 Good morning sir. Can you hear me? Yes sir. I can hear you sir. Am I audible sir? Yes, yes. How are you? I am fine sir. You are calling from? Sir, I am in Saharanpur UP. Saharanpur UP. How far is Saharanpur from Dehradun? Sir, it is around 70 kilometers. Have you joined Dehradun? Sir, I am undergoing my training at Indira Garni nation post. Okay. What all tours you have finished so far? Sir, we did introductory tour to Chandrapur in Maharashtra and then West India too. Gujarat, Rajasthan and? Gujarat, Rajasthan and? Western UP sir. Western UP? Yes sir. Agra in Itawamil. Okay, okay. So, how many months you have spent in academy so far? IGNFA? Sir, we spent around 3 months sir and then we have been in lockdown so we have been doing our training from home. When did you join Dehradun? Sir, the first week of December. First week of December. After LBS? Sir, I skipped the foundation course. Why? Sir, to appear for the civil services examination. Alright. And why didn't you join railway traffic service? Sir, railway traffic service is a very good service. At the same time, sir, when I had compared both the services, so I found that Indian Forest Service gives us an opportunity to work at the ground level plus it keeps us close to the nature. Considering these aspects, sir, I chose Indian Forest Service. Okay, suppose you are selected in now civil services, what all services you would like to join? Sir, I am mainly trying for IAS and IPS, so I will go for those services. So you are not filled any other option? Sir, I have filled other services as well. Sir, I have filled five services. You have filled five services also? Sir, IAS, IPS, Indian Forest Service and Indian Revenue Service, Income Tax and Custom Sense and Public Service. So you still find that income tax is better than forest service and railway traffic service? Sir, I have not formed any opinion right now, sir. I will take a decision after getting selected, sir. For two services that is IAS and IPS, I am sure that if I get selected, sir, I will go there. No, no, but I am just comparing your statement. You are telling that when you are not joining railway traffic and forest service you are joining, the same thing may happen when you are joining the revenue service. You don't get to work on the ground level with the people. Indeed, sir, in revenue service compared to in all-day services there is more scope to work at the ground level, sir. Sir, the thing is that I have limited exposure right now, sir. So I am keeping the options for the later stage, sir. Okay, you know you can be posted in central government also at any position? Sir. You can become Secretary to Government of India also? Sir. Okay, so you are Secretary to Government of India and posted in Ministry of Environment and Forest. You have been given mandate to increase the forest area at least by 0.1%. What you are going to do? What policy and other measures you are going to take? Sir, I request you to please clarify whether it is the total forest area or the forest cover that... Not forest cover, not forest area. Sir, one thing is carrying out forestation activities both within the forest and outside forest areas. Within the forest, sir, right now major constraint is the quality of forest. For instance, as per the... I am not telling about degraded forest or open forest or this thing. I am talking about increasing the forest cover. I am not talking about quality. Sir. I am talking about increasing forest cover, whether it is outside or inside. Sir, given the fact that there exists some scope for increasing forest cover, there exists limited scope for increasing forest cover outside forest areas. I will focus on social forestry, urban forestry like things and creating plantations outside forest areas plus within the forest increasing the density of forest cover right now. How we are going to do that? We know that when you have limited forest area, you have to go outside the forest area. Scope is outside only. How we are going to do? Sir, I will adopt some good technologies and good innovations. For instance, there is one technique called Niawapi technique. So that gives more forest cover in lesser amount of time. And this is being tried in my area, Sarantur as well, sir. So this is something that I would go for, that I would advise that we should go for this. So, okay. When did you visit Kanpur last? Sir, I haven't visited after 2015, sir. I graduated from there and then I have not visited. How is the situation there now? Sir, are you asking about COVID-19, sir? No, no. Otherwise, the situation I am asking because of happening in the last few days. Yes, sir. A major happening is being the police, a criminal issue where police went to Niawapi criminal and some unfortunate things happened. So this is the major. Are you keeping track of the developments in Kanpur? Sir, I am sir. Okay. You have done some good governance yatra also. What did you do in that and where it was? Sir, basically it was a trip in which we went to six cities of southern India, six places of southern India. And who are those? Sir, Goa, then Mangaluru, Pochi, Trivanandapuram and Kanyakumari and Chennai. Six or seven places were there, sir. And we saw various good governance projects. We interacted with various eminent people. An example of one or two good governance projects? Sir, one was Kudumashree in Kerala. We went there. We went to a grand panchayat. One or two highlights of Kudumashree project in Kerala. Sir, basically it is a project where people are organized into self-help groups, community networks. And this leads to empowerment, especially for the women. I saw... Okay, all right. Tell me the next now. Chennai we went to IIT Madras Research Park. It aims at establishing more connect between academia and industry. So this is where we visited. And sir, we interacted with the honorable director general of police of Goa, Dr. Mukesh Chander. So he told us about certain good practices in policing there. And we also went to Kochi International Airport that is fully solar powered, sir. And it was a very innovative thing. So these are some of the things that we saw, sir. Okay. Tell me major events which took place in 1970s and 80s as far as forest environment and wildlife are concerned. Some six or seven points. Not in detail. Sir, first, there were some constitutional amendments, especially the 42nd Constitutional Amendment that inserted article 48A, Directing State to Conserve Environment, Forest and Wildlife, and Moving of Forests from State List to Concurrent List. And apart from this, various laws were passed for instance, Wildlife Protection Act, Forest Conservation Act, Environmental Protection Act, and Acts for Water, Air, etc. So these things happened. And we had National Forest Policy of 88 as well, sir. Okay. Did you hear this some controversy going on? Amendment impact assessment notification issued by the ministry very recently? The ministry has issued, sir. I haven't gone through the draft, sir. Sorry, sir. But yes, some issues are being raised, sir. I'm not particularly aware of that, sir. I haven't read, sir. Sorry, sir. Okay. Just tell me, for COVID, now I think two, three types of tests are being suggested. Can you tell me what are those tests? First, main test is RTPCR test. Then we have rapid antigen test, then serological or rapid antibody test. What is that antibody test? And how it is done? Yes, sir. Basically it is for screening purposes or asserting how much is the prevalence of COVID-19 at the society, community level. No, no, no. What is antibody test? And what quality is it? Sir, it seeks to measure antibodies in blood serum, sir. Blood is extracted and on the basis of that, antibodies are estimated and on the basis of... Plasma test. Sir? Is it plasma test? Is it called plasma test? I'm not sure. Plasma therapy is different, sir. Plasma therapy involves expecting blood plasma from a person and giving... Who has recovered from COVID-19 and has antibodies present in his blood? All right. Have you heard of finance commissions? Yes, sir. What types of finance commissions are there? Sir, we have a central finance commission at the national level that is constituted under article 280 of the constitution for five years. Which one is going on now? Sir, it is a 15 finance commission, sir. They have submitted the report. Sir, as far as I am aware, sir, they have submitted full reports, sir. But they have been making some recommendations from time to time, but full report they have not submitted. They'll submit and it will be applicable from year 2022-25. They have submitted one year report now. 2021, they have submitted. Another five years they are going to submit. Then what other type of finance commissions are there? Sir, then there are state finance commissions as well, sir. That is under which provision of act or constitution of something and why? Sir, they are under the provisions for panchayas and municipalities. I am not aware of particular article at this moment, sir. I am not able to recall it. What is the purpose of those commissions when you have a central commission? What is the purpose of those commissions? Sir, they are specifically constituted for local bodies. They recommend on the devolution from the state accounts to the local bodies. Okay. Okay. Recently, army has issued orders that so many apps will not be allowed to the army personnel. How many apps and what type? One or two examples? Sir, apart from the 59 apps that have been banned by the government of India, there are around 10 more apps that have been... 30 more. So these are some of the apps. The reason is that as in the official statement by the army, there are some security concerns regarding those apps. For instance, if the army personnel are in their duty areas, operational areas, and sometimes their location may be leaked unintentionally. So this is one security concern, sir. Do you know section 69A of the Information Technology Act? So. What is the objective of that? Sir, basically it is about... it empowers the government to restrict content on the internet and it can issue directions to the information technology companies and internet service providers in this regard, sir. And the government has recently banned 59 Chinese apps under the provisions of section 69A only, sir. Okay. Just last question. We have a number of legislations, acts. If some act is to be amended, what is the procedure for that? One, two, three, four. Points. If some act, parliament act is to be amended, what is the process to be going through in that? Sir, first, the bill is drafted by the government and then it is placed in the parliament. And... Stop the drafting. It is placed in the parliament. No cabinet approval is required. So it is drafted in cabinet. I'm not sure, sir, but as far as I'm aware, sir, it is required, cabinet approves it. And then it is placed before the parliament. After that, it is put in the gazette notifications, sir. And then parliament considers it... Mr. Kuryan. Mr. Kuryan. Mr. James Kuryan. Mr. Hari. Sir. Can I take over? Yes, yes. Sirag, hello. Good morning, sir. Yeah, good morning. Sirag, you have completed your graduation in mathematics, right? Sir, I completed my graduation in electrical engineering from IIT Kanpur in 2015, sir. Oh, sorry, sorry. Okay. What is the tank circuit? Sorry, sir. I'm not aware of that, sir. And your optional was mathematics. So... What is Vedic mathematics? Sir, it is a system of mathematics in which operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division are conducted based on word formulae or sutras and there are 16 such formulas in that, sir. And it was given by a renowned person, Shri Bhakti Krishna Kriyataji, in the early 19th century, 20th century, sir. Okay. What is God's number? Sorry, sir. I'm not aware of that. Which was the number for which Ramanijan means renowned for? Sir, it is... Yes, sir. It is number 1729. What is the significance of that number? Sir, it is the smallest number which can be expressed as a sum of the cubes of numbers in two different ways, sir. One is, sir, it is 10 cube plus 9 cube and another way is 12 cube plus 1 cube. Okay. Good. What is citizen's charter? What is the public undertaking issued by an organization in which it talks about the services that it provides some measurable outcomes, grievance reversal mechanisms and such things, sir. It is specifically... When was it issued originally? Sir, it was issued first in England, sir. Okay. And what are the tenets of the citizen's charter? And that's of citizen's charter. Sir, can you please specify, sir? I have not understood the basic tenets. Have you come across any citizen's charter? No, sir. I haven't seen, sir. Okay. So, you are right now in Forest Service, right? Yes, sir. Is there any correlation between colonization and environmental degradation? Sir, one thing that I can think of is that colonial administration sometimes introduce some mono... Mention with some example space. Sir, they introduce single-crop vegetations, for instance, sal vegetation, peak plantations. So, rather, in natural forest, diversity was there in the trees. So, they introduce single-species plantations. One was this thing, sir. And apart from this, during colonization... The same is happening with these GM crops also, right? That is biodiversity, not environmental degradation. So, is there any difference between environmental degradation and biodiversity impact? Sir, biodiversity is a subset of environmental degradation. Environmental degradation... So, continue with your example. You were mentioning about the plants and all. Yeah, colonization and this thing. So, it's not just about colonization. The biodiversity impact is happening even now. Sir, it need not be with colonies only. Sir, one was the monoclonal plantations. Second was the intense use of fossil fuels in the industrialized countries while they were getting raw material from the colonized countries. So, fossil fuel increased usage. It contributed towards greenhouse gas emission and global warming in the later years. And apart from this, sir, during colonial administration, heavy poaching of animals was carried out. Animals such as tigers, lions, leopards, etc. So, this was another environmental degradation manifestation of colonization, sir. These are some of the things that I can see right now, sir. So, your hometown is Saharanpur, right? Yeah. So, can you briefly mention the strengths and weaknesses of Saharanpur? For the positive or negative aspects that we can take? Sir, among the strengths, first, it is agriculturally rich and Saharanpur along with the whole western UP area has a good amount of farming is very organized and farmers are generally well off. Second, sir, social composition and there is some degree of tolerance among the people and they tend to live in harmony with each other, sir. Apart from this, sir, in terms of natural resources, especially forest resources, Saharanpur is very good, sir. In the northern part of the district, we have shivalik reserve forest and it is good in biodiversity as well, sir. So, these are some of the strengths, sir. Now, if I talk about the weaknesses, sir, one thing is general absence of higher education institutions. Second, healthcare facilities are to some extent lagging behind, sir. Third, sir, there are problems related to infrastructure. For instance, sewage management is an issue, sir. There is an issue of encroachment on the road, sir. So, these are the weaknesses that I can see right now, sir. What is the per capita income of Saharanpur? Sorry, sir, I am not aware of the exact number, sir. What is the IMR, infant mortality rate? Sir, I don't know. Sorry, sir. How is the medical system, hospital healthcare system in Saharanpur? Sir, we have a good primary and secondary healthcare in Saharanpur. Government hospital is also there, sir. And at the same time, sir, we tend to lag behind in terms of tertiary healthcare. Although in recent years, few tertiary healthcare hospitals have come up, but health quality remains to a certain extent, sir. There is a need to improve on that, sir. So, in terms of tertiary healthcare, there are problems. And what is the difference between law and ethics? Is there any difference? Sir, ethics is a set of moral principles on the basis of which we decide that what is wrong and what is right in the society. At the same time, law are those principles which are backed by an enforcement mechanism and are recognized by the state through law books, sir. Right. Suppose you get selected into IAS, your Decide Service, and you are posted at the DM in Saharanpur. You are like, you hear the news that your very close relative is not well, and you are at the hospital. You are immediately there. And the only way you see that there is a commotion happening, and one man is lying on the road and bleeding profusely. What will be your course of action? Sir, for me, my duty comes first, sir. And my first priority would be to help that person, because he is in that is like your family member is also in that state. That is also your duty. Indeed, sir. I have my place too. Yes, sir. I'll see that, sir, if I can send help to them, sir. If ambulance can be sent to them, and if I can contact some other family member that they can help that, sir. And for the person who is- Is that you cannot take them in your vehicle? You won't take them in your vehicle. You'll call for an ambulance too. Sir, it's just that, sir, I have not fully understood the situation. Can you please clarify? Am I near my family members or am I far from them? Sir, you are going to the you will call an ambulance. You are in that location, wherever it is. Does the family member be nearby or far away? Sir, I'll I'll ensure that ambulance reaches the family members. And they are taken care of. And at the same time, the person who is profusely bleeding, sir, I'll try to help him. I'll try to call the ambulance if it is available. Otherwise, I'll I'll be happy to help him and take him in my own How many kilometers do you job normally? Sir, six kilometers. I do also. Have you participated in any marathon? No, sir. Till now I haven't. Are you planning to? Sir, indeed our training academy is planning to conduct some marathons in times to come. So I'm planning to participate in that. James. Yes, sir. Good morning. Good morning, sir. Sir, when I hear reports of corruption, I often get. Sorry, sir. You're not audible, sir. Not audible. My only voice is breaking. Is it clear now? That's clear. Yes. When I hear about instances of corruption, sometimes I think it is because the individual is corrupt. Sometimes I think maybe the self generates that kind of situation where a person becomes corrupt. What is your view? What is really responsible for it? Is it something to do with individual or with the system? Sir, in my view points, both the factors are important, sir. For corruption, there are three things and we can consider for corruption. First is availability of funds. That will always be there and that is essential for development process. Second is opportunity is because of certain weaknesses in our procedures as well as in institutions. And third is the temptation. Temptation arises because of some value deficit, rising materialistic behavior in our society. So these two things combined opportunity and temptation lead to corruption, sir, and both have to be tackled at the equal level to check corruption in our system, sir. If the corruption level of a particular country is very high, what does that actually mean? You rank countries according to the level of corruption prevailing there. What actually what message it is sending out? Sir, first it says that there is a possibility that there is some problem in the processes and procedures of that country. For instance, there is huge amount of discretion. Supervisioning structures are weaker, accountability is diffused. And sir, there is problem in institutions. For instance, criminal justice system may be maybe facing some deficit to a certain extensor and then sir, there is a possibility of value deficit in the society as a whole, sir. So there are a few things that are there. So when we look at people who are leaders in our society or especially in the case of civil servants, we say, oh, he's a person of integrity. What does that word actually mean? Who is a person of integrity? Sir, integrity means being uncorruptible. The value element is strong in a person. A person may be honest. A person may be uncorrupt because of certain institutional and procedural checks. At the same time, if a person who is uncorrupt because his values are such. So in that case, we say that person has integrity or we say that person is uncorruptible. We say values in our society. Well, where to find them? For example, an organization has certain values. Well, to know about the values of a particular organization where I have to look for. Sir, we have to look for a few things to ascertain the values of an organization. First, the leadership of the organizations are the workers in the organization. Their outcomes, how much are they able to achieve, sir. And the level of social capital that is prevalent in the organization, their trust and understanding. So these are some of the things that we may look for, sir. We may also look for how much are they, how effective is the grievance reversal mechanism within that organization, sir. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you very much, sir. My question is for all of us. Okay, thank you, Chirag. I will call you after some time. Maybe I will be there. Mr. Chandru. Sir, should I log out, sir? No. Sir, he will be put in a waiting room, sir. You have done that? Yes, sir, we have done that, sir. Okay, alright. Yes, Mr. Kurian. Yes. Well, he has a grasp of things. He was able to present very well from my experience. I have nothing much to comment on. He is doing well, yeah. Okay, Hari. Sir, I felt he is a balanced person. He is in a waiting room, sir. He is in a waiting room, sir. Yes. Sir, should I leave, sir? Because I was said that I will be put in a waiting room. I don't know how. You are put in a waiting room, just wait for some time. No need to leave, sir. We can put him in a meeting room. Do that. Yeah, now he has been put in a meeting room, sir. Yes, sir. So, I think he is a balanced person. The only thing is, when I asked about that commitment question, whether he will take his vehicle or ambulance, he was trying to bluff around slightly, but otherwise I felt it was fine. And some questions he can say, I will say that I don't know or I am not able to recall. That tangle only is otherwise I felt he is a decent enough and given from IIT Kanpur, he must have scored well in mathematics also. That must be the reason for selecting Max. So, if the mains mark is good, I don't see any reason for him to be not selected in the service. Whichever higher service he wants. Right. Shruti, please put him back. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, one minute, sir. Sir, he has joined. Unmute your mic. Sir, he is online. Okay, Chirag. Yes, sir. Can you hear me? Yes, sir, I can. When is your interview? It is on 24th July. How do you feel after this interview? Sir, to a certain extent, sir, I feel comfortable and confident. There are few areas that I need to work on. First is making my arms short and crisp and sometimes I tend to stammer a bit so this is one area that I should work on. So, you feel you are done well? Sir, there are few strengths and weaknesses, sir. See that smile you are giving now that was missing throughout. Sir, you could have smiled in between. I found you a little bit nervous. That shouldn't have happened. You should have given this type of smile. Some few points. You are a very good candidate. You have already been selected twice and there is no reason that you will not be selected again. You got very good chances. The only thing is like the policy thing I asked you that if you are a secretary and you are asked to increase the forest cover you should have gone into if it is to be done outside the forest area land belongs to whom? Land either belongs to institutions to panchayats or to the private persons. So unless you provide some incentives to them who will be interested in doing that? So, anybody who would like to have good recover they should get more income than what is being available to them now. So you should have gone for some incentives. Then I asked you something about law amendments. How law is to amend it? Read something about that. Law amendment is not that simple. Law amendment is more difficult than making a law. It involves a big process. Some committees to be constituted on all amendments are required while those are required. Those are put to public domain. Then bill is prepared, then goes to cabinet, then goes to parliament, even parliamentary committees and interacts. You know Indian forest act its amendment started in late 1980s. Till now nothing has happened last 30-35 years. Law making amendments to law seems to be very difficult. Its not that easy. And as you yourself told that you start, one thing is that once we ask you something you start giving answers. Then when we ask you some supplementary questions then you say I am not very clear. If you are not clear about the question you should tell in the beginning. Again what is the question? You should be clear about the question then only start answering. You should be knowing much more about UP. Saranpur I think many things you are asked about. Saranpur is the basic, you are from below to Saranpur. You should know much more about Saranpur, you should know much more about UP. Uttar Pradesh and lot of issues are coming up about Uttar Pradesh. Maybe your whole interview goes for Uttar Pradesh. Then lot of questions will be asked about forest, wildlife, environment. So be thorough about that and of course then smiling of course is very important and don't look like a nervous person. Be confident. Whatever you know, you reply. If you don't know say sorry I don't know. Like to add Mr. Hari. Siraga. In fact as Gowal sir was mentioning you appear to be a bit uptight but and many questions you were not understanding properly and you are trying to beat around the bush also like this environmental degradation and biodiversity angle it's okay you can because biodiversity is part it's a subsystem of the whole environmental degradation part. But you should straight away like such questions again because it is being said that India was being a mine for UK and all so Gowal was being extracted all these sources were being exploited such aspects we can mention and as a Haranpur you need to Haranpur and UP because I asked about the per capita income it's your hometown so you should be aware of those aspects per capita income infant mortality rate because health sector is very much lacking their so those aspects you have to work more and we didn't ask anything regarding international relations so international relations questions also you can expect because of the few services you have put foreign services on of the criteria and then maybe on human empowerment questions can be there and this encounter killings it can be a hot topic because you have done your graduation from Kanpur and you have from UP so those questions can come and be pleasant, be confident how would the main exam go? So it was fine sir Last time also you gave with mathematics only so how much did you score? So last time I got 310 in mathematics Okay this time are you expecting more? Yes sir Last time In the interview what was your score last year? Sir 157 So if you improve on that there is a definite chance of you scaling up in the service a lot of So be confident prepare more on these lines because from forest a lot of other questions will come because since you are in forest service and forest acts you were mentioning about Arunpur being a very green area and also the forest cover such aspects you have to mention When is the interview should you? 24th July 24th July so you have time almost 2 weeks time so you can brush up, be confident and all the very best Mr. Kourian Nothing special Chiraj, you are doing well you answered questions on moral issues especially when the service asking you about choices to be made when there is a dilemma and you have equally weighing options what will you choose going to hospital or attending a patient So those kind of questions may arise where you have to choose between equally demanding options So those questions you can expect I hope so and you are doing well, wish you all the best Chiraj Chiraj that question of corruption, remember I asked you about countries corrupt how it's going to affect then individual corruption and systemic corruption and all, you didn't come out clearly you should mention clearly whatever you were just reading something which was not very clear if individual is corrupt or system is corrupt then how corruption proceeds and if a country is corrupt how it will be affecting people it will affect the economy it will be affecting international relations all those things are there all right, work hard 2 weeks you have not less than 190 to 200 Thank you