 You are already in the rail, remember I have a technical staff, no sir, I am in the software company. Oh, adobe system, adobe system. My designation is. Okay, fine, fine. So, Ms. Banerjee. Yes sir. Now, there is something called the right to information act. What can you tell me about that? Sir, I think right to information act is a revolutionary step taken by the Indian government as far as the citizen simplicity and of the public services are concerned. Okay. It has really opened up the floodgates for the common citizens to really ask and know about their, know about the governance policy of our country. And it also, the Supreme Court has also said that it is a part of article 19 that is the right to freedom of speech as well as a part of article 21 also. Because. Right to life is also. So, now along with the right to information act, there is also something called the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commission, right? Yes sir. What is the role of these commissions? Sir, the role of these commissions is basically to protect and uphold the proper implementation of the right to information act. That is one. But yes and they have some, like the appointments are made with a lot of, with a lot of procedure issues. That's alright. But what is the role in the RTI architecture? Yes sir, the role is basically if a person is not given information by any public information officer. Then the CIC can enforce rules and regulations against the PIO and also to uphold the general architecture of this act via a constant training of the advice. Yes sir. So basically apart from general superintendents of the act, it is an appellate body. That is the primary role really is an appellate body. Yes sir. So that you seek information from the public information officer, you are not happy, you go to the first appellate authority of that department. Yes sir. And if you are still not satisfied then you go to the information, the Central Information Commission. Yes sir. But where does the State Information Commission come? So many a times the Central Information Commission is boarded with such appellate requests. No, no, no. The Central Information Commission looks after the Central Government department. Yes. And the State looks after the State department. I mean under the 7th schedule. Yes. So it's a total difference. There is no appeal from the State Information Commission to the Central Information Commission. Yes. No, recently the Supreme Court had also legislated on the Right to Information Act very recently. What have they done? Sir, they have made the post of the Chief Justice of India. It comes under the Agni of the Right to Information Act which was initially not the case. Correct. So what had happened? Do you have any idea? Sir, as far as I remember earlier the Delhi High Court had said that the court should be brought under the purview of the Act. Very good. Now there is something called passive euthanasia. What is passive euthanasia? So passive euthanasia is a phenomena where if a person is asking that he doesn't want to live anymore then his wishes will be granted but we can't kill him or we can't directly kill him by injecting some lethal doses of medicine rather we can withdraw the his life support system and that way we are not directly contributing to his death via some active euthanasia. There was something also called living will. What is that living will concept? So when a person is alive then that person can say and can mention properly that under these conditions say if I am in a permanent vegetative state then I can allow somebody to withdraw my life support system and I give legal permissions. Supreme Court also helped. Now the government has been introducing a number of schemes to help people. There is a scheme which seeks to buy entrepreneur loans to women and SCSD. What is that scheme? It is the standard scheme. What are the details of this? So under the scheme I think women will be entitled to fast ban humans. But the organization or the organization has to be headed by women. It is either women or SCSD, right? Yes. Thank you. With this strategy you have given preference to IAS or IOS. Why is that? So I believe that IAS is a more of a generalist service and that attracts me to the service technically and IAS has more opportunities to contribute to those issues which surround me and my people more directly. So I will be able to contribute in a more direct way in women's lives. So you think it is not a great honor to represent India? No sir, definitely it is not that because initially when I started preparing I actually had been a part of a youth delegation to Vietnam. And since then I came to know about the civil services and my initial guidance to civil services was for the IFS. But I think it is one of the most prestigious services because it has direct importance on the sovereignty of our nation. So let us talk of international affairs. Why do you think India has not become a member of the United Nations Security Council? So India has been pitching hard for becoming a member of the UNSC. But if we see the origins of when this decision was taken, it was back in 1945. And since then I think that there has been a lack of reforms in the UN itself to incorporate India. And if we consider why India could not push it hard at this time, then if we see the other forums like BRICS, then even Brazil is also trying to have a same kind of aspiration to join the UNSC. And then another main problem, the big elephant in the room is China who seeks to block our admission to the United Nations Security Council. But yes it is hopeful that in the future there will be some UN reforms where India can probably pitch its position standard. Yes partly correct is also the by the time politics of the United Nations. Of course China will be established when the incident in India had planned to get the public seat. And there is also the question of not only the United Nations Security Council, but also the democratization of the pretentious institutions like the IMF World Bank. Why is it not in cash? Sir I think much of it boils down to vested interests going on in the international circles. If we look into most of the nations like in US or so in US specifically which is following a hardly protectionist and not only its economic affairs but also on its political side. So this democratization, I think most of these institutions like World Bank even recently WTO, it is crumbling under international politics of some of few nations at the cost of the entire world. No actually after the World War II when the Bretton Woods system was as it evolved there was a rule which still is first is about that European would be the president of the IMF and American would be the president of the World Bank. So that is the rule. Second is about the why I talked about democratization, voting rights. Voting rights of major countries like India which are still not that high, smaller countries in the world are higher. Now why do you think WTO has become dysfunctional? Sir as a recent cause it has become dysfunctional because due to the absence of judges position nobody is being elected in the judges position as part of the dispute settlement system of WTO and moreover if we look into again this hegemony of US and WTO US is pursuing certain policies like this antimony and steel tariff which is against a multilateral trade order of the world and if US know that if somehow there is a proper and a very fair multilateral dispute settlement system going on then probably US can face the rest of it. You are right US has stopped that pre-elect it has refused to approve any judges so that is the main reason that WTO is not dysfunctional but recently in some place there was a talk that 15 countries get together and try to hopefully resolve it and that brings me forward because it happened at Davos and Trump went there. What do you think Davos the world is now in for us? Is it talking to shop or it is some results? Sir I think that in international diplomacy if we want to get certain results I think talking shop is also a good way to if it is a good starting point. So the fact that Davos brings so many diverse countries under one head and under one umbrella that is in fact a very big opportunity to discuss issues concerning the entire world in a very diverse way because there are not only political leaders there are industrialists and there are people from the entertainment area so I think it is a very diverse platform to discuss issues. That is true really. So what do you think about the state of Indian economy today? Sir the state of Indian economy we cannot deny the fact that the kind of growth that we expected in the early hours of this decade it has not been up to the expectations because the growth has almost plummeted to 5% though the economic survey mentions that it will rebound in the second quarter of 2021. So I believe that many people see it as a cyclical problem because the world economy is also plummeting to some extent there is US-China trade war going on but if we look into our domestic side then we can look into a very parallel agrarian crisis which is going on in the economy and if we do not resolve that with structural and with constitutional mechanisms then I think it is going to have a lot of multi-plan effect on the other sectors as well. Good. Now it needs structural reforms, structural reforms in land and labour. We have written about reflective writing. Yes sir. What is it about? So reflective writing is whenever there is any major event happening in my life or any incident which impacts me then I keep a note of it and I write it and then when I come back I am able to account how was I feeling that time and whether I was rational enough to take decisions that way so it kind of helps in keeping an account for myself. Very rational. Now also it is travelling under budget constraints What is it, where have you travelled under budget constraints? Sir, I have, so the problem is that this hobby of mine came, like it came to my attention when I was a college student so incidentally when we are a college student we are not that financially well off but then gradually when I started earning also I found that this stayed with me as a hobby so I have travelled to the state of Rajasthan I have covered the first state of Rajasthan under a very, under a two-stream budget recently I have also travelled to Shiva I have not been to the northeast No, at least once I planned my northeast trip but that time there was a curfew going on in Shiva Thank you Since you talked about travel to Rajasthan if I asked you to improve tourism conditions there what would you say? What sectors would you touch? Ma'am, firstly I would like to touch the transportation sector in Rajasthan because what I found that there is a lack of multi-modal transport modes in Rajasthan, like for example when I was travelling from Jodhpur to Jaisahari way I found that bus on by road was the only way I mean road is whether the only way but travelling by a state bus or a private bus these were the only two options available for me so if the railway, if the density of the railway could be improved a bit probably that can be a solution That's impossible, how can you just lay not in terms of density not in terms of railway balance I mean the kind of functionality of the train when I was travelling it was winter and we had a lot of delays You mentioned some of the tourist areas in Rajasthan tourist spots Firstly, Jaisahari way Yes, Jaisahari way Then Udaipur, Udaipur Paris Mount Abu in Rajasthan and also in Jodhpur Anything else that you are aware of you may not have visited that you are aware of Yes, I am aware of Ajmay That's okay, anything else I am also aware of Bharatpur Bharatpur Sanctuary What are the other sanctuaries there in Rajasthan Saristha Tiger Reserve is one and also there is another There is Rathal What about the palace Yes, no The Udaipur palace I have visited There is also the Great Wall of India that is Kumbaldur palace That is very beautiful That's okay that you know about I am going to report you about that Yes, when I visited Now you opened the IIT Do you think we should have a single entrance exam for all engineering colleges? Yes, ma'am That is a viable idea because that would reduce cost and time on the part of the conducting bodies But then if we look into the student base for the engineering exams then it is a highly graded system because when people prepare for the IITGE they have a certain mindset and then if we look into the system like they go to Kota in Rajasthan and then they prepare and there are some people who want to study in their state engineering colleges That's okay, it doesn't matter we can always grade it and say that the first ten would go to IIT whichever is considered the best IIT etc But then I think then we will also be creating a virtual management in any case Yes, we have it in any case but I think there are also some people who are driven by the fact that they will stay in your home and they are studying in a state college they don't even appear for a national Now why is it that we have the best of educational institutions in our country but they don't figure anywhere in the world ranking Why is that changed? Ma'am I think the world rankings mainly a high proportion and a high percentage is given to the research ecosystem So though we have a very talented student pool as well as a very motivated professional community but I think we are lacking in research, we are lacking in the quality of patents being filed and the papers being published year on year and I think that is where we are and also the amount of foreign student exchanges that we have Have you heard of the smart city concept? Yes Smart city is something where we mainly take the advantage of information communication technologies for creating cities which has a high index of livelihood, high index of living by improving infrastructure and the public interfaces So are you aware of any city in your state which is under being worked at with this smart city project? Yes ma'am in my Bajahat new town area which is a satellite city of Kolkata that comes under the smart city project What progress have you seen there? Are you aware of any progress? Ma'am if I look into the visual progress as a common citizen then I find a lot of skyscrapers coming up and a lot of multinational organizations opening up their companies Yes So visually if we see as it's appealing but then I've also come to know that there are problems of garbage disposal and that's why there are dengue outbreaks and those ideas So I think that yes smart city is a very viable and a very positive step of the government of India to improve our urban ecosystem but then there are certain structural issues which is very important You are a member of the technical staff or you were a member of the technical staff So what was your work there? Ma'am my work was basically to run software programs like I used to work for the business division of Adobe called Adobe Experience Manager where I used to enhance the customer, the digital experience of customers Thank you Can you tell us what is the importance of the Chabahar port for us? Yes Chabahar port is in Iran and India has signed agreements with the government of Iran for the main advantage of it is that we can access the trade facilities with Afghanistan by passing Pakistan's hegemony over the roots till now and if we look into the strategic location of it, it is also very near to the Guadar port being developed under the China-Pakistan economic control. So it will help India to overcome China's aspirational one built that over strategy as well as it will improve our trade connections with the destination Also through central Asia and the island This year UN is going to be 75 years old Can you tell us one of two significant achievements of UN in 75 years and one of two significant failures Speaking of the significant achievements of UN, I think probably there has been no World War 3 so that is a significant achievement and probably the way situation was handled after the Berlin war broke up in 1991 and that then the world moved towards a multi-lateral multi-polar world UN has been able to conserve that system though there are certain signs of erosion in that Talking about the failures of UN I think the most important will be the World Crisis in 1994 where UN, we say that UN played a role of a silence like that in that war and also the the hanging problems in Israel Jerusalem area and recently the unilateral actions of the US Among achievements also in the area of education and health Yes, of course You mentioned thinking as your hobby What kind of thinking? Classical thinking? Not exactly classical Mainly when I think Bengali I think revolutionary In my college where I used to perform it used to be controlled Who controls the internet? Sir Internet is As far as the controlling is concerned there is an institute in California called ISCAM but they are not a hegemonic control of internet so yes that is a very big question that Someone has to organize it You just can't run wild someone has to supervise it or oversee its operations Who does it? So internet was founded by Tim Berners-Lee and since then there are governments there are private organizations there are students, there are university people Earlier America was it but now America I think last year or a year before last has surrendered to the consortium of countries What do you understand by hegemon? Hegemon Sir a hegemon is any institution or Please carry on Sir a hegemon is any institution or it can be a collective organization In diplomacy I mean in field of foreign affairs Who tries to entrust its own views under its own interests without considering the positives and negatives of the... Is any country acting as a hegemon or has been acting as a hegemon in the world? The US has been accused of acting as a hegemon especially in the era of the Cold War but then after that we say that the world has moved towards multiplicality but then there are also areas of virtual hegemonies created especially in the field of economic affairs and the rise of MNCs and so virtually MNCs are controlling economies of major technologies Who has said that internet access to internet is a fundamental right? Yes Recently Kerala High Court said access to internet is a fundamental right and after the petition filed in Supreme Court regarding the commingation lockdown in Jammu Kashmir Supreme Court has given this ruling Yes, very good You are an electrical engineer What is the stored power capacity, power generation capacity in you, electrical power generation? So it must be something around 34,000 gigawatt Sorry? It can be in gigawatts or it can be in megawatts What is the range of some thousand gigawatts? Some thousand I mean not one thousand I mean 30,000 gigawatts 30,000 gigawatts I mean total including 370 370 gigawatts 370,000 370,000 megawatts Now how much of nuclear power what is the contribution of nuclear power? I think it is around 1 to 2 percent How much will that be? So it will be around 6 gigawatts 6,000 6,700 megawatts and renewables Not counting the wind power the wind power not the the hydro, not counting the hydro renewables includes wind power Including the hydro it will be around 34 percent but without that it will be around I don't understand 34, 30 percent Can you give some heart like in megawatts? Then it will be around 90 gigawatt less than 90 gigawatt About 80,000 How many nuclear plants we have and nuclear reactors? Plants I can count out the locations but more than Okay around 15 Indian government claims that we are surplus in power generation We are surplus in power What does that actually mean? That means that our demand for power is less than the supply that we give and that is why we export our power to countries like Bangladesh and Nepal and we import also from Bhutan But we are able to export because of our surplus of power generation Which means we need not add to our capacity anymore So depending on the present demand present demand situation if we have some surplus power generation then we can export to other countries No I am not talking about export import I am only talking about the meaning of this surplus when you say surplus Does it mean that we have what was our target we need not reach the target anymore we are self-sufficient in power Is that what we are saying? Yes it means self-sufficiency in power generation It means our power power demand has dwindled because of economic activity coming down Otherwise we are very short of power about 200 million people are without power Industries don't get enough power for as much as they want It doesn't, it only means this that our current demand has declined badly therefore we are claiming Otherwise we are not surplus that Have you heard of the democracy index? Yes Where is this index? Economic intelligence Where has it placed India? It is not able to recall the exact But it is not very good We have lost 10 points The lowest ever And what are the arguments it is giving why it is giving us such a low ranking? Sir I think the loss of civil liberties especially after the Jammu-Kashmi communication lockdown There is one more factor So CAA Yes What is our India's Human Development Index has brought out by UNDP latest for 2019 Sir I think the score is around 0.6 That's right 0.6 But our ranking Ranking is I think 165 It's around 130 countries Where are we? 89 countries It's around 130 Ranking is around 130 Very low It falls under middle HDL Middle HDL level Make an India program Is it a success? Sir as for the recent economics survey it has proposed that we should do SM Bill in India No I am not talking about Economics survey says all kinds of things You give me the facts Is it a success? Sir we can analyze it under different heads The policy itself was a very useful one because it targeted of increasing the manufacturing base You are not coming to the point I mean it has not been increased to 25% Okay So we close the interview We have asked you questions on a very large number of topics partially based on your Yeah largely based on your bio data and current affairs So we will give you a video Take a look at it how you have performed some you have done nicely in other areas you need to strengthen your knowledge and facts I think so You worked in adopt systems so probably all this information technology you know this will also be important like 5G machine learning artificial intelligence all these things so all these you will have to work and then budget has been announced So what is the implication of this budget Okay Right No Just keep studying Okay Thank you Thank you very much Thank you Don't forget to like, share and subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon to never miss an update