 So Mr. Agarwal, is this your first interview? Yes sir. And you are appearing for the first time also? Sir, I have prepared twice for the prelims and I could not clear that for my third attempt at first interview. So you are a teacher? Yes sir. What is IIPS? Sir, it's the name of the institute, Indian Institute of Professional Studies. So it is actually a CA tuition centre, so I am teaching economics to CA foundation and Indian Institute of Professional Studies. Okay, basically it's for those who are planning to become a chartered accountant. Yes sir. Okay, good. Yeah. Hello Ramak. Hello sir. The Governor's role has become very controversial of late. I mean probably it was always controversial but in recent times we find that there have been occasions when both are at loggerheads, the state government. What do you think is behind this and what could we do? Tell me the situation. Sir, I have got your first question. The reason for the differences between the state government and the governor. Yes sir. It's twofold. One is the appointment of the governor which is a bit politicized recently and second is due to the lack of cooperative federalism. Sir, the state which I come from, West Bengal, it is one of the prime examples of the situation which we are talking about right now. So according to me the solutions can be which is mentioned in various reports. Like, first of all, the appointment of governor should be done by the central government along with the recommendation of the chief minister and the state government. And so second is that the person who is a politic governor should be the least politicized person or rather not have any link with the political arena. And third, just like we have the GST council, we can have various state and center meetings on various state subjects so as to remove the differences between the state and the central government. You mentioned about cooperative federalism. You also mentioned about GST council. Yes sir. Which is perhaps one of the latest instruments for promoting cooperative federalism. But in spite of that, do you think the concept of cooperative federalism is on the strain at the moment? Sir, the entire concept is a process. It cannot be achieved at any point of time. It is like, we are moving from competitive federalism to a cooperative federalism regime. But as we know because of democracy and because of federal democracy which we follow, differences between state and center will remain if there are two different political parties. But the thing is that differences should not come as an impediment in the development of a state or the entire nation. Sir, just as talking about GST council, there were various differences but still the states and the center could come to circumstances. We have had, although the implementation was a bit delayed and it needed to be refined but still proper measures were taken on time whenever needed. So, we are on the process. Now, prior to the setting up of the GST council, there have been some such bodies to resolve interstate disputes and to promote national integrity, unity and integrity. Can you name those institutions? Sir, we have the interstate river authority, river basin authority for the interstate rivers. Sir, we have the interstate councils. Then we have the council. Interstate council, zonal council. Zonal councils. Yes. And there is a body to promote communal harmony, national unity. So, national development council. That is another, I am forgetting the body. National integration council. Yes. Now, the budget, let me ask a question. On social sector, primarily health and education, are you aware of some important provisions made in the budget in these two sectors and do you think these allocations have been adequate? Sir, one of the key indicators. Take one by one. Let's take health first. Health first. Yeah. Sir, the prime thing was the budgetary allocation towards Ayushman Bharat. Yeah. Sir, that has not, because the government had to follow the fiscal consolidation path, therefore the budget which was required to be allocated to be increased, it could not have been done that much because it had to resort to various off balance sheet financing as well. And therefore the allocation was not huge and not enough. However, there have been attempts where we are talking about converting various district hospitals into colleges. We are talking about privatization of various health centers. And so. Private sector participation in hospitals. Yeah. On a viability gap. Viability gap funding for that. Yeah. And so should I shift. Education, yes. On the education front, the allocation has been one of the highest, it is around 1 lakh crores, 99,300 crores. It is very huge as compared to the previous years. But again, because we know that the gross enrollment ratio is on the rise and the government is not adequately funded right now to meet that requirement for the higher education students. We are talking again about the private sector participation. But so according to me that might lead to commercialization of education, which we are already seeing the impact in the primary and secondary education sector. So the some of the various important factors like vocational training and the implementation of draft national education policy was not the roadmap was not given. But since we know because of the constraints of the three, the fiscal deficit, the animal spirits and the demand growth, we had to resort to this kind of budget allocation. To have educational institutions have been proposed under budget form of university, national level universities. So I am not able to recall those two right now. One is national police university, the other one is national forensic sciences. Thank you sir. This term urban knockouts is being talked about a lot these days. Who is talking about it and who is it directed against? Certainly context is regarding the protests which are going on regarding some of the government policies and legislations. But speaking from a point of view, this is something which is a beauty of democracy. Had this been in China, it would have been a very different scenario. But since we as Indians have always been looked upon as an inclusive society, we have the right to protest. And due to the present government is representing the protesters as the urban maxis because according to them, they are focusing on dividing India on the religious lines. But sir, this is due to misinformation on the various... The Narsals have never advocated division on religious lines. Yes, exactly. That is why they are referring to urban maxis. So it's not a fair branding? Sir, in my view, protests have to be allowed but again, hooliganism cannot be promoted. Like yesterday itself, the Supreme Court had ruled that the protests should be allowed but only in restricted areas and should not work as an impediment in the general course of life. So we need to maintain a balance on both the fronts. Effort from both protesters and government is to be taken. Thank you. Ronan, the role of the chartered accountants has been coming under increasing focus the past few years. What has been the problem? Sir, the question mark came into the fraternity because of various scams. The most important one being the Satyam scam of 2009. And then the latest ones, we have the PNB scam. We have the PMC bank problem. So sir, because the various accounting framework is under the hand of the auditors who are the CAs and the CA firms, the fraternity has been under question mark point integrity. And therefore to lead to, to remove the conflict of interest, the government has set up the NFI, which is National Financial Reporting Authority, which will look after the implementation of various accounting standards and auditing standards. And whether the auditors and the CAs are following the due process of law and intelligence or not. Do you think it is a fair assessment of the situation that the CAs are not doing their job honestly? Sir, the entire fraternity is not corrupt or not indulging in these activities because in every aspect of governance, economy is a very important part. And the CAs or accountants or auditors have a great role in that aspect. Even in the economic survey, the CEA talked about the invisible hand of market and trust. So we cannot generalize it to lead to a trust deficit. However, proper regulation is required so that the integrity is imbibed both from outside as governance and both from inside from the chartered account fraternity. You come from the state of West Bengal. Yes. Why is West Bengal pitied against the Citizenship Amendment Act? See, it's not just West Bengal, various other states are against the act. But the prime reason is because of misinformation and how that act has been linked to the various other legislations like NRG and NPR. And so the main idea of protest is something which is not despite of education but because of education. The students are protesting because they are politically illiterate. The government is protesting because India being the most important secular nation in the world. We cannot brand our citizenship laws on the basis of religions. So protest is a good thing but we need to put a stop to it to remove the rampant destruction of public property and public life. And as a measure, the most important thing is to be linked CWA with the NRC and to clear the information deficit which is lacking in the... You mean to say the Chief Minister of West Bengal is doing something wrong or something bad. She is against the CA, she is against the NRC, she is against the NPR. She is against all the people. Sir, when... And she says over my dead body. Sir, there are political impulses which are political in nature. But speaking of on the ground reality, when we are linking CWA, NRC and NPR, then it becomes anti-religion, anti-secularism. That is the main idea of protest. But again, because of the upcoming elections and because of lack of cooperative federalism which I mentioned, these political impulses... So we would say it will die down after the elections are over? No sir, it won't die down. But the immediate step needs to be taken from the party which is making the legislation. As I told, we need to clear the information deficit. For example, whenever a media person is interviewing any protestor and that protest is misinformed, no attempt is done to clear that information. If a person is saying that CWA is anti-Muslim, there is no attempt by the media person to explain it's not. So this is what is needed to be done, both from the government side and from the public side as a whole. What is the state of industrialization in West Bengal? Is it going up or coming down? Or have all the states been completely finished in West Bengal? Sir, state of industrialization per se has been on the decline because in the colonial era in the British regime, because Calcutta was the capital. So it was the hub of all the economic activities of India. But after the partition of Bengal and partition of India in 1947, the Jude-producing areas went to East Pakistan and we were just left with the Jude-producing bills. And Jude Industries was the prime source of income for the state at that time. So that declined. After that, the West Bengal was under the change of the left government, which definitely led to various land reforms. But on the other hand, there was again a trust deficit on the private sector market, even the data had to recede. So the private sector and the capital, this class is actually restraining from entering Bengal. We also have some of the schemes like Bengal Leads Summit, but that trust deficit is still staying in the economy. Why is it that not many students from West Bengal sit for the IAS or maybe get selected for the IAS? Is it a correct assessment? Sir, it is a correct assessment. Very few people are actually appearing for it. The reason being West Bengal, the ethnic class is either Bengalis or Marwaris. And various other classes are there. The most of the Marwaris families are focused upon either a business or a job in the commercial sector. The engineers, they go to different parts of India for tuition and for jobs. And the Bengali community is basically inclined either towards WBPSE or towards job service. So that is one of the reasons. Thank you. Mr. Agarwal, can you explain to me about India's nuclear doctrine? So India's nuclear doctrine is based upon no first use policy, which means that we will not be using it at the first instance. But if we are attacked by any particular country and it impacts us to a very large limit, then we will not be able to recall the exact word, but we will do our level best to reply to that power. But recently there have been statements that we might be tweeting with the no first use doctrine, but there is no official statement to that aspect. Both use India's active East policy. Sir, active East policy is an extension of the low East policy because we are talking of the Asian century right now. And the Tiger Club countries are to the Southeast Asian nations. Therefore, active policies actually getting more involved into the ASEAN membership and dealing both in trade and cultural ties so as to expand the soft power and trading power both simultaneously. Do you think this time India will be able to meet its disinvestment target? Sir, just today there was an article by the chief economist advisor. He said that all the other aspects of the budget are to the mark and can be achieved. But this investment target is a bit very ambitious because the 1.05 lakh crore rupees target of the past year could not be met. So we are not very sure whether 2.1 lakh crore will be met or not. But half of that will definitely be achieved in the coming six months. And there have been attempts like there was mention of LIC, there was mention of HBCL, the BBCL Disinvestment. So sir, it might be achieved if the economy revised to a certain extent and if the animal spirits among the private sector leads to a virtuous cycle. Do you think China has handled the coronavirus issue initially? Yes, or you were late. So as compared to the SARS that is a severely acute respiratory syndrome of 2003, Chinese were really fast in this novel coronavirus issue. But the Tencent report is saying that there has been a lot more deaths than what is the official estimate. I am not very sure whether it is official or not. But there have been views that the entire Wuhan city has been locked and people are saying that those who are infected by the virus might be shot. And since it is not a democracy, we will not be able to know about it. So just an example, there was a famine in 1959 to 60 and around 30 million people were actually deceased. But the world did not get to know about it. So we do not know the actual on-the-ground situation because of lack of free media. But the attempts have been great because they have built around 10,000 hospital beds in just 10 days. So the attempts have been there. They were partly true but initially China did for a month with report. Initially they did with sandalwood in the beginning. But later on they are going on beds because they understood the severity of this. The packet time, the quarantine, 60 million people, the fine time. So it is a stupendous effort. Yes, sir. So tell me about China's Belt and Road Initiative. So Belt and Road Initiative is called to be the 21st century Silk Road. So it has two elements. One is the Road Initiative and other is the Belt Initiative. The Road Initiative is focused on the connecting the various ports so as to connect China with the Atlantic Ocean. And the Belt Initiative connects the land borders from up to the Mongolia to China. Up to Russia from China. But this might be a threat to India because there are two reasons for that. One is a question on the territorial integrity of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passing through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. And second, lack of transparency and threat of debt traps occurring into the nations which are involved in Belt and Road Initiative. Do you think Brexit is good for India or bad for India? Sir, we are not even sure whether it's good for Britain or not. No, that I have not asked. I am from India. Because it will only be materializing after we get to know how Britain reacts to the situation. If it is a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit. And what agreements in Britain enter into with India and other nations. It is diplomacy and trade both. But to a certain extent, because of the ongoing US-China trade war and Brexit India should capitalize the opportunity and try and increase its exports. But we are lagging behind on that extent. So because health is a state subject there was the outbreak of Zika virus which Kerala took care of very efficiently and even recently when three cases were detected in Kerala very effective measures were taken. Okay, Kerala is fine. What about other aspects? Sir, I am talking about... For example, Western border. Sir, we are doing level best but because of the brain drain and because of some of the delays in the R&D development it might hamper us to an extent because of the porous borders. It can hamper us but we are on the path to preparedness. We are on the path but we don't have a good personal. So we have to really, you know, be alert on the disease. Thank you sir. Mr. Agoa, you have mentioned in your DAF about essay writing in which you placed third. Yes. By the UNIC. UNIC, Writing Nations Information Centre. Okay, what was the essay on? Sir, it was the essay on Safalata Dwara Vinlamrata Anicayi which means with success a humility should come to the person. You have written this in Hindi or? Sir, I wrote in Hindi. Good. Now you also write poems in Hindi and English. Yes, sir. What kind of poems are you fond of writing? Sir, I write in freestyle and they can be rhyming and they may not be rhyming One subject or a range of subjects? Sir, it's basically not on personal subjects but it might be on certain objects or might be on certain social issues or I have written a poem on India. So, like, there are various topics. Okay. Now, you know, this issue of Naxalism, it started from Naxalbari and it really spread like a coronavirus and the virus may be, you know, disappeared after a couple of days or months. This thing is not and it has spread to so many states. What is the basic ideology of the left-wing extremist group which is sustaining it? Sir, the basic ideology rests in the communist mindset which speaks of inclusive growth but it was a misdirected inclusive growth because the land reforms which were taken after independence, they were misdirected. We focus also. So, what is the, forget the cause. I'm asking you, is there, what is the ideology which the Naxals preach? They are against everything which the government does to remedy the issues because, for example, there are two people in a particular group and there are 10 people in the community. They do not want those 10 people to be pro-government and so that they are cutting the entire, each and every step which government tries to reach to them. That is the basic ideology to spread left-wing extremism. But sir, as in the latest report by the Home Minister, the left-wing extremism disputes have been on the decline and we have reached a very high peak in combatting that but under that is totally eradicated. What is the objective of these groups? Do they want to seize political power or what do they want to do? Sir, the primary objective was land reforms and community welfare but because of its... They don't speak of land reforms and community welfare. Sir, that was the primary objective when it started. Now it is nothing but the destruction of government properties. Yes, but now it has led to a very politicization of the entire issue. They are not focusing on seizing government power, political power but they are focusing on each and everything which is against the government to get more better... They have a very fully fledged PLGA, People's Liberation, Gurula Army is what they call themselves. And the fact that they are able to take all the paramilitary forces and inflict casualties on them every now and then it shows that they are very well trained. The other day, yesterday, Chhattis got again there a few days back to somewhere else. Last year in Garcharoli, they killed 14, 15 soldiers. So it's a continuous thing. But why is it that we are not able to control it? Is there any particular reason for that? Sir, the first reason is they are training guerrilla warfare which are soldiers are also now getting trained in but we are not able to match that speciality in that terrain. Second is because of the delivery deficit of the government. There have been various schemes like the outreach program and various education and health schemes but because of lack of proper implementation the people are not getting to know about the steps which the government is taking. No, take the case to West Wing all that's it. Till a few years back you had a number of districts which were impacted, right? Yes, sir. And Cobra battalions had to be posted there but today, thankfully, at least this problem is sorted out. Sorted out in West Wing world. In West Wing world. Yes, sir. So is it because of developmental activities or political reasons? Sir, it's a combination of both zones. Just one thing cannot handle the entire situation. Now, let me ask you something else. You heard of the International Solar Alliance. Yes, sir. What is this? Sir, this was pioneered by our Prime Minister along with the French counterpart. Why? This encompasses a community of all those countries which are aligned in the topic of cancer and the topic of KPDK on region so as to promote the solar energy use in day-to-day activities and to do a bit in achieving the Paris. Do they have, where is the headquarters of the science? Sir, we have in Gurugram in India. In Gurugram. Nice. Now, in 2018 when this was launched we had set certain targets for solar energy and for wing power. Yes. What are those targets? It was 175 gigawatt for the solar. It was 175 total gigawatt to be achieved by 2022. Out of that, 100 gigawatt was to be achieved through solar energy. 50 gigawatt through wind energy. 60. 60. 60 gigawatt through wind energy and to hide it power and fight through biomass if I am not mistaken. Okay. In order to boost regional connectivity, a program called Ulan was launched. What is the support for that? Sir, it's a full-formist Uday-Leishka-Aam-Nagrik. The attempt was to connect the two-tier and three-tier cities and develop airports so that air connectivity is achieved and that has to a certain extent achieved also because it is expected that India will be the second highest contributor to the airline industry of the world. We have also launched the International Oran, which focuses on... Is there any reference to this Oran program in our budget? Sir, I cannot... There was something but I am not able to recall. They say that they will build 100 more airports in the next so many years. Now in your state, has there been any connectivity under this program? No, sir. There are just two working airports in Bespingol. One is Calcutta and the other is Deepak-Dogla Airport. And again, that is one of the main reasons is lack of cooperative interest. Now, have you heard of this Kartarpur Corridor? Yes, sir. What is this? This is a goodwill gesture on both the parts of India and Pakistan so as to connect the Kartarpur Saheb Gurudwara on the Pakistan side so that the six from India can visit through that corridor. Correct. Now, when this was being constructed and it was due to open to the Chief Minister, Punjab Chief Minister and raised concerns that it would give a boost to fill up to Sikh militancy. How is that? Sir, it was a reference to the Khalistan movement because that was to a certain extent funded and instigated by the enemy counterpart like Pakistan and the adjoining militant group. Well, it's not that. See, the point is that he had expressed concerns that every time that Sikh Jattas go into either now to the Kartarpur Saheb Gurudwara or to Nankana Saheb where we have been going regularly every year, attempts are made by the ISI to recruit some of these fellows. See, to find the malcontents amongst them and then try to win them over. And how do they do that? Because most of the Sikh militants, majority of them who ran away from India like the Bapar-Khalistan commander, of course, they are all staying in Pakistan. And therefore, they are under pressure from the Pakistani authorities that we are giving you free stay and everything. You do something for us. So that is the problem. Okay. Thank you. So now we come to the end of our interview. I'll give you a bit of feedback. Now, normally what happens is that in these kind of interviews, you will either get questions from your dad or from general, you know, current events. Now, so far as your dad is concerned, since your optional subject is commerce, you are asked many questions related to charter the conference. You can expect many more questions. Right? You belong to West Bengal. So once again, you know, West Bengal will certainly be there, you know, and so many of these issues are asked to the cooperative, and you know, other financial issues like, you know, what is the GDP of the state? What is the HDI? Yeah, why not? And the equations between the state government and the central government. Because they've always been difficult. You know, even when former prime minister was there, that time also when he was going to Bangladesh, your chief minister refused to go. So it's not that it's an animosity with this government. That has always been there. Because for whatever reason, the point is that then you know, apart from West Bengal, essay writing, since you have won a prize in this, just be ready to, in case you're asked, what was the gist of your essay? Then point in Indian English. So there also, you know, you may be asked, can you recite a few lines? So be ready with that. Yes, sir. And since you're teaching and basically economics is a subject, so you can expect questions on the budget, certainly. Generally the economic situation in the country. Coming to the current events, are you reading any particular newspaper? Sir, I'm reading Indian Express and Times of India. Yeah, that's very good. Do that very, very religiously. And take out matters of interest from there. You know, international affairs, domestic, things are happening every day, you know. Supreme Court is giving judgments on so many things, what are its implications? Foreign visits are taking place and are scheduled to take place. Mr. Trump is going to be coming here. Yes. You know, there are a whole lot of, the area is very wide. So the more you read, the better prepared you are for the interview. And you have a lot of time. You're still 20 to March. 20 to March. So in case you are, are you here? No, sir, from Calcutta. A couple of Calcutta, okay. And if you have the time, then after a couple of days, 10, 15 days, you can make another trip. Then we can brief you on how you have progressed, right? Okay, sir. Otherwise you're doing well. I think you should be given a CD of this interview. So go through that. You will see all the questions that you're asked and you judge for yourself. You know, where you were, you were good and where you were a bit tested or where some information is made. Okay. Otherwise I think you're doing very well. Anything you'd like to add? You're aware of most of the questions you could reply to. But I think you're a bit expansive. Okay. Be to the point. Otherwise someone might feel like you're... Be to the point. You see the point is it's a limited time factor. Yes. The time was limited. So if you're asked a particular question, don't go to the background. Answer the question. If the member asks you more in detail, then you do. To the point. To the point. Should be to the point. Anything you'd like to add? All the best. Thank you, sir. Just a question. Yeah, sure. It was satisfactory. Very good. Very good. Everything is very good. But the point is that the more data you have, the better answer. Better answer. And slightly more diplomatic in your play, especially regarding political sense. Political sense, yeah. Don't be blunt about it. And on the CA and RC, you see the matter is some Judas. Okay. And you are aspiring for the highest civil services. So if an act of parliament, how can you say if the states are opposing it? It's a law. It's a law of the land. Okay. So don't give, on this particular issue, where the matter subjudice users are, we'll have to wait for the Supreme Court to decide on this. Okay. You can give the bare facts. But don't be asking what are the opposing viewpoints. Then you can take the actual position without committing yourself one way or the other. On any contentious issue, don't commit. Give the factual position. That is the best way to handle it. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you sir. Thank you. Thank you. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon to never miss an update.