 May I come in, sir? Good morning, sir. Good morning. Come in, sir. Are you from Tudapir? Yes, sir. Where is Tudapir? It is a place in Tiruvandhubaram district of Kerala. In which part of Kerala? It is about 13 kilometers from Tiruvandh. There is another place in Tudapir in Kerala. Do you know that? No, sir. Do you know? No, sir. I am from Kerala. Do you know that? Kodamangala. Yes, Kodamangala, my name is Sir. Kodamangala, Pongala. Tell me something about that. Artugal Pongala is an annual ritual of Artugal Devi temple in which the majority of the female followers used to come and offer Pongala for the Goddess for their prosperity. It is one of the largest gathering, peaceful gathering of women in the world. Some Guinness records are also there. Guinness Book of Records. Yes, sir. It has got Guinness World Records and Limca Records. And which month it is celebrated? Sir, mostly it falls on February last week or March 1st week. How it is done? Can you just explain what these women do there? Sir, they make a special offering called Pongala which includes rice, jaggery, along with fresh leaves and all. PTP Nagar. Have you heard of that? PTP Nagar. Yes, sir. Tell me, how it is named? What is the full form of PTP? I don't know, sir. From Nanu Kille. Who was he? He was. Sir, if my understanding goes right, he is the first Chief Minister of Travancore Cochin State. Okay. Tell me some other temples in and near Truanruf. Sir, the most famous being Padmanabha Swami Temple. Then there is the Palavangadi Ganavathi Temple, which is quite famous for it. Then there is a temple in Palayam Square. And... Something on way to Gannakumari. Some temple on way to Gannakumari. I am not aware of it. Okay. Biothermically, you are done. Sir. Tell me, how does it relate to institutions in Kerala? We have Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishit. That is, how does it relate? They also have a wing to deal with the conservation of forests and all. Then department of biochemistry and environmental sciences in the University of Kerala. So, that's all. Any institution followed? Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanical Garden. Pichy? Yes, Kerala Forest Research Institute. You know this, suppose you are district collector of Idikik. And you have to reallocate some villages from which area, some PA is there. Protected area? Either Vigolum National Park. Okay. Some villages are there. You have to reallocate those. As a district collector, what all considerations will be there for you? Sir, are you asking about the relocation of people? People. Village. Village inside the Vigolum National Park. Those people have to be rehabilitated somewhere else. So, what all points you will consider for their rehabilitation? So, since relocation is a very complex process, the first consideration should be their livelihood options. Because most of the communities, they should have been intrinsically... Okay, just tell me the points. Yes. Their livelihood, the traditional way of living they had inside the National Park. Then preserving the traditions, giving better amenities like drinking water, sanitation facilities. Maximum in and around the National Park will be my best option to relocation, sir. What type of houses they want? So, most of the traditional communities, they may not be familiar with the Pappka houses. So, that you have to ask them, no? Yes, sir. What type of houses you would like to have? Yeah, consultation will be done. Children's education? Yes. Milu, tell me three things that you like about Kerala and you don't like about Kerala. So, first thing, the landscape of Kerala. Second, the social development... These are things you like or you don't like? Sir, I like. Sorry. I like... The three things I like is the landscape of Kerala. The social development indicators of the state. Then the overall harmony the people have in and around. The things I dislike is the overall tiredness that Kerala is not so clean. But it's so clean? Not so clean? Clean, sir. Yeah. The waste management system of Kerala is not up to the mark. It has gone bad already. Then the growing polarization among certain communities... Third point in what you like and the second point in what you dislike is contradictory. As I said, it is growing. We used to have a harmony there, but now it is like increasing the polarization among certain communities that is growing. Then the underexplored potential of our state is another thing I dislike. So you said the third thing is underexplored potential. What are the areas in which Kerala is underexplored? Mainly in agriculture, so agriculture sector. We have our own options. I thought the industrial sector is underexplored in Kerala. From a resources perspective, the industrial sector has its own limitations in the state. But I think, sir, from the perspective of agriculture, we can still explore more. Okay. Kerala and high consumption of alcohol. It was again in use on the context of Onam. Yes, sir. Do you think we should impose a kind of prohibition as seen in the case of Bihar and Gujarat in Kerala? Sir, regarding the consumption of alcohol, it's an individual's choice. So rather than prohibiting, it should be better we create awareness rather than banning completely. Because banning again itself tends to brew illicit alcohol and all. So it is better we create more awareness rather than complete banning. You worked in the Kerala Police Department. Can you tell me some initiatives of the state Kerala Police, Kerala State Police, which can be adopted in other parts of the country? So first and foremost will be the Janamaitri program because it increases the camaraderie between public and the police. Second must be the student police initiative in which the students from their initial years, they can be groomed into better citizens. The Ping Police Petrol, which include the law and order concerns of women, is also another good initiative. Tuna Portal is another good initiative from Kerala Police. You worked for almost seven years. How has your experience shaped your personality? Sir, before joining the police department, I have a very wrong perception about the government office. Not just wrong, but there was a skepticism inside mine of how a government office work. But being inside the department, I understood I am being more responsible and compassionate to the cause of the people, I believe. You have a hobby reading nonfiction. What do you read? Mainly, nonfiction related to the geography. I like geographical nonfiction. Can you tell us some books that you have read recently? Sir, I have gone through the Land of Seven Rivers by Sanjeev Sanyal, The Ocean of the Churn by Sanjeev Sanyal, Following the Fish by Samand Subramanyam. Following the Fish. What does this book about? Sir, the book is about this author who travelled through the coastline of India and finding new fishes, or the fishes which are particular to certain places and trying the dishes. Was this inspired by your other hobby of fish keeping? Coincidentally, it came together, sir. So, what kind of fish should I do, or would you call it? Group. Right now, I keep guppy and carp and silver sharks. So, what are the characteristics of this and how do you monetize this? Sir, I don't monetize fishes so far. With the characters being guppies are more easy and it has the resilience to be in certain environment. But silver sharks are right. Like they have a tendency of committing suicide. So, those are the characteristics I observed. You have also presented a paper at Kerala Science Conference. What was that about? Sir, it was about the using of urease enzyme as an indicator of soil fertility. Can you say this in layman terms? What is that? Sir, our soil contains an enzyme called urease and this urease is essential for the plants to take up the urea fertilizer. So, the more the urease content in the soil, the more will be the absorption of nitrogenous fertilizers. That's good. You know, you are, you have opted for foreign studies as number two. Who was the first lady foreign studies officer in the country? Any idea? Regulation, have you heard of Ms. Muthamma from Kerala? She was the first. Until 1922, they were not allowed to marry. You know that? No. No, of course. Okay. Now, what's happening in Ufgar-e-San? Suppose you have posted that. Do you think it will be comfortable? Sir, the situation is very dire. So, it must be, it won't be that much comfortable. But my priority will be evacuating the Indians and other Afghan people at the earliest. Now, in recent years, the government has been airlifting people. Yes, sir. It's a great thing, no? Yes, sir. From, yes, from dangerous areas, it is very good initiative to make them save. Any instances where we have airlifted people? Sir, I recall from South Sudan and Yemen. Recently, we have airlifted people. Have you read any book written by foreign security, serving or a dad or...? I don't recall, sir. I don't recall it. No, that's why I don't recall it. No, it's not that. What is gender budgeting? So, gender budgeting is formulating policies regarding the finances, which is specifically targeting women and their development. Very good. Can you name one item under the budget, which is exclusively for women? Sir, the Nurbaya Band. Nurbaya Band. What is the Nurbaya thing? Sir, it was a name given by the press and media for a girl who was gang-raped in Delhi. Yes, sir. Okay, that's fine. Now, your option is geography. Yes, sir. That's very good. Now, tell me, does the size of the country determine growth? Economic growth? To an extent, yes, sir. Because the size, when size increases, the potential of mineral wealth also increases. The resources of the country is projected to increase. So, in that perspective, yes, size matters. Okay, that's my economic job. You understand the concept of economic job. Sir. What are the things you are studying under that? So, economic geography mainly deals with how the land is contributing to the economic development of the country. So, mainly the sectors of the economy, like agriculture, industries, with respect to geographies dealt by economic jobs. What is it? How is time difference calculated? For each degree, what is the time difference? Sir, I can't exactly recollect it. Now, should we have different time zones even within our country? Yes, sir, I totally agree to it because we are having a very vast expanse of land. So, multiple time zones will be feasible for us. Yes, too. Yes, sir. In America, you know, how many time zones they have? No, sir, I don't remember. Oh, that's fine. I think, quite I think. Okay, now, what is the Dead Sea business? Why is it called Dead Sea? Can Sea be Dead? Sir, because of the higher salinity, life forms find it very difficult to survive there. That is why it is called Dead Sea. Can you sink anything in that? Maybe more denser material, sir. But I think most probably things float. Where is it located? Sir, it is in the borders of Israel and Jordan. Look, we tell Scandinavian countries. So, Scandinavian countries include Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Greenland. There is a Helsinki conference, we must have heard of it. What is that? Often quoted. Sir, it is between, it's a conference by US and Russia for their peaceful agreement. Peaceful talks and all. Now, tell me, generally, they say, labor is very expensive in Canada. So. Compared to Tamil Nadu or other places. Why is it? Sir, because Kerala's people, they used to go to other Middle Eastern countries and they have a higher standard of living inside the state. So, naturally, historically, this created a demand. In the state itself. So, when a labor is offered, people used to demand higher wages. So, hence the minimum wage is set in a very higher bar. Good. You are aware of Nithya Ayurveda. Right? You have seen any of their reports? Sir, yes, sir. I used to read when it is being reported. Sir, the last one I remember is School Education Quality Index. Okay. So, what does it say? Sir, it basically talks about the learning outcomes of different states. They compare the equity in education, the learning outcomes, the overall infrastructure. Are they ranked the states? Yes, sir. So, which is at the top? Sir, if I recall it correctly, Tamil Nadu versus top state last index. Canada closed second. Yes, second. And the bottom and the last one, at least, sir, if I remember correctly. Now, in Tamil Nadu, I don't know whether you keep track of things happening in Tamil Nadu. A very regular IPS officer, a woman, she was harassed and, you know, all sorts of harassment, she complained again, the DGP. And then, two, three other officers also supported the DGP. Now, what will you do in a situation like that? Of course, now court has, you know, doing things that we should be doing, but still. And similarly, in Karnataka, one rupee, you might have heard that IPS officer, gay. You know, when you try to find corruption or things like that, there are officers who are harassed. What can be done? Sir, one thing will be the implementation of Supreme Court judgment by establishing a... Which judgment? Precursing case. In that judgment, Supreme Court said about establishing a state security commission, which is having... We can establish a security commission along with this sexual harassment at workplace, or in a gender angle, we can create another department in the state level to hear such complaints from the women officers. So, we believe more in commission than omissions. Can I say that? We are across two issues. Sir, an institutional mechanism is always good rather than having nothing about it. You think about India as a whole. We can say our GDP is about 2.5 trillion. We want to go for 5 trillion. And composition of GDP is agriculture, industry and manufacturing and services like this and all. Can you explain with four or five sentences about Kerala State GDP? Sir, I haven't read recently about Kerala State GDP overall. You can make a guess. What is the Kerala's GDP growth rate approximately? That also I am not aware of it, sir. What is the composition of Kerala's GDP? More than 60% is comprised of the service sector, followed by the agriculture sector and the industrial sector comes at the border. What role remittances play in Kerala's economy? Sir, that also I don't know the exact number, but Kerala's economy is largely sourced from this remittance money. How COVID has affected or impacted this remittance economy? So, COVID has forced our expatriate community to come back to the home state. Since travel restrictions are still on, so most of them cannot go back and most of the jobs are lost. So it should be very detrimental for the state's economy because we have to accommodate such expatriate community who were erstwhile doing jobs in a very high wage. So what the government is doing about it? Sir, I think Norca has opened a registration portal for the upcoming communities and with the sidelines of India's external affairs program. Just registering, it will solve the problem or why they are asked to register in this Norca? Sir, one thing is if we have a data, we can streamline things better because most of them are skilled labourers also. So skilled labourers can be re-rooted to the upcoming... As an administrator, you are asked to give some policy formulations for these repatriates. One, two, three, four, what are all the things you will recommend? Sir, one thing I will recommend is the setting up of sunrise industries in the state. For example, we have a huge untapped potential for the food processing sector. So some of the labourers can be re-rooted for that. Second must be the service sector expansion itself, the tourism, the untapped potential of tourism, education sector because Kerala is becoming an educational hub as well. Third will be cooperating with other states because the earth of labour is there in other states of India. So we can send our nurses or other skilled professionals to the other states. Fourth must be by collaborating with government of India Kerala can attract investments to the states itself in the potential sector so that some blue collar jobs can be re-rooted there. Afghanistan, embassy has been totally wound up or somebody is there still? Sir, I think India has retained a small condition of staff in the airport itself but embassy is closed. What is the number of Indians already evacuated and what will be the number still they wanted to come and they are not able to come? Any guess? Sir, I don't know the exact number but I think... Kerala Covid lessons. What are all the lessons you learnt from the Covid management by the Kerala? Sir, it has two sides. The positive thing is a positive lesson I learnt is when you have a proper plan or when you have a proper mechanism to... a Covid management strategy is there. That is a very positive thing to learn. But the negative thing is the way it is being implemented that lesson was somewhat misplaced because opening up of the economy during festival seasons is the alternate days opening of the markets. That strategy actually outfired. Is there any alternative? How long will you keep shop shut? How long will you stop people from celebrating festivals? What is the alternative you are suggesting? Sir, rather than restricting to alternative days it should have been better. They open for all days so that crowding effect should have been ruled out after being a densely populated state. Opening up on certain days will increase the crowd only. So if they could have given the availability of shops or such condiments for 24-7 it should have avoided the crowding effect that could have been very detrimental. Kerala, in the initial first phase Kerala was considered as one of the best Covid administered states. Okay. But in the second wave, what happened? Sir, during the first wave the number of cases were initially low and an early lockdown strategy proved it best because we could have isolated and treat patients who were affected with Covid. But after consecutive election and festival time the numbers got boomed up and the people were out of options due to economic constraints and all. So the government has failed to capture... What is the role played by Delta variant? It has also a considerable effect, sir because the virus is having greater virulence when compared to the other strains. That also played it part. Why Kerala is always in the news whenever new diseases come. This is Covid also first came out in Kerala only before that NIFA virus also first detected in Kerala only. Why does Kerala being the first to remove these cases? Sir, it has multiple reasons. One is like people are having very much accessibility to the healthcare institution. So even they affected with the cold they will reach to the hospitals and healthcare institution. So detection is there. Second thing is the zoonotic diseases are having a very high prevalence because people are closely connected to the ecosystem of the Kerala which is similar to rainforest or similar to ever been nature of the thing. Also the exported community is very high. So even when other countries are reported there should be a Malayali in that case. What is the size of Kerala at Aspora? I don't know the exact numbers. Sir, very high. Sir, because almost from every household there is an NR from Kerala. So roughly tell me how many households are there how many inspectors will be there. Sir, if my cases right then around 50 lakh people will be outside. Okay, Minu, your interview is over.