The Indian Economic Service (IES) is the premier central service for economists in India. Every year, it attracts the sharpest minds from the country’s top universities. Today, we feature the interview transcript of one such successful candidate: Gautam Mishra. Gautam completed his B.A. (H) Economics from Rajdhani College (2019) before pursuing his M.A. Economics from the Delhi School of Economics (2021).
UPSC IES Interview Transcript: Gautam Mishra, AIR-3
Interview Date: 15-September-2025
Shift: Morning
Number of members: Four
Chairperson ma’am: Q1: First she read out my DAF like schooling, UG, PG, Jobs etc. then she asked Why did you leave the job?
Q2. What are the specific things that excite you about the service?
Q3: India is said to be tariff king. Why do you think it is the case that India has highest tariffs in the world.
(I tried to respond by saying that only some sectors have very high tariffs but not all. But she interjected and said “If you take risk share weighted average tariff rate , India Has one of the highest)
Q4: According to you, what are the main reasons to impose tariffs?
Q5: What was the share of manufacturing in 2014 and what is now? (It was a follow up because in the previous question I had mentioned infant industry as an argument for protection/tariffs)
Q6: Why do you think that the share of manufacturing has stagnated despite protection for so long?
I responded by mentioning three factors that an infant industry requires 1. Technical, financial and business support, 2. Protection from competition and 3. Conducive regulatory framework.
Despite doing good in the first two, India is lagging behind in the third one i.e., regulations
Member-2
Q1: Following on, she asked what are the three things that an establishment look for before choosing the place where to settle?
I responded 1. Ease of entry, 2. Ease of Operations and 3. Ease of Exit.
Q2: Do you know about IBC?
Q3: What is its importance
Q4: How is it performing?
Q5: Have you heard about Bhushan Steel? (I had not covered the case study so I said no)
Q6: What was the inflation rate according to recent release estimates?
Q7: What is inflation targeting and flexible inflation rate? Which of these does India follow?
Q8: What is the rate of inflation that India is currently targeting?
Q9: If you were in the coming MPC meeting, what would you have suggested/recommended and why?
Member-3
Q1: What are the three traditional factors of production?
Q2: What is the 4th one, that is currently in focus ? (I responded R&D, entrepreneurship etc. but she was not convinced and said it is “human capital”)
Q3: What is human capital and how it can be enhanced? (I said through emphasis on education, health and skilling)
Q4: What is MRTP Act and what is competition act?
Q5: Are both of these currently existing?
Q6: What was the biggest flaw of of MRTP Act? (I said MRTP was a size based regulation, limiting the growth of industries)
Q7: How is the competition commission of India doing? Have they been able to do their job?
Member-4
Q1: Tell me the name of economist from India who have won Nobel?
Q2: Tell me some recent one?( I missed Abhijeet Banerjee sir in 1st question)
Q3: What was the work for which Nobel was awarded to Abhijeet Banerjee? (I said impact evaluation of various policies)
Q4: Which types of policies ?( I responded “ Antipoverty Policies”)
Q5: Have you heard of the book “Development is freedom”? ( Said yes)
Q6. Who has written it?
Q7: What do you understand by this phrase “Development is freedom”?
Q8: Tell me some Antipoverty schemes currently undertaken by the govt.
Next few questions were from my Hobby
Q9: What is a sitcom?
Q10: Name of any one sitcom that you have watched recently?
Q11: What was the sitcom about, who is the director?
And then Chairperson Ma’am asked me to leave, I said thank you to all members, pulled in the chair and left.
Note : Gautam Mishra was enrolled in only Indian Economic Service Interview Guidance Programme 2025 with Testonomics, for Indian Economic Service Exam preparation !
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