IIM Lucknow GD/PI

(Strange things keep happening to me. The professor who took my interview for IIML last time was here this time too! Thankfully, he was in a different panel. My panel had two professors, one of them works with quantative methods (P1) & the other with agro-business and economics (P2).)

Group Discussion
My GD panel was a very docile bunch of 8 punters. This time IIML is asking aspirants to write a 150 words essay on the same topic, before the start of discussion. They take back the essay before the start of discussion. I guess its some sort of integrity test. The topic was a very general one - "Reading is the best thing solitude can offer" (The professor who announced the topic was really bad at pronunciation; I ended up writing "afford" in the place of "offer" :-). It was a typical garbage-in-garbage-out GD. The discussion never heated up and most of the times we were just repeating our points. It lasted about 15-17 minutes. This time I did the most of "halla" in our panel ;-).

Personal Interview
(I was the second one in my panel, so it didn't take much time after the GD. I was called in by P1)
P1: So, you are a computer engineer?
(Whatever happened to the good ol' "Tell me about yourself"?!)
Me: Yes sir.
P1: Why did your grades drop?
Me: {focus, priorities, yada yada yada}
P1: So you'll do the same thing in IIM.
Me: Sir, I regret that very much and I'm the kind of person who learns from his mistakes. I don't think this time I would commit the same mistake.
P1: You know, an MBA is much rigorous than engineering.
Me: I understand that sir.
P1: What's this? Your grades have been dropping consistently over the years in Engineering. You started with {this} and ended up with {that}. {that} is not good for a computer engineer.
Me: Sir, this pattern is not really uncommon. Basically the first two years have many courses with large class size. So the grades are distributed that way. Later, the grades are distributed between 40 odd people.
P1: Ok, so which subject should I take up for the interview?
(Subject.. shit, going into acads!)
Me: Sir?
P1: Do you want me to question you on your academics or the work experience?
Me: Sir, since the work experience part is more recent, may be you should ask questions on that. You can ask about my hobbies too.
P1: I'm not going to ask about your hobbies.
Me: As you please.
P1: You get X amount here, you might not get the same amount after MBA. Why do you want to do MBA.
Me: I think that shows how committed I'm towards the MBA program. I want to open my firm and {yada yada yada}.
P1: (Cuts me) Its just about the salary. You will start to think along the same lines if you came to IIML.
Me: I've had a look at the placements and I think I'm already getting what an average student from IIM can expect. Still I'm trying hard to get into IIMs because money is not the primary motive for me.
P1: Why don't you do MBA from some other institue?
Me: That, I think, would be a compromise on quality. We all know IIMs are best in the country when it comes to MBA.
P1: This is your misconception. Nothing like that.
Me: {WTF! I want my money back!} (smiled)
P1: {Asked about my company, my work and the software I'm working on}
Me: {Successfully established the fact that even though I work for a fin firm, I don't know much about fin :-D}
(P1 now "handed" me over to P2)
P2: You talked about bad debts. How can a debt go bad?
Me: {bakar-bakar}
P1: What about the credit risk analysis?
Me: Our software doesn't deal with the initiation of debts and since risk analysis is done prior to sanctioning a loan, we don't really come into the picture.
P2: How much do you know in Economics? Did you have any courses in Economics?
Me: We had one basic course in the first year of engineering. So, I'll try my best but if I can't answer your questions, you know why.
P2: If you aren't comfortable with Economics, let's talk about something else.
Me: No sir, test me on Economics.
P2: Whats the difference between GDP at factor cost and GDP at {something else}.
Me: umm..mmmm.. Don't know sir.
P2: What is fiscal policy?
Me: {Some bullshit with some jargon thrown in. Didn't make any sense to even me in the end.}
P2: Microeconomics?
Me: Macroeconomics.
P2: Tell me whatever you know about Economics.
P1: Just say two lines on it.
Me: In recent times we have debates on mainly FDI in retail and disinvestment of PSUs. {Left is this, this is right, blah blah}
P2: What's your stand about FDI in retail?
Me: It will help the customers in the end and help the economy grow. The flip side is that the small retailers will be out of business.
P2: But it will generate massive unemployment.
Me: In the long run it will generate more employment.
P2: What about the small retailers?
Me: There is this concept of "creative distruction". The same thing happened when the cloth mills ran our weavers out of business. But I think government should first think about what is best for consumers and about the workers later.
(This discussion went on for a little while and that was the end of the interview.)

In the end, I feel I did better than my last year's interview with IIML. And since I got a call last year, there are many good reasons to be hopeful. Didn't do too bad either, did I? Things to polish - economics!

Also read:
IIM Kozhikode GD/PI
IIM Indore GD/PI
IIM Calcutta GD/PI