 Why do you wish to join the service both my parents and the government service and in particular I've seen my mother who's in the cabinet secretary at she worked in both India and abroad and I've seen the difference that even one person in the do the job well they can make on other people's lives in the government sector apart from this I've also worked in an NGO where we work closely with the government and I saw how much of a difference if we get support from the government how much of a difference it makes to other organizations we like you Mr. Pratyush since one of your parents is in the cabinet secretary and has travelled abroad let me start with asking you something on our equation with China now there are a number of irritants in our relationship with China one of them is the CPC then the MSG then standoff in Doklam what can you tell me let's start with the CPC what is our objection to CPC and what is the strategic significance of CPC for China we object to CPC because it violates our sovereignty that's what then for China why is it what is the strategic significance for China the CPC gives China and outlet towards Africa and Central Asia through Pakistan this will reduce its dependence on the energy on the state where it can be cut off in case of a conflict with you and what is the distance any idea but what is the length of the CPC and the route which they used to take through the states of Malacca was almost double that more than that in fact now what about the why are the Chinese blocking us on the energy would give us access to critical nuclear technologies which could help our nuclear energy program and China seeks to equate India and Pakistan which it says that if India joins the energy then it should be should allow Pakistan to join as well China does not want India as a member of the MSG because in the future we are stepping stone towards even the UNSC a greater role internationally now in Doklam why did we take such a firm stand on that I agree that it was we took a firm stand and it was the right thing to do to send a clear message to China India will not take stand for any compromise on its core interests there is our interest in Doklam in Doklam is very close to the chicken back which and potentially can cut the orphan get north east so basically it was strategic for us we could not have allowed them to have access to that right now Pakistan has been put on the gray list by which organization financial action tasks now they had a meeting recently in Beijing and they're supposed to have the plenary session where in February where do they meet the meeting in Paris in Paris so what is the role of the FATF the FATF was set up to curve financing of terrorism and money and money okay now I was reading in the papers that the US which had been quite hard on Pakistan there's a representative of the State Department who made a statement that Pakistan has done well on the financial action the various like who knows why do you think that the US is softening its stand this year they're going to be presidential elections in the United States and President Trump has made a signature part of his campaign that you're going to withdraw the US from foreign wars and in particular Afghanistan where they've been stuck for nearly 17 years and to get out of Afghanistan they need the support of Pakistan to bring them the Taliban to the negotiating table now you know the issue of Supreme Court judges is there a procedure by which they can be removed the Constitution allows for the impeachment of judges by the special majority of each House of Parliament so what is the procedure we for in the first case one-fourth of the members of parliament must bring a notice to this effect and then special majority which is two-thirds of the members sitting and greater than the total majority of the house must pass to pass a resolution what about the committee before that the committee must investigate the allegations and who are the members of this committee I'm not completely sure I think it's the Chief Justice of India yeah Chief Justice of the Supreme Court judges and then and sitting Chief Justice of the High Court and an eminent jurist right okay thank you Mr. Pandey you have an impeccable academic record thank you and chosen IS over IFX like that so it's because I was actually was attracted to both the services but I would prefer to remain in India because my brother has gone abroad to pursue his study and I would like to be close to my parents good and now you associate intern at Clinton Foundation what did you do this was my internship at I am Hemdabad where I got a chance to intern with Clinton Foundation we work with the Ministry of Health to assess their national AIDS control program in India so I was a strategy consultant in that I identified where we can we need to concentrate our resources and I developed a machine learning platform to identify which patients are at risk of stopping the treatment so that we can provide the counseling well in advance of this so what is your opinion that India has been able to curb this AIDS disease yes we have done very well because as of now the age prevalence is around 0.2 percentage in the population which is much less than what it was earlier and especially compared to countries such as in Africa coming to let's international affairs what do you think is the most important but I would say at the moment it is with the United States of America why because in the first place the United States is the foremost economic and military power in the world as of today we in addition have a very strong diaspora relationship with the United States and strengthening our security and defense collaboration such as the logistics agreement we signed with them and the intelligence sharing from what do you expect from Trump's visit to India Trump administration is very transactional in nature so I wouldn't pin my hopes too highly I they focus heavily on trade and deal-making so I would imagine that we would be able to sign a few of demons to help resolve the disputes that we currently have with the United States you do think that India has met the targets of the SDGs sustainable development goals are the targets for 2030 so it we are currently still on our way to meet them I believe that in certain aspects we have fallen short such as health or even air or the environmental quality but in other aspects such as reducing poverty we have made great progress and I think the stock market the markets had greater hopes in especially in terms of immediate expended capital expenditure from the government and I also feel that the dividend distribution tax abolition has disappointed the markets that I would be too harsh especially given the fiscal constraints the government faces I feel that this was a reasonable budget and I feel that the opportunity which we have most is rationalization of the subsidies which we currently especially in agriculture sector this could have saved a lot of resources which could have been used to pursue infrastructure development for example switching the subsidies and fertilizers and agriculture to direct benefit transfer such as which China has done but you think there's all this investment process which France ministry and other ministers are trying do you think they'll be able to send air into the new terms on which area India is being stored are more favorable than what they were previously so I think they will be greater interest from figures in this in this budget we have dedicated lines for agricultural products in the in the real infrastructure just as the Kisan I think transport lines and we've also going to be already announced to 102 that crew push for infrastructure reading about what have you read in that and reading fiction in stories that I've read about a book by an Austrian psychologist Victor Frankl called man search for meaning in that he is trying how even in the Auschwitz concentration camp it was possible for some of the prisoners to to remain true to whom they were to refuse to get molded by the surroundings of which they were in and did not become hardened into cruel and uncaring persons even in those surroundings they could retain the freedom to choose their own attitude thank you you had the sociology as a subject if I said that there are certain sociological causes what would you say I would agree with you mentioned some of these causes the individual is perhaps one of the most significant anything else in another it would be the society itself which gives which does not condemn crying which does not condemn crying or does not let us say punish the crime to the extent which he should be punished one major pause I believe that capital punishment does not serve the purpose of deterrence but it should still be retained in certain rare cases especially such as terrorism so to bring down crime levels what can be done there are two ways to achieve this one is deterrence that does not come from the the severity of punishment but the probability of punishment this requires an overall of the entire judicial investigative and prosecution procedures and the opposite end is inculcating the right values in people for speedy justice yes that's very important okay it's also said that in India social institutions are undergoing change social institutions like the institution of marriage institution of family would you agree yes I would tell me about family how is the family's family structure changing so traditionally in India we've seen a joint family going more than three or more generations live together under the same roof now with greater urbanization there's a more compact family structure particularly a nuclear family structure but also live in relationships and also they are talking of the concept of jointedness that because of moving to urbanization both the family members are working and therefore they want their parents to come and stay yes one reason is to look after the grandchildren and others the better healthcare facilities in urban centers so how is marriage institution of marriage changing so we've noticed several changes in the institution of marriage one is that the age of marriage has risen this is partly because of the greater education and employment for girls as well as pressure on boys to settle down financially before they can marry there's a higher diverse rate this is again because of women empowerment the women are no longer compared to staying unfulfilling or even abuse of marriages because they are greater economic independence I would say this is still something I only read a little about but the very idea of marriage itself is being rejected as merely a social construct so as you said living relationships alright now my last question it is said that Indians do not cast their vote but they vote their cast what does that mean and who said this who gave the same I do not know who said this but it means that when we go to the polls we do not look at the candidate we don't look at what he can bring to the do for the nation's development we look at whether he's of the same caste as us and then we vote for that candidate now to promote gender equality both the government and society have to work together can you name some of the government for women empowerment one of the major initiatives the government has taken is the beti per how beti bachao Nolan which aims at educating people to treat the girl child equally and to invest in her education link with this is the Sukanya Samridhi Yojana which because this aims to provide financial incentives and support to people to educate the girl child because it's noticed that people focus their resources on educating their sons who they believe will give security in their old age even other students like Mudra are mostly women are aware of this have you heard of the regional comprehensive economic partnership in November we opted out of it why can you give some reasons the decision to opt out was taken because it was believed that Indian industries and Indian agriculture are not competitive enough to face the competition internationally and it will notice that in the past pre-trade agreements India's trade deficit had increased in this case with an RCEP India the trade deficit with 11 of the 15 partners do you think that the problem was with RCEP as such or because we didn't have the capacity to avail of the RCEP I believe it's a sign of our weakness that we could not go for the RCEP what is the export to GDP ratio now exports are roughly 300 billion dollars and our GDP is 2.7 billion dollars so I leave it around 11 percent and it has come down or it has come down because our exports have stagnated you have a question about gender equality judiciary has been very active in bringing about gender equality can you cite some landmark judgments in the 2014 we had the NASA judgment which it's empowered transgenders and declared that sexual orientation is a part of the fundamental right to life and privacy we had triple talaq judgment which helped that triple talaq is unconstitutional because it's discriminates against Muslim women and we have the sabri mala case in which it was helped that women had the right very good there's something called gender budgeting do you see this some positive trends in the budget which has been announced yesterday as far as gender budgeting is concerned gender budgeting is aimed to translate the government's gender commitments into actual budget outlays in the budget announced yesterday I do not recall specifically about any there are some specific provisions okay good you have done BTEC in civil engineering right now I have read somewhere I don't know you know we have this problem of plastic waste and I read also that Mukesh Ambani saying that I will use this for road building what is your view on this expert view since you've done it is it feasible to use it for road building yes sir it is feasible to use plastics for road building and in fact this concept itself was pioneered by the plastic road man of India Professor Vasudevan the advantages of plastic in road building are that it reduces the bitumen and cost of aggregate it brings down the entire costs so in what way will it be used on this waste will you melt it or what I believe it's first it's introduced in the batching and mixing stages of concrete itself will it not make it brittle no it depends on the composition of plastic which we use plastic does not replace the bitumen or aggregate completely only around 30% of the plastic waste is used in the entire completing process will it strengthen the waste yes it actually increases the strength where is the report what authentic reports you've got any IIT has done in your research I don't think an IIT has done a research on this but we've had one or two pilot studies and I believe that even in New Zealand where was it done one is in India where this concept was pioneered but it has been taken to greater lengths in other countries instead of India which country I think it is New Zealand if I'm not mistaken and they are using it in India in what subject what was your main subject in MVU in MVU we don't have any specialization what are your subjects so we have general exposure to all aspects of business administration such as finance, marketing, operations, human resources and in the second year we can choose our electives are the primitive tribes in India yes sir names, three important ones the Pongais, Jarawa, Sentinelis in the Andamans then I do not recall okay never mind any of them is a Pallulithic color of Pallulithic age I think Sentinelis and great Andamanis is there a case for bringing them into the mainstream no sir I believe that we should respect their sentiments unless they choose to join the mainstream we shouldn't impose it on them alright now privacy is a major issue on which Supreme Court has given its ruling last year right this year Supreme Court about a month back or two months back made a very very strong commitment comment saying in respect of a case there is no privacy left for anyone for anyone of us what was that case with which it was dealing I ignored him it was a case from Jharkhand a police officer had been put under surveillance he and his family I think just says Jan Shool who is one of the very outstanding judges he made a very scathing comment have you heard of Pegasus yes sir what is the threat from Pegasus Pegasus was a software which was used by an Israeli organization and it was put in other applications like WhatsApp to spy on people without their consent spyware what is the controversy in India the issue is that Pegasus is sold only to government agencies throughout the world and it was the consent of the Israeli government it cannot be sold otherwise therefore what are the suspicions the suspicion is that it could have been used by a government agency to target its opposition where is the matter pending it's pending it before the courts alright last question what is HDI, Human Development Index the Human Development Index concept was pioneered by Professor Amartya Sena and Mahbub Ulha so it basically rejects the notion that development is the same as GDP growth and it seeks to bring other variables such as education, healthcare access to resources into the picture there are three ingredients of HDI what are those one is educational attainment the number of years the life expectancy access the birth appetite yes, living standards it is dealing with poverty or whatever it is what is India's position today India's 130th in the HDI have we improved or deteriorated we have more or less stagnated at that yes we have improved only one 129 out of 181 189 we close the interview I give you a feedback Prathish you have done extremely well you have been able to handle most of the question nicely your expression is good you are very well informed and you have presented your answer in a very cogent manner yes so you should take heart from this observation that you are a very strong candidate now there are areas where we would suggest now for further studies those look at your bio data most questioning will be based on your bio data sociology MBA civil engineering then reading about stoicism and self development fiction you will ask these questions right then IES is your subject but foreign service is your second choice so we have asked you questions on foreign policy etc okay so these are some of the areas then budget it becomes very important you will ask questions on that in the field like Mr. Trump's visit SDGs and sociology especially we ask questions right women empowerment so these are some of the areas which we feel are very important now I request my colleague to give you some you have done very well and you have played a very good knowledge of all these subjects and I just have one point that perhaps in the actual interview you can avoid mentioning that your mother is in the cabinet as a criterion you can see she is in government service and has served in India and abroad thank you you have done very well all the best thank you good luck best of luck only thing in the actual interview you just close it have minor things done very well thank you all the best thank you maybe you are not Korean you will get a video outside thank you don't forget to like share and subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon to never miss an update