question.

      Me: You've done internship from MOSPI. What was the process of data collection, from where have you taken the data and what were the commodities on which you have collected your data?

      Ans: For WPI , I've collected data from Mandi. And commodities were like wheat, rice and pulses.

      For price index we used Laspeyer's formula.


      Next interviewer  (M2):

      You have done internship .... Your 20 minutes of interview will be based on internship.

      M2: जब बेटा आपने internship में इतना interesting काम किया था, ground level पर data वगैरह collect किया था, क्यों नहीं फिर आप data के base पर कोई business start की? (When you did such an interesting work in your internship, collected data at the ground level, then why did not you start a business on the basis of the data?)

      Ans: MSc के बाद मैंने preparation start कर दी थी ISS की। तो  direction कोई change नहीं की मैंने। (I had started ISS preparation after MSc. So, I did not change any direction.)

      M2: Govt agencies के अलावा कोई private agency India में data के base पर कुछ काम करती है? (Apart from the Govt. agencies, is there any private agency in India which works on the basis of the data?)

      Ans: Yes Sir. Flipkart, Myntra, Amazon - ये सब customers के data के base पर उनकी choice के according products के advertisement करते हैं + festive season पर SALE भी data के base पर decide करते हैं। (Yes, Sir. Flipkart, Myntra, Amazon - these companies advertise about the products according to the choices of the customers based on the data collected from them (customers). Also, the companies decide on the festive season SALES on the basic of the data)

      M2: Very good!

      M2: अगर तुम्हे data के base पर अपने area में business करना हो तो कैसे करोगी और budget कितना चाहिए होगा? (If you have to do a business in your area based on the data, how would you do it and what would be the budget for the same?)

      Ans: अगर market छोटी है तो costumer choice के according product लाऊंगी और 2-3 लाख रुपये में start-up कर सकती हूँ। अगर market बड़ी है और competition ज्यादा है, तो ज्यादा पैसों की ज़रूरत पड़ेगी.... (If the market is small, then I would bring in the product(s) according to the customers' choices and build a start-up for Rs. 2-3 lakh. If the market is big and competition is more, then more amount of money would be required....)

      M2: Well done.


      3rd Interviewer (M3):

      1. Difference between correlation and regression.
      2. What are vector space and sub space?
      3. How will you determine in linear regression whether any particular variable is independent or dependent?
      4. What is the mathematical condition for independence of 2 events?
        • Ans: P (a and b) = P(a)*P(b)
      5. If any variables are mutually independent, then whether they would be pairwise independent or not?
      6. What are distribution and sampling distribution?
      7. Whether chi-square and t-distributions are sampling distributions or not.
      8. Systematic sampling scheme.
      9. Do you know Dalton??
      10. He asked me names of 2-3 statisticians/scientists.


      4th interviewer (M4):

      1. What is Gini's coefficient?
      2. If p = 0.3 and p = 0.6, then difference between incomes of the two cities?
      3. How to measure income inequality?
      4. Difference between monitoring and evaluation.
      5. Make a questionnaire or schedule for Immunisation of people in any area.


      Back to Index



      RANK 24: RAGHVENDRA PANDEY


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Board – Dr. TCA Anant

      Medium – English

      Home State – Uttar Pradesh (UP)

      Interview Marks – 140/200


      Since there were 4 members on the board including Chairperson (CP), I will address them as CP, M1, M2, and M3.


      At the beginning of the interview, Dr. TCA Anant Sir started talking about my educational qualification and professional experience.

      CP: You have worked with SGS and EXL Service. Describe, what have you done in those companies?

      Me: Sir, I worked on Propensity to default modelling, churn model, and attribution model in SGS.

      CP: So it is financial data where you are predicting the probability of default, right?

      Me: Yes

      CP: What are you doing in your current organisation?

      Me: In my current project, I am working on the identification of relevant calls using NLP and Deep Learning techniques. (I explained the meaning of ‘Relevant Calls’ in a detailed manner, I don’t think it’s needed here)

      CP: You have such a good rank in GATE. Are you planning for PhD?

      Me: Yes, I will pursue PhD.

      CP: You were associated with Tarun Shanti Sena and its wall magazine. Name some article that was published during your time.

      (Context: Tarun Shanti Sena is a debating society in Ewing Christian College, Allahabad which publishes its student-led wall magazine, Tarun Mitra.)

      Me: Sir, during my time we published articles on the Shikshamitra issue and Semester/annual system in college since during that time my college changed its Undergraduate courses from annual to semester system and lots of debate were happening on this issue.


      M1: How will you make your sample representative?

      Me: Ma’am, using Stratification (I explained the concept of Stratification in a detailed manner)

      M1: On what basis will you make strata?

      Me: That will depend upon Sampling Objective. If we want to take care of income heterogeneity then we can create strata on the basis of income. Similarly, we can create strata on the basis of gender, education too if required.

      M1: How will you improve stratified sampling.

      Me: Using multistage stratified sampling.

      M1: Do You know where multistage stratified sampling is used.

      Me: In NSSO Surveys.

      M1: What are the things that need to be considered while preparing the sampling questionnaire?

      Me: Questions in the sampling questionnaires should not be confusing it should be very precise.

      M1: And….. What about length?

      Me: Length shouldn’t very large.


      M2: So Raghvendra, you are from UP. Recently Panchayat election was conducted in UP. Tell me about the Panchayati Raj system. Who conducts the Panchayat election?

      Me: Panchayati raj system came into existence with the 73rd constitutional amendment. Panchayat elections are conducted by State Election Commission. Within a district, District Election Officer (DEO) is in charge of the election. DM works as DEO of the district.

      M2: What are the power of Gram Panchayats?

      Me: They work in the area of drinking water, rural roads, etc. Different government schemes like MNREGA and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana are implemented through Gram Panchayats.

      M2: What do you think, are they working properly?

      Me: Sir, I think they are working more efficiently now. In the past, there was some corruption in different schemes, but Direct Benefit Transfer has reduced the corruption up to a certain extent.


      M3: What do you know about the Pradhan-Pati system?

      Me: Ma’am, when seats are reserved for women in Panchayat elections, women win the election on paper but in reality, their husbands do all the work and work as a representative of Pradhan. This type of system is known as Pradhan-Pati.

      M3: How can we solve this problem?

      Me: This thing can be improved by women’s education. For example, in UP as well as in my district, the female literacy rate is very low. I think with the help of education, women empowerment will happen which will make the Pradhan-Pati system defunct. Government should make a law also that Pradhan-Pati can only participate as an ordinary citizen in Gram Panchayat’s work. Working as de-facto Pradhan should be made illegal.

      M3: What is your opinion on the love triangle?

      Me: …. love triangle?

      M3: Yes, love triangle. Okay, tell me what are the problems of youth?

      Me: Unemployment….

      M3: Okay. What about the problem of employed youth? Isn’t love triangle a problem? There are many cases of suicides due to this issue. How will you prevent suicide due to this reason?

      Me: Suicide is a mental health issue. In India, mental health is still taboo. There is a need for rapid expansion of mental health counselling centres. The second thing is that in India, parents and their offsprings often don’t talk about these issues. Parents should talk to them and behave like a friend so that they can know what’s going on in their minds and prevent any eventuality.

      M3: You have mentioned in your DAF (Detailed Application Form) that you write poems. Which type of poems do you write?

      Me: I write on social issues, love ….

      M3: Read one of your poems.

      (I was prepared for this question but I got stuck…)

      M3: It’s not a problem if you can’t recall.

      Me: Ma’am I can recall.

      मेरे शब्द अंदर ही अंदर घुटते हैं

      मै अपने शब्दों के दुर्भाग्य पर रोता हूँ

      वो कभी अपने इंगित जगह नहीं पहुंचे

      पिछले जन्म में वो ऐसे बादल रहे होंगे

      जो कभी नहीं बरसे

      M3: It’s a very pessimistic poem. (बहुत ही निराशावादी कविता है।)

      M3: Thank you, you can go now.

      The End.


      Relevant Links:


      Back to Index



      RANK 31: RANJANA SAINI


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Dr. TCA Anant

      Duration – 25-30 min

      Medium – English

      Hobby – Mehendi Designing

      Interview Marks – 110/200


      Questions:

      1. Basic interaction about my DAF (Detailed Application Form)by Anant Sir.
      2. First few questions were about my internship at MOSPI like:
        • In which division (NAD) I was working
        • What were the findings from the survey that I worked upon?
        • (The discussion on this topic was around 10 min)
      3. What is the relationship between two lines (in terms of slopes)?
      4. Definitions of Standard deviation and Variance.
      5. What is an unbiased test?
      6. Situation based question: Will you be angry if your juniors gets promoted but you are not?
      7. How would you determine the condition of women in your district?
        • Which statistical tool will you use for that?
      8. Hobby: Is there any relation between mehendi and Sawan (Rainy) season as many people prefer to apply it during this season?
      9. Hobby: Where is designing used in Statistics?
      10. What was the most significant thing during the recent NFHS (National Family Health) survey?
      11. What policies will you make for the malnourished children?

      Relevant Link:



      RANK 32: AMIT KUMAR

      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Medium – English

      Interview Marks – 107/200


      Questions:

      1. Give your introduction.
      2. What are you doing at present?
      3. Why you want to be in ISS?
      4. What is a system of simultaneous equations? How will you estimate its parameters?
      5. What is Generalised linear model?
      6. What is heteroscedasticity? How will you test it?
      7. Which test will you use to test equality between two regression parameters?
      8. What are TFR, GRR, ASFR?
      9. How will you obtain TFR from ASFR?
      10. What is life expectation?
      11. What is life expectation in India?
      12. What is an index number?
      13. What are the base years of IIP, CPI, GDP?
      14. What is Service price index number?
      15. Name different cropping seasons in India.
        • Give examples of crops grown in these seasons.
      16. What is interest subvention?
      17. Give any example of interest subvention scheme announced by the government?
      18. How will you study whether interest subvention scheme has benefited MSMEs?
      19. Through which route state governments borrow from RBI ?
      20. Some more questions from economy as I was working at RBI.



      RANK 34: PRASU JAIN


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Board – Ms. Sujata Mehta

      Duration – 25-30 min

      Medium – English

      Hobby – Blogging

      Interview Marks – 122/200


      Questions:

      Sujata Ma'am (CP): 

      (First she asked me to sit and made me very comfortable)

      1. What is the meaning of your name?
      2. Did you do the mentioned internship during your graduation?
      3. What are you doing these days?
      4. What you do with your salary/earned money?
      5. Are you aware of the report published on the status of women in India?
        • Have you really read these reports?
        • Tell me the parameters which are used to show the status of women in these reports.
      6. If you have to measure the well being of women in India, then which parameters would you use?
      7. Do you know about LFPR?
      8. Now tell me again the parameters that you would use to measure the well being of women?
      9. What is the difference between TFR and GFR?

      M1:

      1. What is SQC?
      2. Who invented the control charts?
      3. What are process control and product control?
      4. What are Type 1 and Type 2 errors?
        • Examples of both. 
      5. (Follow up questions from SQC which I do not remember)

      M2:

      1. What is PPS sampling?
        1. Example of it.
      2. Is PPS sampling random?
      3. What is crop cutting experiment?
      4. General crop estimation survey.
      5. What is the use of Crop cutting experiment?
      6. What is significance level and its general value?
      7. One case study on crop survey and then he asked me which tool I would use.
      8. If population size is 50, then what would you use: sample or census?
      9. Use of statistics in Blogging (my hobby) 
      10. (Follow up questions I don't remember)

      M3:
      (He was in the grilling mode)

      1. Have you heard about big data? What is it and its uses?
      2. What is the role of a statistician when everyone can use statistical software?
      3. A doctor is also doing X-ray and reading data from it, but he is not a statistician. Then how would you justify the role of a statistician?
      4. Now tell me again why we need statisticians?
      5. Tell me some recent research/technological innovations in the field of statistics. (Based on the answer of previous question)

      Chairperson (CP) Ma'am: Thank you, Prasu . Your interview is over. You can go now.


      Relevant Link:




      RANK 35: DIMPAL YADAV

      Date – 19th Apr. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Duration – 25 min

      Medium – English

      Interview Marks – 114/200


      Questions:

      1. Questions based on gap period.
      2. Syllabus of BSc.
      3. I'm working as an assistant teacher. That's why most of the questions were based on basic education.
      4. What is women empowerment?
      5. What is Ujjwala scheme ?
      6. What is the correct process of learning ?
      7. Statistics questions:
        • Sampling distribution
        • Statistic
        • Estimate
        • Estimator
        • WPI
        • Inflation
        • CPI
        • Real wage based questions
      8. Why do you want to become ISS? You are already working as an assistant teacher which is the best job.



      RANK 36: ANIMESHI KUMAR


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Board – Shri RN Choubey

      Duration – 25 min

      Medium – English

      Educational background – MSc in Statistics from University of Allahabad

      Home State – Uttar Pradesh (UP)

      Hobbies – Playing Cricket, Socialising with Friends

      Interview Marks – 117/200


      I was the first person to go in.

      There were 4 members (Chairperson and 3 other members) in the interview panel, I will call them CP, M1, M2(Lady member) and M3.

      I reached UPSC Bhavan around 12:10 PM. First there were many security checks and briefings. Then, they made us wait in the waiting room. A peon would call you as your turn comes. We were seated in rows due to the COVID-19 norms rather than in a circular table. In meantime of document verification and other process I went to washroom to have a final glance of my dress and hair. Since I was the first one to go in I didn’t have to wait for long time. Merely after 10 minutes there was an assistant who called me and when we were heading towards conference hall I asked him about the board and he said R.N. Choubey Sir was the chairman. I waited approximately 10 minutes outside that conference hall noticing everything which was around that place, having various thoughts in mind like "Animeshi, you are not the first one who is facing all these things. Each and every officer has gone through the same stage and those people who are going to take your interview also have gone through the same process." Thoughts like these were helping to remain calm. Finally, the bell rang.

      Before entering I tried my best to stay calm, confident and cheerful. After entering I wished all board members and the chairperson offered me the seat.


      CP: Animeshi Kumar. So Animeshi, do you have any COVID symptoms like cough, cold or anything?

      Me: No, Sir.

      CP: Did you meet any COVID positive in last 10-15 days?

      Me: No, Sir.

      CP: Fine. You may take off your mask.


      *I removed my mask

      CP: Animeshi, this is a personality test. Consider us as your friends. Please be relaxed. There is no compulsion of answering every question. We all know that that it is not possible for a person to know everything. So be direct if you don’t know anything. And if you are not able to hear or comprehend the question, then please do not hesitate in asking to repeat the question. So, shall we start?

      Me: Yes Sir

      CP: Please tell us about your education and job experience, if any.

      Me: Sir, my name is Animeshi Kumar and I completed my schooling from a small town named Gola Gokarannath in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh state. After that I went to Bareilly College, Bareilly to pursue graduation and later I went to University of Allahabad, Prayagraj to enrol in my post-graduation programme; after that I joined Field Operation Division of National Sample Survey Office as a Field Officer where I collected primary data for government of India in Time Use Survey Scheme.

      CP: In which scheme?

      Me: Sir, in time use survey scheme. This survey was conducted for the first time by NSSO from 1st January 2019 to 31st December 2019. In this scheme, our objective was to calculate time disposition of household members in paid and unpaid activities.


      *CP nodded and said OK Animeshi.

      CP: So Animeshi, how would you calculate monthly income of a household?

      Me: Sir, it depends upon what kind of household it is. If members of the household are regular salaried employees, the salary slips of members will do the job for us and we can calculate it easily. If in case the members of household don’t have salaried income, suppose the household solely depends upon agriculture, then we will try to estimate the income with the help of the imputed value of agricultural product(s) they sold in the market as well as they use for own consumption.


      *CP interrupted me here

      CP: What if the household consists of 1 casual wage labourer as the head who doesn’t have a regular place of employment; his wife who does domestic duties only and 5 children who are students now. How would you calculate it?

      Me: Yes, Sir. I faced situation like this while calculating monthly expenditure of households during the survey. For a situation like this, I would ask him (head) how many days he had worked in the last 30 days and how much he was paid, whether he was paid in cash only or paid in cash and kind. With the help of these we would calculate it.

      CP: Are these the only factors you will consider?

      Me: No Sir, the imputed value of the thing he received as a free collection or gift will also be taken into account. For example, in present time of COVID-19, government is providing free ration. So the imputed value of such collection will also be taken into account.

      CP: Suppose there is a household who owns a poultry farm only, nothing else. All he has are hens in his farm. Now, what will be the criteria?

      Me: Sir, again the imputed value of final product he sold in the market or he used for own consumption will we taken as a factor.

      CP: Will the final income be the difference of expenditure on that farm to raise hens and final monetary value of the product?

      Me: No Sir. We do not take expenditure into account while calculating income as it is not a net quantity. We take it into account when there are terms like profit are involved.

      CP: Animeshi, what will you do if a household doesn’t want to tell you all these things due to any reason?

      Me: Sir, first of all, I want to assure them that all the information will remain confidential and will be used for statistical purpose only. I will also tell them the objective clearly and why I am collecting the information.


      *CP interrupted again

      CP: No, he is completely in the mood that he will not tell you anything. What will you do? Will you leave him out or will fight with him to gain information?


      *at this question everyone laughed

      Me: No, Sir. I am not going to fight with them if a person is reluctant to give information. I will replace him with another household. Also data collected from such respondent is highly unreliable and has high likelihood of having non-sampling error. We can not collect data by putting quality of it on stake.


      *Chairman Sir indicated to Member 1 to ask questions.

      M1: Do you live in a village?

      Me: No, Sir.

      M1: So, you lived in an urban area?

      Me: Sir, my native place is a small-town area. But for last eight years I am living in urban areas.

      M1: So, you don’t know about agricultural things.

      Me: Sir, I don’t know about the exact process of cultivating a crop.


      * M1 interrupted

      M1: Do you know about wheat crop? What kind of crop is it?

      Me: *I thought for a few seconds and then replied "Sir, it is a Rabi crop."


      *M1 said to other members “He knows everything” and everyone had a sarcastic kind of smile

      M1: Which season of crop is currently in cycle?

      Me: Sir, currently Kharif season of crop is in cycle.

      M1: Tell me the names of some zaid crops.

      Me: Watermelon, cucumber, melons.

      M1: We often hear that this year the estimated production of wheat will be x metric tons. How are these estimates found?

      Me: Sir, these estimations are calculated with the help of crop estimation survey.

      M1: Tell me more about this.

      Me: Sir, in crop estimation survey we obtain an estimate of total production by multiplying yield rate to area under cultivation.


      *while giving example of this answer I fumbled a little bit in nervousness as I forgot few appropriate words. So I asked that whether I could explain in Hindi.

      CP: No Animeshi, speak in English only and we assure you that there will be no deduction in marks due to English speaking. We are not here to test your English. Take your time.


      *I explained a little bit and fortunately I didn’t fumble in my remaining interview.

      M1: Suppose you are the Registrar General of India and you are said to conduct census at a gap of 5 years only in place of a gap of 10 years. How will you respond? Will you say yes or no?

      Me: Sir I cannot say a straight yes or no. I will talk about this with other officers of my department.

      M1: No. You are the highest rank officer. It is you who has to take the decision. Tell me your decision: yes or no?

      Me: Yes, Sir. I might be the highest rank officer. But I still have to take a deep conversation on this as census has the widest area to cover and it is the largest scale data collection procedure. So, the feasibility of changing periodicity must be reviewed very carefully.

      M1: So you will give reasons like census took too much time to be conducted and there is also requirement of a lot of time and resources to prepare reports and all.

      Me: Yes, Sir

      M1: Do you know about land statistics?

      Me: Sorry, Sir. I will read about this.

      M1: Do you know about trade statistics?

      Me: Sorry, Sir. I don’t have any idea.

      M1: Do you know about Finance statistics?

      Me: Really sorry, Sir.


      (I said sorry on three consecutive answers because the member was slightly grilling me at each answer and I was not aware about these fields deeply. So, I tried to play safe here)


      *M1 was going to ask any other question but CP Sir indicated mam to ask questions.

      M2: Have you read time series?


      (At this question, I was like "Oh no God!" As I didn’t read time series for paper 3, I stick to my plan of studying econometrics and sampling only to the deepest possible level. But since time series is a part of compulsory paper, so I cannot say NO. Fortunately, I had brushed up the concepts before the interview)

      Me: Yes, mam.

      M2: What are the components of time series?

      Me: Mam, there are four components of time series: secular or long-term trend, seasonal trend, cyclic trend and irregular component.

      M2: What is the difference between seasonal and cyclic trends?

      Me: Mam, the main difference is periodicity. Seasonal trend is an oscillatory pattern which occurs with a period of less than or equal to one year while cyclic fluctuation occurs with more than one year gaps.

      M2: What is irregular component?

      Me: Mam, all the random factors which are beyond human control which affect the time series significantly are counted under random component. In present time, COVID-19 is an example of irregular component.

      M2: What do we do to remove seasonality from time series?

      Me: I was not sure so said, "Sorry, mam."

      M2: Ok. You must know how we remove trend effect from time series.

      Me: In nervousness I was blank again and cursing myself for not reading it properly. But I said, "Sorry, mam. Can’t recall it now."

      M2: Have you heard about moving average process?

      Me: Yes, mam. I have heard about it.

      M2: Then, what is it?

      Me: Mam, in moving average process of order q, the study variable is a function of q lagged value of the stochastic variable.

      M2: How does it differ from an AR process?

      Me: In AR process, study variable is a function of lagged values of study variable itself while in MA process, it is a function of lagged value of the stochastic variable.

      M2: How do we decide the order of any such process?

      Me: Mam, on the basis of ACF and PACF we decide the order of the process.

      M2: Tell me in detail what ACF is.

      Me: Mam, ACF is an auto-correlation function by which we can calculate auto-correlation between a series with its lagged values.

      M2: What is rho(k)?

      Me: Mam it is ACF between a point and its k lagged values.

      M2: How would you calculate it?

      Me: Mam, it is the ratio of gamma(k) to gamma(0).

      M2- What is this gamma?

      Me: Mam, it is auto-covariance function.

      M2: What is ARMA process?

      Me: Mam, ARMA(p,q) is a mixture of AR(p) & MA(q) processes.

      M2: Then what is ARIMA?

      Me: Mam, ARIMA is nothing but ARMA process which become stationary after differencing.

      M2: Do you know the full form of ARIMA?

      Me: Yes. It is Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average process.

      M2: What is this integrated term?

      Me: Mam, it represents the order of differencing required for a time series to be stationary while initially it was non-stationary.

      M2: Do you know Durbin Watson test?

      Me: Mam, it is used to check auto-correlation. But I don’t know the detailed specification. Sorry, mam.

      M2: How would you fit this process on a data set?

      Me: All I could remember was something like Box Jenkins model. But was not sure. Hence said "sorry mam."

      M2: ADF test, augmented Dicky Fuller test. Do you know anything?

      Me: Not sure, mam. I will read about these. Sorry.

      M2: Unit root test, anything you know about it?

      M3: Sorry mam.


      *CP stopped mam from asking further questions and passed the baton to M3. A rapid fire round with mam came to an end.

      M3: You mentioned census in your previous answers. Who conducted first census in India and when?

      Me: Sir, the first census was conducted by British officer Lord Mayo in 19th century, Sir, I don’t vividly remember the year, but I guess it was 1872.

      M3: Yes, it was. You mentioned the problem in conducting census in 5 years. Don’t you think there will be possible solution of this problem? Can you mention few of them?

      Me: Sure, Sir. There will be solution which will tackle the problem significantly. Sir, if we are able to reduce time spent on paper work considerably, then we may be able to conduct census in 5 years.

      M3: How would you reduce the time spend on paper work?

      Me: Sir, by working efficiently.

      M3: Not everyone wants to work efficiently. Tell me some more alternatives.

      Me: (Nervously) Sorry, sir . Can’t think of any now.

      M3: You worked in FOD. How did you collect the data?

      Me: Sir by personal interview of persons.

      M3: No. I was asking whether it was pen paper based or on the digital platforms.

      Me: Sir, for my first sub-round of 3 months, I collected data on paper and for the last 2 sub-rounds I collected data on ADAB server developed by ISI.


      *at this point I realised he was asking about digitisation of census procedure to produce result in significantly less time.

      M3: Which mode did you find to be better and why?

      Me: Sir the digital one because there was significant reduction of time in all procedures. Also, there was built-in checks. So, there was low likelihood of filling wrong codes accidentally as compared to pen and paper method.

      M3: Animeshi, suppose you are not a Field officer, but a supervisor of them. How would you ensure that they are actually collecting the data and not generating the data by themselves?

      Me: Sir, by surprise inspection. Since NSO does not compromise with data quality, so there are procedures of multiple checks, inspection and scrutiny.

      M3: All these things are OK, but how would you know that they collected data by themselves from actual locations?

      Me: Sir there was a process of online attendance with location of FSU in Prayagraj RO. We had to submit location of FSU twice a day: while leaving and entering the FSU. So, Sir the location attendance will ensure this.

      M3: Exactly


      *After this, M3 asked me questions about policy of Tamil Nadu state (I still don’t know why), mid-day meal, digitisation and I answered few of them partially, said, "Sorry, Sir. I will read about this."  After 4-5 such questions. CP interrupted.

      CP: OK, Animeshi. It was a nice conversation with you. Is there anything you think we should ask to you? Any specific area?

      Me: NO, Sir.

      CP: Is there anything you want to tell us by yourself?

      Me: Yes, Sir. Sir, I collected data for TUS and it is obvious that the survey result will be very crucial for formation of macroeconomic policies. But Sir, in my personal opinion, the survey results also contribute heavily in context of gender statistics. I personally experienced while doing field work though I don’t have any statistics to support my statement that there is rapid feminisation of Indian traditional agriculture. Hence, this survey data must be considered while formulating gender-sensitive policies.

      CP: That’s a very good point of view, Animeshi. Your interview is over. You can go now.

      Me: Thank you, Sir.


      *Stood up and left the conference hall.


      Verdict: secured the 36th spot in final list.

      My experience in a nutshell: the board was very cordial; chairman Sir was smiling the whole time. M1 was also good, but he asked questions from previous answers with slight differences. Lady member was something like rapid fire round and M3 asked questions from very diverse field and he and M1 grilled me slightly but not too much. Overall, I can say this was a good 25 minutes of my examination process.


      Relevant Link:




      RANK 38: VIPIN SINGH


      Date – 20th Jul. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Board – Shri RN Choubey (Probably the best smiling face I have ever faced in any interview 🙏)

      Duration – 

      Medium – English

      Job – Working as a Scientific Assistant in IMD (MoES) since March 2019

      Hobbies – 📻 Radio and Trekking

      Interview Marks – 118/200



      Questions:
      RN Choubey Sir (CP):

      1. Tell us about your academics and job experiences, if any, in less than 1 minute.
      2. How will you forecast population of India based on time series data? Whether your friends will also give same answer if time series data is the same?

      M1:

      1. How is GDP calculated? What are the data sources?
      2. What is the difference between ASI and IIP?
      3. What are CPI and WPI? 
        • Current values of CPI and WPI.
        • What is inflation targeting?
      4. Difference between TFR and NRR ?
      5. What is index of service production ?

      F1:

      1. What is PCA? (Misunderstood with prompt corrective action of RBI 😅 It turned out to be principal component analysis)
      2. If X follows Normal with mean mu and Variance sigma^2, then distribution of X^2?
      3. Name some discrete type of distributions.
      4. What is Markov property?
      5. Distributions who follows lack of memory property?
      6. What is a black swan event? Difference between white swan and black swan events.
      7. A distribution which changes its probability after the occurrence of an event?

      M2:

      1. What is PM-KISAN? Can a retired government official having agriculture land get benefits from PM-KISAN?
      2. What is PFMS ? (Just answered its full form and said, "Every month I download my salary slip from PFMS website 😂" LoL. Everyone laughed at me)
      3. What are the initiatives taken by MOSPI for improving data quality?

      Back to Chairman.
      RN Choubey Sir (CP):

      1. You work in India meteorological department (IMD) and your department has two supercomputers. What are their names, their location and processing capacities?
      2. What is petaFLOPS?
      3. What are the uses of supercomputers in IMD?
      4. What is a dynamic model? Difference between dynamic model and statistical model.
      5. Difference between Nowcasting and Forecasting.
      6. Do you want to ask anything to us?
      CP: It was great talking to you. Thank you 😀



      RANK 41: ANKITA MONDAL


      Date – 22nd Jul. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – DR. TCA Anant

      Medium – English

      Hobby – Music

      Interview Marks – 108/200


      Questions:
      CP:

      1. Seeing my educational qualification, asked me why I had not opted for PhD.
      2. Discuss a sampling technique which will not reveal someone's answer to a specific question which he or she is uncomfortable to answer, e.g., drug addicted or something like that but will reveal the proportion of the population having affirmative answer. (Randomised response technique)
      3. You have a variable of interest which is present among many people in the population. What sampling design will you suggest so that you can get data about the specified variable of interest?

      M1:

      1. You belong to West Bengal. So there is an institution which is very special in its own way. Can you name it?
        • Ans: Bishwa Varati University in Shantiniketan.
      2. What is so special about this institution?
      3. During the COVID period, there has been increasing incidences of crime or violence against women, like torturing of wife by husband and like that. So suggest some ways that you will take to curb these incidences.
      4. How is Indian music different from Western music? (Hobby related question)

      M2:

      1. What is the area you are interested in doing your PhD?
      2. Can you give me the exact structure of it?
      3. Mention your one weakness and one strength.

      ( Here I must add that I am currently doing my PhD, so M2 asked me questions relating to that)


      M3:

      1. Simple definitions like mutually exclusive, biasedness, independence etc.

      Relevant Link:



      RANK 46: GORDHAN MEENA


      Date – 22nd Jul. 2021 (Morning)

      Board – Shri RN Choubey

      Medium – Hindi

      Hobbies – Bird Feeding and Playing Local Games

      Interview Marks – 105/200


      Questions:
      Firstly, Chairperson (CP) ने English में instructions बताए और कुछ पूछे COVID-19 related, about my health. (Firstly, the Chairperson (CP) gave instructions in English and asked some questions related to COVID-19, about my health.)

       CP:
      1. एक से दो मिनट में अपना brief intro दीजिए। (Give your brief intro in a minute or two.)
      2. JRF कब join कर रहे हो? (When are you joining JRF?)
      3. किस topic पर research करना चाहते हो? (On which topic, do you want to research?)
      4. Demographic dividend सुना है? क्या होता है? (Heard of Demographic dividend? What is it?)
      5. किसी देश की prosperity, population पर depend करती है या GDP पर? (Does the prosperity of a country depend on population or GDP?)
      6. किसी देश की बड़ी population उसके लिए burden होती है या asset? (Is the population of a country a burden or an asset to it?)
      7. India की population को आप burden मानते हो या asset? (Do you consider the population of India a burden or an asset?)
      8. Everybody government job को priority क्यों देता है private sector की बजाय? (Why everybody gives priority to the government job instead of the private sector?)

      M1 (Female):
      1. Histogram क्या होता है? (What is Histogram?)
      2. Histogram कैसे बनाते हैं? (How is histogram made/drawn?)
      3. Probability क्या होती है? क्या आज बारिश होने की probability बता सकते हो? क्या होगी? यदि sunlight है, फिर भी बारिश हो सकती है क्या? (What is Probability? Can you state the probability that it will rain today? What will it be? If there is sunlight, can there still be rain?)
      4. यदि बारिश होने की probability 0.3 and sunlight की probability 0.4 है और दोनों का intersection 0.12 है तो क्या ये events independent होंगी? (If the probability of rain is 0.3 and that of sunlight is 0.4 and their intersection is 0.12, then will these events be independent?)

      M2 (Male):
      1. एक survey की  success का पता किन किन parameters के द्वारा लगाया जाता है? (The success of a survey can be ascertained from which parameters?)

      M3 (Male):
      1. SRSWOR and cluster sampling के बिच अंतर। (Difference between SRSWOR and cluster sampling.)
      2. Systematic sampling and cluster sampling के बिच अंतर। (Difference between Systematic sampling and cluster sampling.)
      3. SRSWR and SRSWOR के बिच अंतर। (Difference between SRSWR and SRSWOR.)
      4. Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and Gross Reproduction Rate (GRR) के बिच अंतर। (Difference between Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and Gross Reproduction Rate (GRR).)
      5. CBR and GFR के बिच अंतर। (Difference between CBR and GFR.)
      6. IMR क्या होती है? (What is IMR?)
      7. India की CBR क्या है? (What is the CBR of India?)
      8. SDR क्या होती है? (What is SDR?)
      9. Stratified sampling and  cluster sampling में से कौन सी better है? (Which one is better between stratified sampling and cluster sampling?)



      RANK 50: PRABHATA DAS


      Date – 22nd Jul. 2021 (Afternoon)

      Medium – English

      Interview Marks – 109/200


      Questions:

      1. What is randomised test?
      2. Difference between randomised and non-randomised tests.
      3. Optimum test.
      4. When to use Likelihood ratio test?
      5. Examples of composite hypothesis.
      6. PPS sampling.
      7. Abstract of my thesis (I gave a brief account of hierarchic estimation techniques and use of super population models in survey sampling).
        • How does it contribute to survey sampling?
        • Super population models with examples.
      8. Definitions of WPI and CPI.
      9. Determination of BPL.
      10. How to check corruption in public services? Is there any mechanism?
      11. MGNREGA scheme and its success.
      12. GDP and Inflation.
      13. Budget estimate. Why is it called an estimate?
      14. National account.
      15. Index number in layman's terms.
      16. Some questions on Dhenkanal, Puri and Ratha Yatra.



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      ISS Series 3: Study Logs during UPSC ISS Exam Preparation

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      ABOUT ME My name is Sujit Padhan. I secured All India Rank (AIR) 7 in Indian Statistical Service (ISS) Examination, 2020. It was my first attempt. I am a resident of Jampali village under Melchhhamunda Police Station of Bargarh District in Odisha. It is a very small village with population less than 1000. EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS Degree/Examination Institution % / CGPA Year of Completion AISSE,CBSE Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Sambalpur 9.8/10 2010 AISSCE,CBSE Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Ranga Reddy 93 2012 B.Tech(Hons) in Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 8.8/10 2016 M.Sc. In Applied Statistics & Informatics Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay 8.09/10 2020 EMPLOYMENT DETAILS Designation Organisation From To Research Analyst CRISIL Limited Sept. 2016 Jun. 2018 Assistant Director Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India Dec. 2021 Ongoing ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS Rank 2 in the state (Odisha) in NLTSE 2009 Rank 2 in the state ...
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