 Good. Shruthinjaya. Shruthinjaya, sir, yes. It's a slightly different kind of name. Shruthinjaya Narayana. What of Shruthinjaya? Shruthinjaya. You were working in NASCAR? That's right, sir. How did you leave that? It's a good job of a manager of NASCAR. So, India level? So, I was working with the social arm of NASCAR, sir, which is NASCAR Foundation, and I was specifically working in a skill development project which was a CSR project funded by Genpak, which is a multinational company. And when I was actually working in the skill development space, I had a lot of opportunities to go meet with multiple stakeholders which included the training partners, student end beneficiaries and a lot of people. And somehow I realized that the social sector and the development sector is something that I'm very interested in. And I thought that the government, at scale, is something that can actually add impact and value and which is why I thought that it actually makes a logical sense to enter the government. So, that is the reason for you coming to IAS? You want to get into IAS mainly because of social systems? Actually, yes, sir, to be honest. And I was always intrigued by the IAS because I don't have any friends, any family who have been part of the governance system and... But you may never work in social sector? I don't understand, sir. You may never work in the social sector? In the development sector, per se, where you're actually impacting lives of a large number of people through the government schemes and welfare projects, that is something that I'm looking forward to. You're a very religious person? Yes, sir. Religious or spiritual? I think I would call myself spiritual but it was actually someone who's very interested in rituals as well. So I wouldn't... Yes, so that's how I would define myself. How many temples have you been? I've been to over about 150 odd temples in total, but specifically, I've done 87 out of the 108. Another 21 to go? 21, but I think 2 is outside the earthly realm, so probably 19. So lighting? Yes. Physical life. So what do you find fascinating about this? Is it again a ritual or does it have some meaning? Sir, I think when I was young, the geography of the space, a large number of these temples are located around Tanja Votrici, around Madurai, and the geography of each of these places is very interesting, including Badrinath, which I visited alone when I was working at MassCon Foundation, in fact, and stories associated with each of these specific rituals, how it actually includes various elements of the geography, culture, society of that area and how it's all been packaged so beautifully for that to just give you an example. The kind of food or the festival that probably happens along the coast of Tamil Nadu will be very different from what is actually practiced in Badrinath because of the coastline availability here, where there are rituals associated with the sea, associated with Kaveri, the river, because it happens to be the delta, and up north, if you go, how they venerate Ganga in that area, a lot of folk deities around the mountains. So, I've always been fascinated by the stories and rituals. No, but the basic thing is that, you know, all these temples are built in prosperous areas, where there is deltas and, you know, if you go to most of your temples, Yes, sir. It is mostly in Tanja Votrici. Yes, sir. And you can take Tamrabarani basin. That's right. It's all where the water is. So, what is available material? Like you said, the coastline, you know, food will be different from any food. Naturally, because availability is different. So, what's the availability of food? Is that so fascinating? Different foods are available in different places? I think when we're talking about, let's say, localization and concepts like, you know, where we have GI tax currently in India, where we're actually promoting local handicrafts, local handlooms, contextualizing even governance to the area in today's world, right? How are cities managed? How are economics developed based on what is available in those spaces? Of course, with addition to labor and other economic parameters, but just how they were packaged and how the tradition still continues for so long. And we have businesses that hardly survive for a few years, but some of these traditions have survived for so many years, which includes many communities. It's not just one or two communities, but the involvement of multiple stakeholders and how these traditions have survived for so long is something that I am very fascinated about. Do you think that this, you know, there was a time when, you know, religion was a little, you know, subdued? Religious activity in this country was a little subdued. There was more of political activity. But I think there is again a revival of this religious activity, which is not... which gives a lot of apprehensions to a lot of people. Do you agree with that? Absolutely. I think I would agree to the extent that as long as religion is something which is personal and it's not...it's something that's practiced and it's not enforced upon other people without impinging on the rights or the dignity of other people. I think as a very personal experience, endorsing the cultural diversity of this country and promoting a sense of harmony, a sense of well-being and a sense of personal seeking of ethical righteousness, which is what is Dharma, I think to that extent it is in a way a strength of our country which needs to be nurtured. But in terms of it becoming... delving into other areas is something that I would probably not be forced on. Is that in any way disturbing? Is there a disturbing trend in this society? There could be a general issue. Sir, I think to that extent when it... I think, yes, for me personally, I think religion when it's going to cause... especially in a secular public like our country when it's going to cause divisions among people I think when the state is involved when the state has to deliver public services in enforced rule of law and protect and safeguard the interests of everybody I think it is important that religion is kept to the private sphere and not much in the public, in the political arena. Mr. Sanjay Narayan. That's right. See, interestingly, in the extra-curricular activities of this is a pragmatic notion visiting temples with an interest in 108 Koshnoi, the way others... Have you visited any... mass churches or Sikh shrines or Jain temples? Yes, sir. So when I was in Delhi, one of the places that I used to visit a lot was the Mayur Stoom and the Nizamudin Dargah. So I visited Sufi mass. I visited the Jama Masjid. I visited the Ajmer shrine. And I also visited... you asked about Sikh shrine. I visited the Golden Temple, the Harman Dasa in Amritsar. This temple visit is a regular part of your ritual or practice every month? For women, sir. This temple visits? Yes, sir. A regular practice which you are undertaking every week or every month? Yes, sir. So over the last few years, I've always been visiting temples. So why it's a hobby is I think if you just leave me, I think it's kind of my personal space where my parents are not very regular temple goers, but I've always been a very regular temple goer. But over time, I've also gotten a little bit into yoga. So I've gone more into meditation when I go to temples now, sir. You mentioned that your father and mother are in business. That's right, sir. So my father is in the media field. We run an event management, an event production company. And my mother runs an after-school activity center in general. So both of them are self-reployed? Both of them are self-reployed. What business your mother is involved in? She runs an after-school activity center. After-school activity? After-school activity. Chinacha's hobby is like music, art, chess, and karate for children between 9 and 14 years. And so it's after-school like in the evenings where the kids come. If you've got an interest, it looks like a strong interest in religious, spiritual, whatever you call it. I'll make a statement with just comment on it. One can be an atheist and still be an Hindu, sir. Is it correct? Absolutely, sir. I think there have been many times when I myself question if there is God when I look at many things around me and I think it's absolutely possible to be an atheist and to be an atheist. But is this the situation with Christianity or Islam? Is this the situation with Christianity or Islam? He's asking whether you can be an atheist and be an atheist? Yes, sir. You still call yourself a Christian? I am actually not very sure, sir. I'm not very sure. Your basic degree is geo-informatics. Yes, sir. In simple terms, can you describe what is the subject? So geo-informatics is basically using... In simple terms, I think it's the science of where. Where is something? Where is something happening? I think that is in most layman terms. Where is this place? Where is this incident happening? Where do we find this resource? So I think GIS essentially uses location data and we have imagery or observational data which can be satellite. It can be a camera. I think it's the imposition of two, which is basically geo-informatics. In that background, I'm asking you a question. Yes, sir. This March, this month, in 2014, it was important to do a good place because I am on the March 8th. What was it? Science was not able to find out the reason for it. I'm not... That's my answer. March 2014? No, 2014. The date is, I think it is 8th, but this subject is correct. I'm not able to... In disappearance of MH37, say, the flight. Right. You heard about it? Yes, sir. This is one of the puzzles even now in civil aviation. Since you are a student of geo-informatics, you have mentioned in simple terms, what geo-informatics is all about. Can you tell us what are all the possible theories of the disappearance of the passenger flight, which science was not able to find out even now? In spite of scanning more than 1.5 lakhs of flight kilometers in the sea, there are globe funding and other things that... So I think the possibility of locating, which I think is something... I think because of the dynamism of the Earth itself and the process and the flight was actually lost somewhere in the Southern Indian Ocean, which is an extremely turbulent and a dynamic part of the world. So if a crash had happened and because of just the atmospheric and climatic conditions at that point, it's quite possible that it was not just located in one place and it's quite possible that just the... what do you say? Fragmentation of the unit would be something very difficult in a sense to kind of locate even with the kind of resolution of data that we currently have. Can we ever find out that... I think... I think I would not rule out the possibility but I'm not sure how probable it is. It's very interesting to listen to you. You're interested in visiting places of worship, which I think you also brought in the idea that it's not just a very abstract, religious sentiment that also you decide to connect people's way of habits, their community living. I think this is one reason that cultural geography has emerged as a subject of it. Yeah, it is picking up. It's really wonderful to listen to you about and I don't know how much you have thought about cultural geography as a discipline. I think it's very important perhaps in civil servant because it also brings in a new takes, philosophy, phenomenology and even cognitive science and understanding geography not in a very autographic manner but in community living. I think it's important for some of these multi-disciplinary aspects which looks like you already embed in your thinking and in your interest in visiting places of worship. Right, so... I think cultural geography is definitely a space that's currently emerging and I think... I've actually thought about it more from an economic sense in terms of how district administration can properly leverage some of these... I would even say some of these best practices in kind of governance where multiple communities are involved and they are made stakeholders in certain projects and how that's actually worked in many areas. I would also look at it in terms of the potential we have for heritage tourism or we have pilgrimage-based circuits that are coming up we have the Ramayana circuit we have the Prasad and the Redescape so I've thought about it in those things and in a sense I don't think we have we don't have for sure in Tamil Nadu so I think there is potential to probably harness the economic value of it in Tamil Nadu in that extent I've talked about it. Very unique and you also do a unique work unique interest. What do you mean by this intent? Shrutanjay it means celebration of victory, sir. Okay, your mother tongue is amazing. You wrote an exam in India. Why? Sir, I studied in an ICSE school and I'm from Chennai, born and brought up but I think my mother is also half North Indian. My grandfather is from Lucknow. My father is actually from Anjabudesh but I've been born and brought up in Chennai so in some sense I think I'm son of India for sure. Okay, you studied this geoinformatics for four years. How you can use this in your for example, if you are posted in a place it's very, very drought-free. How your education skill can improve the state in all aspects, especially in agriculture for us. How will you do that? So one area in which remote sensing is currently used is in integrated watershed management. So now when you actually have the combination of let's say you can use satellite data to kind of understand the drought prone area of a particular region. I can map the meteorological patterns of that particular region. I can map soil moisture based on which let's say if there is an integrated water development project you can use e-governance, you can use geotagging. So let's say there's Mandrega work and we're actually going to be using people to create check-damps to actually reclaim ponds to actually work on organic farming or precision agriculture in that particular region. I think GIS is going to be useful for geotagging. It's going to be useful probably to even use drones for mapping. It's going to be used for a lot of these things. Yeah, when you said about drone, one of the the co-ordinate accountant general in Tamil Nadu is back he used drone to find out how much sand was queried from a river. It's again unique when you say about how the GIS can be really useful. But still we have significantly improved lot but still we are not go over PSLV system very good and then our launching also very good. But in the spatial we are not up to date like other countries like even you take developed countries like Russia, even Israel they are very good about it. But we have a capability but we are not able to achieve it. So I think it's a very unique situation because A, I think Geoinformatics is very intuitively coming to people with the use of OLA and Uber and very everyday examples. I think it's something that's actually coming into people's hands already. So I think if it's democratized to the sense if we're going to use the GIS knowledge in geography at a much younger age I think innovations and applications based on Indian context. Now we've already used it let's say for commuting. In other areas like you said agriculture governance, land resource management I think if we have a lot more entrepreneurial zest in that area I think we can definitely improve a lot. And I think one area which we're also working on is grievance redressal and in the area of solid waste management so the sea vigil app which the election commission of India used during the model code of conduct last year. I think there was a lot of example of how crowdsourcing information from citizens to understand this is where the problem is and then you had you know officers come in and ensure that there was. No no all those things I'm asking how we could not take out. See all the technologies we have a technology we have machine and everything is there. But GPS and GLONASS are like how they took off long back but why our Navy system could not really take off. The ambitious project of Navy it took place long back. But still it did not take off in the practical terms. What you know what IR analysis. Yes the IR analysis. So I think in that sense because of the efficiency that GPS has already been able to establish very well. I think the benchmark with respect to GPS was something that was but I think it's a very important and a good challenge for India to actually hear from a national interest perspective and be also from an opportunity perspective in terms of developing you know sense of scientific temper and entrepreneurship I think it's an important challenge which I think is taking up quite seriously I think. Yes sir. That's right sir. So actually a question is there any conservative studies? Is there a diploma in conservative studies? Conservative studies I'm not very aware sir but I think recently there are courses which are talking a lot more about culture, about indigenous values, about this new fellowship that's in fact going to come up this year. What are you studying in this course? So I did my Geoinformatics and when this was the third year when the YIF was actually launched and there was a very very very inspiring set of faculty that was actually available at that time at the young India fellowship and it was offering and I was very interested in actually learning the human sciences at that time social sciences I've been born and brought up in Chennai and something that I wanted to experiment is the reason why I did the fellowships. Sir in this 108 temples 9 temples that's right. Varanasi The Navathirupathi temples are in the Tamaribarani base as the service talking about primarily around where the prominent Alwar there is Namalwar so around Alwar Thirunagiri the temples are called Navathirupathi. Some civil servants are having some marks in their forehead. Their personal needs should be respected I agree. As a civil servant do you think it is right? My personal belief would be that it should still allow personal beliefs to the extent that that is not going to delve into the role that they are going to be performing but I think marks and insignias is something which I think the honorable supreme court is also allowed and I think that should be continued sir. Sir can the public differentiate between personal and professional qualities of a person? For sure sir I think with the way of I think conduct definitely will make a difference in how a person perceives personal versus professional conduct sir for sure. Our constitution was enacted at the time of great insecurity in our country sir. Do you agree? Our constitution was enacted at the time of great insecurity in our country. I wouldn't say insecurity I think at the time of visible differences which had to be reconciled when you are creating a new nation. Are we secure now? What is the difference between 1941 and 2020? I think in a democracy there is always going to be some kind of problem but to a large extent I think we have progressed in terms of maintaining a lot of social harmony, building public institutions and ensuring a lot of remarkable development over the span of the 70 years in the epoch that we are currently living in. In 2002 is March 1 something happened somewhere about it I am not sure of the 2002 March I am not very aware of the date if you could probably explain what the event is. I am not able to remember what the particular event is on March 1st in 2002. In the continuation of my questions you can guess right. Our constitution was enacted at the time of great insecurity in our country Are we secure now? What is the difference between 1947 and 2020? Right. In 2002 something happened somewhere Right. From February 28 29th I am not sure but I think one of the events that happened in 2002 were some of the unfortunate and tragic events that happened in Gujarat. Okay, thank you. Right. We will call you in two minutes. Please sit down. Thank you. You are all quite happy with the way you answered the questions. Your confidence level your communication ability and your knowledge of what you have put down in your I don't think there is any problem on how to do the counts. Thank you sir. But I think you didn't even say good morning to anybody. We have no problems with that but sometimes the board may some other board members may not be very happy with that so a basic courtesy is extended to the chairman and the board. So when you go in you say good afternoon morning whatever it is and normally they indicate that please sit down. So I think otherwise I think you came out very well. Very well. When is your interview? March 24th. All of them on that date. I think today people have been coming. So you can go with a lot of confidence. Because you come out as a very mature person who is a fairly decent understanding of the issues and at least the things that you have put down in your course. We have not actually asked you any question on current affairs. We have not asked you a lot of questions on what is happening but your attitudes are good. So that should if you are lucky you will get questions like this. That should carry you through. But you should of course don't be complacent. Prepare for the current affairs. Otherwise I think it was very good. Any questions around karnatic music and the Vaishnava? Of course it depends on the panel. But I think we will be prepared for that. Karnatic music because there are heavy weights who know these things much better than many of us. So there can be questions on that. But I think your positive attitude should see you through. Thank you sir. All the best. Thank you.