IIM Admissions 2022: Shreshth Khare, 99.28 percentiler recalls IIM Bangalore WAT-PI experience

Shreshth Khare, CAT 2021 topper recalls his WAT and Personal Interview experience with Shiksha, Read the complete interview here.

Shreshth Khare, CAT 2021 top scorer, has converted to IIM Bangalore for the academic year 2022-24. Shiksha's exclusive interview with him recounts the entire interview process at IIM Bangalore. Shreshth was able to convert IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore and IIM Shillong too. He has completed his schooling at Christ The King College Jhansi. He completed his final two years of schooling in Kanpur after class 10. He then mustered courage and took a year off to prepare for IITJEE and secured AIR 2518. In 2019, he graduated with a Bachelor's degree from IIT Kharagpur. After working with Flipkart for one and a half years, he moved to an online, skill-gaming early age startup while looking for more challenging roles. 

Profile:

• GEM category
• Class 10th (ICSE board): 93.57% aggregate
• Class 12th (ISC board): 94.60 % aggregate
• B.tech (IIT Kharagpur): 84.20%
• Work experience: 25 months as of July’21 (on CAT 2021 application)

CAT 2021 score :  

•         VARC: ​​92.93 %ile 
•         DILR: 99.02 %ile
•         QA: 99.16 %ile
•         Overall: 99.28 %ile

IIM Bangalore WAT Topic

What measures can be taken to improve the situation of people working in the informal sector? Suggest the root cause of the problem and policy level changes required to address the situation.

IIM Bangalore PI transcript:

Two interviewers in the panel. One panellist was in his early 40s (P1) and the second one was in his mid-50s (P2)

P1: I see you studied at IIT Kharagpur and you have also pursued a minor degree in Economics. My father is also an IIT Kharagpur graduate. How did you travel from Jhansi to Kharagpur since none of the two cities is connected by airports?

Ans) There is only one direct train connecting Jhansi and Kharagpur, Utkal-Kalinga Express. That is what I used for my commute.

P1: What are the end cities connected by Utkal-Kalinga Express? (starts googling on the phone)

Ans) Haridwar (Uttrakhand) and Puri (Orissa)

P1: Name 20 stations between Jhansi and Kharagpur connected by this train.

Ans) Named 13-14 stations

P1: What is Kharagpur famous for?

Ans) Answered with 3 solid pointers (used the term ‘Hijli Detention Camp’ to elaborate on the 3rd point)

P1: What’s the story around the Hijli Detention camp?

Ans) Gave a detailed, structured answer in the form of a story.

P1: There is an airforce station housed inside the IIT Kgp campus. Do you know its significance?

Ans) Yes, it marks the resilience of the Indian Air Forces. The airforce station was bombed by the enemies during the Indo-Pakistan war.

P1: Which war?

Ans) Didn’t know this one. Got confused between the 1965 and 1971 wars.

P1: What is LMTD (a question from Heat Transfer, Chemical engineering)?

Ans) Gave them the full form. Mentioned the condition when it is used. Could not cite the correct formula (humbly accepted that I can’t clearly recollect the formula at the moment)

P1: Did you study Econometrics? Three back-to-back questions as I kept answering them.

• What are the assumptions of a multivariate linear regression model?
• What is multicollinearity?
• What is VIF?

Ans) Answered all

P1: I see you have worked on improving seller NPS during your stint at Flipkart. What steps did you take and quantify the impact of your efforts?

Ans) Answered convincingly

P1: You are working with Gameskraft currently. What does the company do? Explain the revenue model.

Ans) Answered. (Used the term B2C while explaining)

P1: As a founder, how to decide whether to go for B2B or B2C product offering?

Ans) I was slightly taken aback but tried answering to the best of my knowledge. He added a couple of pointers after I finished (I nodded in affirmation)

P1: Picked the project that I mentioned in my SOP around Gameskraft and asked me to elaborate on it.

Ans) Answered

P1 looked convinced. He grilled me for 20 minutes straight but he appeared impressed with my confidence and straightforward attitude.

P2: Your company promotes gambling under the guise of skill gaming. You draw a fat cheque to work for this sin business. How could you even sleep at night with a tainted conscience?

Ans) Tried explaining the difference between gambling and skill-based gaming (interrupted in between)

P2: How is this business even ethical?

Ans) Gave examples of how different state governments tried censoring the app but the High Courts scrapped those bans (interrupted again)

P2: I don’t care if the app is given a clean chit by the courts. I am not talking about the legal aspect of this. How can you justify such monkey business on ethical grounds?

Ans) Told him about our Fairplay policy, the grievance redressal system in place, the checks and balances, and the customer-first policy in detail (interrupted again)

P2: What fraction of your revenue comes from the bots that you deploy against humans to make money (gave a crooked smile)?

Ans) Reiterated the Fairplay policy, told him about the random card generation (ISO) certification (interrupted multiple times and tried imposing his views around bots playing against humans but I firmly stood my grounds)

P2: You have become morally bankrupt. You are simply justifying the unjust practices of your organization by hook or by crook.

Ans) Told him the size of the world's online gaming industry and how India contributes to hardly 1% of it. The GST contribution, tax collection figures, and the employment opportunities created due to the booming online gaming industry (P2 nodding in disgust)

Informed him about the lack of concrete regulations and clear guidelines around the online gaming industry in India. Also told him about the best self-regulation practices we follow which adversely impact our revenues but we stick to them, regardless of the fact that they are not even mandatory. We do this keeping the interest of our end-users in mind. We also spend generously on user education around online gaming.

P2: People like you will argue in favor of legalizing cannabis just because it fetches money for the government.

Ans) Regulating an industry is essential to nurture it in the right direction. Canada legalized marijuana for recreational purposes in 2019 because it opened new revenue streams for the government. Educating the end-users can mitigate the ill-impact and it works better than using brute force to crush something.

P2: You lack humility and do not respect other person’s opinions. Why don’t you agree that you are leading the youth of this country to darkness and doom?

Ans) With all due respect, sir, I take your criticism of the company’s business model very constructively. There is always some scope for improvement and we will eventually overhaul all our shortcomings in the long run because we believe in the theory of ‘experiment and grow’.

P2: The business should be taken down else it will corrupt the whole society.

Ans) Going by this logic, one can always argue that credit card lending companies are leading the youth of this country to incur unnecessary credit and hence all credit card businesses should be brought down. If we start gauging the impact of an industry-only on the basis of its demerits then 90% of businesses in India will shut down. The crying need of the hour is to bring in clear, detailed guidelines and laws around different businesses and ensure that all players operating in the sector should adhere to them. Banning an entire industry can never be the solution, regulation is the key.

Both P1 and P2 exchanged a wicked smile. The whole interview lasted for a good 40 minutes. I came out exhausted but pleased with my stand and beliefs.