Academic - 95/94/81 (St. Xavier's College, Kolkata)
Panel - 1 male professor (P1- in his 30's) 1 female professor (P2- in her 30's)
(Panelists looked very calm and not in a mood to grill.)
P1&P2: Good morning Anushka! Please show us your government ID.
Me: Carries on with document verification.
P1: Okay Anushka, I see you're a B.Com grad. You will graduate this year, right?
Me: Yes sir.
P1: Let's start with a question that you've probably faced earlier. Why MBA now and not after a couple of years of work ex?
Me: Started with my analogy and explanation for the same.
(Bit of cross-questioning about the same, I still stick to my answer.)
P1: Fair enough, that's your decision, I won't judge you for the same. So I'll give you a short case. You're aware of repo rate and reverse repo rate, right?
Me: Yes sir. (Told a bit about the implications of both the rates with respect to the cost of investment.)
P1: So normally the reverse repo rate is kept at 3.75 percentage points. But suddenly the RBI went ahead and reduced it to 3.35 percentage points. Why do you think the RBI did this?
Me: Spoke about how it wanted to stimulate the economy by reducing the cost of investment to overcome the pandemic's impact. (He didn't look very convinced)
P1: Yes that's the general reason. What does the reverse repo mean?
Me: Answered that as it is the rate at which commercial banks park their excess deposits with the central bank.
P1: Exactly. But does it incentivize or disincentivize commercial banks in this case?
Me: Answers correctly as it stimulates credit lending because commercial banks can earn more by lending to the public. (he nods and seems satisfied with the answer.)
P1: Yes, with a little help, you got the answer. Good.
Me: (smiles awkwardly)
P2: So Anushka, you like watching K-Dramas?
Me: Yes ma'am! (completely caught off guard, but she actually picked it up from the analogy I'd mentioned earlier which was taken from a K-Drama :) )
P2: So which show were you talking about earlier?
Me: Told.
P2: Who is the director?
Me: Didn't know.
P2: Who were the actors?
Me: Told the names of the 2 protagonists.
P2: And the third person?
Me: (took a moment to recall his name but finally answered)
P2: So what was your takeaway from the show as an entrepreneur? (The show was about a start-up venture's journey)
Me: Answered about what I felt was the most important aspect i.e the importance of guidance and networking at the initial stage of a start-up etc. (She nods her head while smirking the whole time)
P2: You had maths in your +2 level right?
Me: Yes ma'am.
P2: Great! So tell me about one practical application of differentiation and integration each.
Me: Answers. Was sure about the differentiation example, not too sure about the integration one, couldn't recall at the moment. Talked about applications in economics mainly.
P1: Integration is mainly used for what?
Me: Told that we normally use it to find the area under a curve.
P1: Anything else?
Me: That's all.
P2: You read the news?
Me: Yes ma'am.
P2: What is going on currently with the Indian space program?
Me: Couldn't recall anything significant recently. Just mentioned I read an article about Mangalyaan-2 recently, but that's all.
P2: Okay. How does a space program, which requires such a huge investment, generate revenue?
Me: (couldn't hear the last bit of the question, so I started talking about the general success of ISRO in the recent past. Noticed sir nodding in disagreement.)
P2: Yes that's fine. But how does it generate revenue?
Me: Spoke about how other countries use Indian rockets to launch their own satellites because ISRO is known for being extremely cost-effective. This acts as a great channel of revenue for the space program. (Sir nods his head and agrees with me.)
P1: Okay Anushka. It was great interacting with you. All the very best! What other calls do you have?
Me: Told.
P1& P2: All the very best! You may leave the meeting now.
Me: Thank you so much!
Overall duration: 15 mins
(A rather interesting experience. Really liked the analytical nature of the questions, similar to that of the IIM C interview. And was really surprised with the K-Drama discussion, but glad that it happened. Overall, felt more like a discussion and not an interview. Even though I didn't know a couple of things, they made it a point to help me out.)
Source of this PI Experience: Anushka Saha
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