 May I come in, sir? Good afternoon, sir. Thank you. You are from Delhi. Your centre was Trivandrum. How are you? My mother is based out of Trivandrum. And for writing the UPSC mains, I had the option of either Delhi or Trivandrum. I wanted to be closer to a place where I can commute from easily. Trivandrum offers me that advantage. Are you doing some business there? Yes, sir. I am into Automotive, sir. My stepfather is a Malayali. So, she shines between UP and Kerala. You studied from Kamal Nehru College? Yes. And you have done MSC? Yes, sir. You are going to be in post-do service? Yes, sir. I have just finished my training. Yes, please. Two years ago? Two years, sir. Now, post-do where? SSB Kota. I will join after my interview. SSB Kota? Yes, sir. Is it independent post? Independent. After two years, you get independent post. Yes, sir. Being in junior scale? Yes, sir. Junior timescale, we start as senior superintendent. Just tell me, companies that there was 1956 at and new at. What are the major differences? Sir, if I recall correctly, sir, one was they had made an independent clause for independent directors. One independent director has to be there on the board. And also inclusion of a female director, sir. Then, other than that, sir, with regards to CSR, that is also covered under the Companies Act. And recently, the government has clarified that the CSR funding cannot be used, which was done in the last fiscal year, cannot be used for the next three years. One man company. One man company. There are so many. Whether all that is totally repealed or some provisions are still applicable in 1956. I think the broad act is there, but certain provisions would be there, sir. Ramayana, Mahavarta, you know. Any character which was incarnation of one, which is older one, Ramayana or Mahavarta? So, Mahavarta. No idea. I can hazard a guess, sir. Mahavarta? Ramayana was older. Any character of Ramayana incarnation in Mahavarta? No, Ram was also an avatar of Krishna and Krishna was also an avatar of, I think Lord Vishnu. Any other? I don't know, sir. Hanuman Bhim. Okay. You'd have read in paper recently this New Zealand. Their teams are named after colors. No, sir. All whites, all blacks, black cats. I do not have any knowledge about that, sir. We have major killer diseases in India. Major killer diseases. Sir, TV. We still have like a very high TV burden, the largest in the world. Then... In India, largest? Yes, sir. In India. So, other than that, we have the CBDs, the NCDs which comprise of diseases relating to the heart, relating to obesity, lifestyle diseases. Middle class. And in middle class also we say upper middle class, lower middle class. What does it mean? Sir, it's just a segmentation to say it's slightly like if I were to include, give with the example of myself. So, probably those who have certain steady income who are not at a very great risk of sliding down to the lower income from the middle class would be categorized as upper middle class. And those who are still on that fine line will come under upper middle, lower class. Thank you, sir. What about the learnings apart from your digital projects? Sir, lots. So, in terms of my learnings the biggest I mean, the biggest learning for me was the importance of customer centricity. That is something that I feel the post offices are also lacking in. And if you don't remedy that, if you don't reach out to our customers. Sir, we are little lax in meeting their needs. One, we don't, from first-hand experience we don't answer our phones. We are My question is I never lost a postcard or my postcard never got undisturbed in the history of it. Even for years there are problems. But postcards or postmen persons I always keep them in high HD. Or do you say they are customer centricity? Sir, there are issues. Yes, you have been lucky, sir. And a lot of people I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend it. But sir looking at the reality now I do not know when was the last time you sent a postcard. Postcard has come. That is a good observation. I don't know when you were sent last postcard. Yes. The abstraction has reduced. But for unaccountable mail I cannot be as confident as you are. I've seen it in the field. I have seen several complaints coming that it's delayed. We don't even get our unaccountable mail. Accountable mail however I would say products like speed post, registered post, they are very good in terms of speed, in terms of economic cost. So press the post services before career companies and after the career company. Sir, before career companies came in, we had a monopoly and all the mail was channeled through us. A lot of times since that was the only option I can't say they were the most efficient but since that was the only option there was nothing else we could diversify. Now, sir, it's a very competitive market, at least in terms of mail. Post offices are doing multiple things but if I were to compare for the career company, in terms of speed, in terms of reliability and in terms of in terms of economy I would say we still are better than the career companies. So it has changed and we also need to have this outreach with our customers. We need to advertise, publicize. So these kind of things were not focused on earlier. Also the look and feel factor has to be taken into account. It requires some focus. Okay, economics. So the theory says price versus demand. What is the usual theory? Price versus the law of inverse proportion. The law of demand says price rises quantity demanded for status parables. That is keeping other things equal. A situation where demand increases and price increases. So they are inferior goods first inferior good is good wherein when the income of an individual rises, he reduces he or she reduces the quantity demanded of that product. Now, given goods are inferior goods and they have an inverse relationship with the price. So when the price of a commodity rises, the quantity demanded also rises. This is a very rare occurrence and it has its origins to the Irish potato family and we see a lot less of these but in theoretical terms that's a given good, sir. What is Edgeworth box? Edgeworth box is a concept from general equilibrium wherein we are representing if I may simplify, sir. In terms of if I'm looking at the allocation between two factors of production. So say land and capital I will place them in an Edgeworth box and derive my optimal points from that. What is angel curve? Angel curve, sir, shows the relationship between quantity I think between income and quantity demanded, sir. I may be wrong on this one. Expenditure on food primary good. Okay, last question on economics, we will move to some other area. There is a I am forgetting the name please help me in that one. In placing your shop from beach candy shop example you are studying. What is that? One pillow will keep the shop here other pillow will keep the shop there and then they will finally Yes, sir. There is something in microeconomics so with I can't recall it but I think I have covered this in my undergraduate degree. That is okay. I also forgot the thing. So finally they move towards the market, right? You have put up two stalls. In politics, how it reflects this experience? Probably the middle ground, sir. We start on extremes and come towards the center. An example? So if I mean I were to take the example from our current parliament session what it could have been instead of fixating over two particular issues both one side I can put the opposition and one side I can put the ruling party. If you come together US politics both the parties are almost equal in policies only. Just right side of the center and left side of the center in the only thing. Similarly Indian politics, BJP and Congress which even though they started with extreme positions they slowly move towards the center. Postal service department next say 10 years. Ma'am in order to have a future and back to a sustainable future whatever the current situation is based on that how do you see next 10 years after next 10 years? Ma'am also diversifying our focus from the core operations which is a mail related products has to move has already started moving and has to further move towards keeping ourselves relevant through financial inclusion through providing a platform for service delivery customer service delivery at those steps of people and also with regards to our core area we need to we shall be capitalizing on the commerce market not in the metro cities but in the smaller towns and also the rural areas. Is this going to happen? Yes ma'am we are taking a conscious deliberate efforts to move towards that. And now coming to UP firstly what do you understand the women empowerment? Ma'am women empowerment is a scenario wherein a lady a female has the capabilities and the opportunities to excel now this could be in different aspects it could be participation in society participation in the economic field participation in politics whatsoever the overall development of women. So when we talk about women empowerment how do you see the status of women in UP? Not ideal but ma'am I have had the experience of going to three states in the recent past I worked in Tamil Nadu for three months and then I worked in UP I came back to UP for one of my attachments and then again I just had a very short stint in Jaipur so when I went back to UP from Tamil Nadu I realized that again not so many females there in Tamil Nadu I saw them not only just engaged in office work in clerical work but also in manual work which was quite astounding for me then however UP at least some female representation I went to Rajasthan very recently and I see that that it's a far more conservative society than probably even UP so I would say it's not the best there is so much that we have to do in UP for women empowerment but it's not so if you have to focus on one area women empowerment to begin with what would be that one area and how would you address that? One area to focus on women empowerment for me would be in the economic sphere I feel once a woman is financially independent or secure in terms of having enough to earn for herself as well as maybe in case she has dependence to thank for the family then there is no stopping a woman especially UP where you know the culture very well most of the places where women are where they need support they live in villages it's a conservative society then how would you address that? With regards to the women in villages it is a conservative society so there we need to have an outreach with the women and also convince their family members regarding one that why there is a need for women to come up second also assure them of the safety safety aspect with regards ma'am for that agriculture has been traditionally the forte but I would say we need to shift them agriculture to engage them in cottage industries or even but where is the cottage industry so in the villages ma'am that's what we need to we need to encourage encourage who people or industry or the government to set up industry ma'am people industry as well as the government so in my particular area in my district we have we excel we specialize in the production of zari products so engage the government engage the female the female artisans to come together they can even form a self-help group even if they form SHG even if they make it where would they sell it ma'am there we have to explore the idea of markets it is actually a very prime market a lot of people want traditional clothes traditional items and even in terms of pricing they do fetch a remunerative price but that market linkage is missing so we need to focus on that ma'am now coming to Afghanistan and India so what future do you see in regards to Indian Afghanistan ma'am I would still reserve my my ideology because not my ideology but my views because right now we just need to wait and watch see what Taliban which is going to form government now comes out with so it might seem like we're not engaging with them but right now the best policy would be to wait and watch and then decide what the future course would be one last question what are China's Afghanistan ma'am economically speaking China would be interested in expanding BRI and the Belt and Road Initiative in Afghanistan too especially that or Wakan corridor which has which has a geographical connectivity to China thank you so about two and a half years during my preparation how is the economy of Kerala different from the economy of UP sir economy of Kerala before the pandemic that is was primarily driven by remittances from outside it was it also has a huge element of tourism and it actively promotes that as a revenue and a whereas if I look at the economy of UP that would be more industry based more agriculture based and more domestically so if you were to take some things or practices from UP to Kerala and Kerala to UP what would it be sir UP okay Kerala to UP first Kerala to UP so sir there like I have just mentioned sir tourism is being promoted actively not just within the state or within the country but also abroad and which is I mean they invest in the infrastructure they invest in marketing and they also invest in ensuring that people are safe there so I think UP can learn those things from that with regards to taking inputs from UP to Kerala I would say sorry for interruption whenever foreigners come to India India's tourism point of view what is the symbol there then but Taj Mahal is not the only highlight of UP and sir we can do a lot more there is tremendous potential UP to Kerala sir I feel labor I mean labor in Kerala is slightly more not aggressive but slightly more rigid slightly or slightly it is good in a way because they also assert the rights what do you understand by a black swan event once in a lifetime so say covid sir right now will be considered as a black swan event if my understanding of a black swan event is that some event which has a very low likelihood of happening then yes sir many countries have transformed their postal sector well can you take some examples and see how they have transformed and what lessons we can learn from that in terms of that or the transformation for me significant transformation would be in Japan sir they have diversified to financial services and a lot of ideas that we get are from from Japan so diversification to financial financial sector so you talked about e-commerce and parcel sector what are we doing to facilitate this sir we have come up with two projects one is a parcel network optimization project and one is a mail optimization project now these have standardized our procedures our equipment we set up some special e-commerce centers one is right here in Delhi under the Satharjung flyover and we are also bringing in rapid technology like like real time tracking which e-commerce players expect has also been brought in sir however there is one one drawback that we have which is that we are still unable to provide an estimated data delivery like if we order from Amazon if you have real time tracking what is the difficulty in getting we have been unable to map all the data that we have got collated and then actually predict so this is something which we have lacked but a lot of our office in my batch we are all very very interested in getting this also how is the Amazon supply chain different from the postal department supply chain sir I have limited knowledge in this because unfortunately because of COVID yes sir but sir I will be honest I don't have feel experience there because of COVID we haven't been allowed to go and look at the facilities but two of our probationers who were attached to the Delhi circle they went and they said that they have the sorting pattern is very different they have warehouses in major hubs and they sought an operator to sort only for say four destinations whereas in our case in postal service a particular sorting assistant would be sorting for about 45 locations so this is something that but the postal department is highly staffed it is over staffed maybe per ratio staff compared to Amazon would be lesser yes sir but sir even our vacancy levels have gone up so I wouldn't say we are over staffed yes we are we have more staff than Amazon and Amazon also leverage this technology we are leveraging machines in Delhi in Chennai and Kolkata and Bombay but the other places we are not are you familiar with the concept of smart warehouses smart warehouses smart ware housing yes I have seen it in the case of China you have worked in both private sector and you have been trained under government sector what is the major difference that you see private sector is a little less rule bound and things move a lot faster and we I mean because we don't have a lot of layers of clearances we are reporting directly to certain boss and they have autonomy and we are not bound back so what happens at a faster pace other differences any other differences it's a very different setting so usually in terms of the atmosphere it's I mean like they say a bureaucratic atmosphere so maybe the offices are not like you find in a private sector you don't have a lot of working you seem unhappy about the work conditions in the government sector actually I would prefer if we all worked together in work spaces and we didn't have these hierarchy saying that okay every time we come in wait for the PA and then what are you reading in nonfiction what are you reading you have not mentioned fiction or nonfiction currently nothing because I am preparing for so it was a book on Indian dogs by Theodor Baskaran Indian dogs Indian dog breeds so I happen to be a dog aficionado in my family and I we have always kept a lot of pets but since the past few years we have taken an interest in in getting the indigenous breeds so we now have a Hombay and we now have a Rampalhound these breeds are being lost because breeds such as Labradors, Alsatians Ashens they become more popular so it was good to be the work