 May I come in sir? Good afternoon sir. How are you Javed? I am good. Coming from Pondicherry or? I am coming from Pondicherry sir. How are you? I have been here for the past couple of months sir. Really? Yes sir. You wore this lock down? Second lock down? Yes sir. In fact my interview was scheduled for earlier and I arrived on that date. So that you are not gone? No sir. So when it was in April? Sorry sir. It was to be held in April or May? It was to be held in May sir. Me? Yes. You staying in Kuala Lumpur or? No sir. I am staying in Jamia Ahmadad sir. Mahroli. I am just telling you what is the end of the campaign in the college. So that was an initiative of the MHRD and the Ministry of Women and Child Development to inculcate gender sensitivity on campus. It was a club where certain tasks were delegated to the members of that club in order to inculcate gender sensitivity on campus. What did you do? Yes sir. So the activities comprised means by gaps in college, gender gaps in college and prepare repositories or gender related schemes for women and disseminate and popularize gender helpline. Okay. Why didn't you open for police service? Sir I do not satisfy the physical requirements sir. Okay. Now do you have friends speaking people in Pondicherry? All the four units? Yes sir. There are friends speaking people but primarily there are people who either have a French nationality or people who have come to Puducherry as tourists. There are French nationals also there in Pondicherry? Yes sir. As per the provisions of the 1956 Treaty between India and France, a lot of Puducherry citizens were given the option of availing themselves of French citizenship and these particular people for them the Article 19 rights would be applicable but in all other provisions they are French citizens. In fact the passport is also a French passport. How many such people will be there? Sir I am not sure about the exact figures. I think close to 2,000-3,000 people. They are used to participating in their poll also, French presidential election also. They are also. Yes sir. They participate in elections. Yes sir. It is regularly held sir. France Pondicherry. France left Pondicherry. All the older generations they wanted to be French. But what benefit they are getting now to the French nationals? There are no benefits per se sir. The only thing is these French nationals can at any time migrate to France in addition to this but those have property rights as well as all other Article 19 rights similar to Indians. Those French nationals are Indians or? No sir. They are French people. Indians also there. No. I mean by descent they are Indians sir. By citizenship they are French people sir. Yes sir. Indian origin only. Indian origin. Yeah. By descent they are Indians. No sir. No sir. No sir. Now we have UTs, 8 UTs we have. Yes sir. Tell me the difference between different UTs. Some UTs are governed differently. Yes sir. So certain UTs have. Certain how many? Two UTs sir. Delhi and Puducherry. Both of them have legislative assemblies. Jammu Kashmir you are forgetting. Jammu Kashmir the legislative election assembly elections are yet to be held sir. Does it mean that it is different? No sir. It does have a legislative assembly so. Then in addition to this there are UTs that are governed directly by the Ministry of Home Affairs including Dadra, Nagar, Haveli all of them that have been amalgamated into a single unit. In addition to this there is also Chandigarh. Chandigarh acts as the capital for both Punjab as well as Haryana sir. There is some other difference also. Administrator and Lieutenant Governor. Yes sir. So for in the case of Delhi Article 239 WLA specifies that life here. How many UTs are having Lieutenant Governors? Sorry sir I am not entirely sure. Jammu Kashmir is having. Yes sir Jammu. Ladakh is having. Yes sir. Then Lakshwati Puducherry has. Lakshwati Puducherry has got. Additional charge with the President. It is not Lieutenant Governor. It is Administrator. Okay sir. Right. And Aman's has. Right sir. Okay. We have some particular day today. Sorry sir. Being celebrated. Today's day. I am not. I am not aware sir. Court's day. I am sorry sir. I am not aware. See some two, three days back Madras High Court has made some observation. Right sir. Regarding quota system. Right sir. You know that what is it? No sir. I am not aware of it. That is encouraging casteism. I do not know about the specific observations in that regard. Okay. You are quite young. You can reach up to Cabinet Secretary level. Right sir. So what are your aspirations at the time of retirement? Which type of post you would like to retire? Sir I per se do not have any preference for a certain post. What I would want to do is I would want to contribute in a meaningful and positive manner to India. And also. What highest post and what second highest post you can super invade from government service. Sir I think. Keeping in your age. Cabinet Secretary, I think there is a possibility. Okay. There is also Home Secretary, Finance Secretary. Those positions are also possible I think. Not Chief Secretary if the State? Yes, Chief Secretary of the State as well. Javed. Yes sir. What is the best time to visit Puducherry? That is the best time to visit Puducherry. Apart from the Northeast Monson time. What months of the year? Sorry sir. What months of the year? Sir I would particularly say in the summer months sir. Maybe from April to July. That time is a very good time to visit Puducherry. What are the aspects of French culture that is still reflected in Puducherry society? Yes sir. First of all it is reflected in the, it has commune panchayats. So this is a relic of the French times. How is the commune panchayat different from regular? It's the same sir. Only differences in nomenclature sir. Block panchayats. So block panchayat the French name for that was commune panchayat. In addition to this the street names of Puducherry they also are a lot of them are in French. In terms of culture you would find that in the names of the people of Ponducherry sir wherein there is a English spelling say Raj Kumar, R-A-G-K-R-A-J-K-U-M-A-R it would be R-A-D-J-C-O-M-A-R and a lot of and a lot of French popularization activities by the Lise Francais in Ponducherry means that a good portion of the population is capable of conversing in French sir. Status of Auroville? What is happening Auroville sir it's presently being governed in accordance with the Auroville Foundation Act of 1988 and due to COVID recently the number of spiritual tourists have dropped but the number of people who are staying on as permanent residents that has stayed steady sir the people who are part of that common experimental township. Your mother's name is Benazir. Yes sir. Benazir Poto, you are familiar with Benazir Poto? Yes sir. Can you tell me about Benazir Poto? Benazir Poto was a former prime minister of Pakistan sir and she was often considered a progressive prime minister in most aspects however in terms of a foreign policy and everything she stuck to the usual realist foreign policy approach of Pakistan sir. You have what do you call reading fiction as one of your hobbies? What do you read? Sir I read a lot of classics sir. Most recently I've read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Harriet Bridges tells Uncle Tom's Cabin and I reread Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. So is this why you opted for English literature with the background in mechanical engineering? Sir there were multiple reasons for that. The first reason was that when I was in college I used to be engaged in discussions with my English professor on text of mutual knowledge. She was quite complimentary of my critical analysis and writing skills. Further I was the literary secretary in college and so when the time came for surveying my options for UPSC I felt that I would do more justice given that I had knowledge of prior texts and I had prior knowledge of many texts. Further analyzing the mark trend for mechanical engineering I felt that I would be able to do more justice with English literature. Tamil Nadu has seen a new government and a new chief minister. It's almost three months, four months. Can you tell me some of the initiatives that the state government has taken in the last four months? For Tamil Nadu sir? Yes recently they've introduced the MG Narega likes game for the urban areas sir. In addition to this they've also introduced they've also incentivized travel for women on buses by making it free of cost sir. Okay mechanical engineering. Can you tell me some of the latest developments in the field of mechanical engineering? So most recently there is a concerted push across the world to shift from the traditional IC engine to electric vehicles sir. Okay where does India stand in this regard? So India in this regard as far as what the Niti Aayoga is projecting is that recently we introduced this national electric mobility mission whereby we intended to increase electric vehicle sales six million year on year. In order for all of this to be possible charging infrastructure needs to be set up as well as energy demand will increase by a measure of 100 terawatt hours sir. So recently we have around 1800 charging stations but the actual capacity requirement by 2026 will be in the range of 20 to 30 lakh sir and in addition to this we also need to work on energy storage solutions given that for electric vehicles to be truly renewable the source of energy needs to be from renewable sources. So a lot of present day storage solutions tend to have fluctuations in their storage. So recently the national mission for battery storage has been launched sir. So that is where we are. So this will be a paradigm shift in the EV technology in the what would be called our vehicular technology. Yes sir. Before this what was the major shift that happened? Now we are moving from diesel to diesel and petrol to electric. Before this what was the major shift that happened? In the automobile industry. In the automobile industry there was a lot of focus recently on fuel efficiency. I am saying this is a paradigm shift from. Oh paradigm shift. Diesel, petrol too. Right sir. Before this what was the situation like you know what was diesel and petrol and update of? Diesel and petrol was and I am not very sure about that. So GST on Pondicherry economy. Sir GST on Pondicherry economy is that what has happened is one thing Pondicherry has been given a seat despite being a union territory on the GST council. So it is an equal player participant in the GST process. Secondly however the. What is the value of the vote? Sorry sir. What is the value of the vote? Vote. That one seat carries how much weightage? I am not sure for the individual constituents sir. Sir and in addition to this what has happened is earlier when states were able to set different flow sales tax rates they could attract in the industries on the basis of a differing sale tax sir. Now given that that provision has gone away Puducherry has witnessed an exodus of industries from its erstwhile famous industrial states due to competition from neighboring Tamil Nadu. So state revenue has come down. I am not sure about the exact figures. So if that is the case now one nation won't take that uniqueness of some competitive advantage of Puducherry has gone. Right sir. Why can't you merge with Tamil Nadu as a district and make Karikal as a toluq of adjoining district? Right sir. Sir the grant of union territory status was meant to address a historically anomalous situation. Secondly. What is the anomalous situation? The anomalous situation was that it was part of French India sir. Number one. Number two what was happening is that the French had granted near complete autonomy in domestic matters to Puducherry sir. Chandranagur also was a French territory. Yes sir. That has been mixed to West Bengal. Yes sir. Why Pondicherry should have a special cycle? Sir they were there were a lot of clever stratagems that were employed by the French sir. Chandranagur they held a referendum and the majority wanted to immediately go with their sir. Here because this was the administrative center of the French they gave a lot of autonomy and then they engaged on a propaganda campaign whereby they started to instill fear that you will lose all this political autonomy on the account of merger sir. Then Pondicherry Nero appointed Jerome de Souza for negotiations and on talking to Edward Goubet the leader of the French. I don't know history. Yes sir. Why do you now I think in the daily situation why can't it merge with the Tamil Nadu? Yes sir. Sir there is a 1956 treaty that was concluded with France. Yes sir. What is your personal view should be merged or not? No sir. I think that presently it should not be merged sir for a day. That is my question. Yes because there is a treaty which says that any change in the constitutional status of Puducherry. I am not asking law point you are a civilian. Okay. Okay. Thanks sir. I understood. Sir given that this is a purely internal matter with no security implication and we've done the same thing for Goa sir wherein the democratic process was followed in order to ascertain the will of the people and proceed with it. Secondly a lot of prosperity of Puducherry. For instance the per capita income of Puducherry is 3000 dollars which is 1000 dollars higher than the national average. This has primarily germinated. Tamil Nadu what is the per capita? I am not very sure sir but if we compare the nearest districts of Vilupuram it is primarily agrarian sir. Tamil or Pulbachery on the other hand has had good development in the sense that it's now most of the contribution to the economy is from the tertiary sector sir. Tertiary sector or alcohol? It's the tertiary sector primarily sir. Brewery sector not tertiary sector. So let us move on to this thing. Another development what do you think about even though it is not pertaining to Puducherry. The bank of Tamil Nadu announcement by government of Tamil Nadu they are going to start their own bank. Right sir. Sir I do not know the details about the bank. Yesterday there was an announcement from the bank of Tamil Nadu I think the first state government to start their own bank. Sir I am not very sure about the provisions of that but provided that it will be used for. Now I am telling the news. Someone on the government is going to set up a payment bank or payment bank of Tamil Nadu. Right sir. So how do you take is how do you see this? So if it is a payment bank then in that case it is a very important tool for financial inclusion sir because what could be done is since they are not allowed to lend and deposit limits will be up to 2 lakhs the people will get an assurance that their money is not going to be severely compromised. Secondly there can be cross selling that can happen on these payment banks and thirdly after the enactment of a suitable data protection law data can be monetized from these payment banks in order to in order to innovate customized financial products to ensure financial inclusion. What is meant by NIO bank? I will come across NIO bank. NIO bank. NIO bank. I will come across this term NIO bank. No sir. Okay. LIC privatization. What is the latest? Sorry sir. What is the latest? What do you know about LIC privatization? Token disinvestment is going to happen for LIC sir and on account of this private sector will be investing which will bring in private sector efficiencies. What are all the challenges in privatizing LIC? Sir I think the primary challenge will come from the labor pool that is presently employed at LIC sir. Properly it needs to be communicated to them. What will be the quantum of the value of shares that will be privatized? I am sorry sir. I cannot recall sir. Okay. You said you do not want to merge with Tamil Nadu. I will conclude with this. What are all the strengths and weaknesses of Puducherry? The strengths and weaknesses of Puducherry. Sir the first strength is that proximity to power center. Decision making is the most important tool for economic development or any other. Since the since local self-cuffments election has not been held in many parts of the neighboring states sir. This will be one of the problems. Yes sir. Secondly what will happen is secondly another strength of Puducherry is its industrial states sir. The industrial states that have been hitherto or at least in the past been able to attract a lot of investment. So that is another strength. Third strength I would say is its very strong tourism sector sir which has had a lot of pull especially in recent years given that disposable incomes have been rising. Weaknesses of Puducherry are not able to recall a weakness. There are certainly weaknesses. One weakness in Puducherry is that in Puducherry also local governments have not yet been formed sir given that they are saying that delimitation has not been concluded and for that local elections have not been held. That is one problem. Others are not able to immediately cases are reached to Supreme Court also. Yes. Supreme Court has intro and intro and 5-6 years back still not happened. How do you personally see current various performance? That is let me know. Sir she is a person of outstanding integrity but I also feel that a certain degree of separation needs to exist between the nominal executive and the substantial executive. So you had a hard time finding the weakness of your district. So tell us something about. No sir nothing of that sir nothing of that sir. So you tell us your biggest weakness. My biggest weakness. Madam I tend to speak in long sentences and sometimes go off on tangents madam. Okay and your biggest strength? I would say my biggest strength is that I am very perseverant. So how do you plan to address your biggest weakness although I did not find it during the interview? Madam maybe it would not have been visible during the interview because I have been trying to consciously work on that. So what I tend to do is I tend to try to keep a check on my own thought process stop here. Okay so literature how will literature the study of literature help you in running the administration? Madam direct benefits may be minimal however literature does provide certain soft skills such as being able to communicate properly and although literature is not the sole method to increase empathy literature also makes one more empathetic. Thirdly I would also point to the instance of the Mysore Jail. Madam in the Mysore Jail what is happening is that many renditions of Shakespeare's Lear and Macbeth whereby there is resonance for the prisoners is being performed in order to bring about change in their mental attitudes madam. So I think through these indirect benefits there is some utility for literature. So how has Pondicherry been able to handle COVID? Yes madam it has been able to handle COVID very well madam presently after 1.3 million people 8 lakh people have been vaccinated 2 lakh people have been fully vaccinated the positivity rate is less than 2 percent madam. All of this is possible because it has a very strong health infrastructure 90 percent of the rural areas in Pondicherry have a PHC and 73 percent of these are functional around the clock madam on account of this it has been performing very well in regards. Okay so coming to automotive sector is government supporting enough in the sector what is the view of industry on this? Government has been making a lot of concerted efforts towards the amelioration of the industrial pain in the COVID times madam. What government has attempted to do is it has made liquidity widely available to Atman Irbar Abhyan. In addition to that it has it has saw it has endeavored to improve the ease of doing business by reducing regulatory burdens and compliance and a little more contemporaneous reform was reducing the taxation corporate tax. But this is your view or this is the industry view? I am not sure what is precise. I was asking about the industry view it was in the news recently that's why I was asking the industry view. Okay so what is the difference between reducing emissions and cutting emissions? Madam I am not very sure if I may take a guess I would say that reducing emission would be reducing it by some quantity cutting it would make it zero. So can we reduce emissions without hurting jobs or companies finance performance? Yes madam that is entirely possible what needs to be done is mitigation and adaptation strategies need to be adopted for that green technologies electronic vehicles and in addition to this the Copenhagen pledge whereby hundred billion dollars per year was supposed to be mobilized presently only 36 million of that has been mobilized. So provided that these medley of measures are properly enacted one could ensure that if there is any loss to job industry it is minimum. Thank you. Okay Javed your interview is over.