 So the experience was wonderful, like I learnt a lot there especially going into a new education system which is mostly based on rigorous assignments and practical approach, so the experience was like once in a lifetime I would say. So the systems here in India are not that good? Sir I believe we could improve a lot the systems in India, like when I compare both my experiences in the US as well as in India. I feel that we can have more of a research ecosystem as well as industrial collaborations which can be beneficial for not only the students but also for the private players. And your experience working there, some energy lab you work, how was that experience? So that experience was also very nice and it was actually during this experience that I decided to pursue civil services because I was working as a policy researcher and I was working in close interaction with civil servants both from US Department of Energy as well as India's Ministry of Power. India's Ministry of Power? Power. Power. Yes sir. How that works? Sir, NREL was working on a project called Greening the Grid wherein we were studying increasing penetrations of renewables in our India's electric grid. So by that project I was interacting with some of the civil servants from India. Tell me four good points of India and four good points of US and then your decision to which country should be living in. Sir, with respect to India, I believe our cultural heritage is one of the most important things which we have. Secondly sir is our tolerance with respect to different systems which we have in the country. So I believe that is also an important thing. Sir, we have tolerance towards different types of cultures, different religions as well as different systems, both public as well as private. Is missing there in US? Yes sir, it is missing to a certain extent. Basalism is there. Yes sir. Sir, the third thing which I would say is with respect to our economic ecosystem, for example sir, we are the ones who try and save for our future generations and are not consumerist in approach. So I believe that that is something which we can have. And sir, I also feel that the spiritualism which exists in India is something that is not seen on the same level in US and I believe that on that level we are much more calm and composed and I believe we are much more engaging with the outside world. So and with respect to the US sir, the four things which I would mention is first is their professionalism, the ability to maintain a work-life balance as well as their ability to say no. Second sir, I would say is there the people there they have they do small talks with anyone irrespective of their occupation and I believe that that should be something that can be adopted by us. Don't waste time. So not only wasting time but if someone is passing by he'll just ask you like hey how are you and that just brightens up your day to a certain extent. Thirdly sir, I would believe is their ability to follow up with the tasks which is given to them. That is something very important I believe. And finally sir, I would say that their ability to invest time in their personal self is something that we can adopt from them because they try to spend time not only to develop their skills but also to be like small things like going to the gym or going out on cycling having a weekend off. So these things I believe that ensure that more happiness in a person's life. Sir, I would prefer to stay in India because I have my roots in India, my family is in India and the decision which I took after living three years in the US when I when I had a stable lifestyle is something is the reason because of which I will recommend staying in India. I think the work-life balance is concerned. I think it's not true for Indians living there in the US, they again got much more than 25. It may be true for the Americans that they got 9 to 5 complete but not the Indian ones. Sir, I'm back to differ a little bit on this. In the student life we have a lot of work because we are usually working 13 to 14 hours every day. We have the school work as well as part-time jobs to sustain our livelihoods. But once you go into a full-time job, since you are already earning, so you usually have a 9 to 5 work-life balance. You know about the Supreme Court, Supreme Court comes in here in India. Sir, I know about our Supreme Court but I have limited knowledge. I do have some but limited knowledge. But how many judges will be there and how many judges will be there? In India we have 34 judges in the Supreme Court. I'm not sure about the number. 9 judges. Thank you. Yes, sir. Anna Hazare. Yes, sir. Recently news. Yes, sir. Sir, Anna Hazare is a role model in the Raleegao Siddhi village of Ahmednagar district. And he has been very influential with respect to turning a draught-front district into a water-sufficient district. And he was in use very recently, before this, back into the, right somewhere, he was going past, right, temples are closed, temples are also reopened, I'm sorry, sir, I want to go back. Okay. Hivri Bazar. A lot of that? Yes, sir. Sir, Hivri Bazar is again a model village in the district of Ahmednagar. And the Serpentch, Mr. Popatropovar has efficiently used the PRI system to transform their village again into a self-sufficient and multi-millionaire village in their district. So it is based on the concept of collective work as well as water budgeting and a formation of cooperatives in different sectors. So just to state an example, they also have a cooperative Mungal Karyale, wherein people can conduct their marriages at minimal costs. And they have also focused on dairy cooperatives, which has helped improve the incomes of the people living in that village. Vinayak. Yes, sir. You have just pulled out of Afghanistan. Was it, was there some issues in the way you pulled out, was it unplanned, what do you think? Sir, I believe that the pullout was a very hasty process. It could have been done in a better manner, where it could have put conditions on the Taliban as well as, it could have put conditions on Taliban to ensure a shared government as well as a holding of human rights and female rights. So from my point of view, it was a hasty return. Yes. US has left a lot of resources in Afghanistan, a lot of aeroplanes. They have said they have decommissioned it or they have used some term. What would they have done to these, what do you call it, it depends. Sir, some of these systems they have communication devices through which they are able to operate in a better way. I believe they would have basically decommissioned those devices. As well as there is a lot of mechatronics involved in these devices. So I believe they might have disrupted the circuits which for their efficient funding. Okay. Taliban has said that China is its most important partner. What is its implication for India? So we see that there is a new axis of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan developing. And I believe that the Taliban saying that China is one of its important partner. It is basically, it can cause security concerns first because China would try to have its DRI infrastructure in Afghanistan and Pakistan being in middle of India and Afghanistan it will try to restrain our connections with Taliban. So I feel that it is going to be a security concern for us. Can you explain India's current renewable energy basket and what kind of changes can be expected in the next 10 years? Sir, currently our basket consists of around 40 gigawatts of solar around 38 to 39 gigawatts of wind, 5 gigawatts of small hydro and around 10 gigawatts of biomass. These are installed capacities in the electric sector. Sir, by 2022 we will be having around 175 gigawatts of installed solar capacity and by 2030 we will be having 450 gigawatts. And as a result, as we are increasing the penetration of renewables, we will have to also depend on storage systems. And these storage systems will be in the form of grid level storage as well as gravity storage systems like pumped hydros. Also, sir, I also believe that with the penetration of renewables we would have to diversify the locations of these renewables. So currently our renewable setup is mostly in the west and the south and going towards 2030 we will have to have this setup also in the east and the north. I am reading about something called as the global chip shortage. Are you aware of this? Yes, sir. Why is it happening in one of the main sectors which will be affected by this? Sir, this is happening because of the supply chain breakage which occurred because of the COVID pandemic and there was disruptions because the movement of these products were limited as well as the manufacturing was stopped due to lockdowns. Sir, the most important sectors which will be which currently is getting affected is automobiles but there are also other sectors like electronics industry, the computer, the software industry which is getting affected because of this. Okay. We have green hydrogen. Yes. That is the news. You have electric vehicles and you have IC engines. Can you tell me the difference between the functioning or engines of these three different types of vehicles? So, for green hydrogen, we have a fuel cell system wherein we can fill in the fuel from outside. Although it is said that it is convenient to fill that but hydrogen being explosive, it needs to operate in a very secured manner. So, this will be basically a fuel cell system which will be the excrete products of this system will be water and heat. With respect to the electric vehicles, it will be operated by an electric motor and this will be powered by an electric battery. With respect to an IC engine vehicle, sir, it is basically an SI engine or a compressed the SI engine or the diesel engine or the compressed engine. In this, we have a fuel which is either self-igniting or which is ignited by a spark plug. So, it is powered by the heat energy which is generated which is transferred by the connecting rod. So, Vinay, this is an IC, right? Yes. Columbia. And you went to scholarship or was it without scholarship? Ma'am, I had 15% of scholarship. It was still very, very expensive. Yes ma'am. Yeah, it is one of the most expensive universities in the US. So, after having spent so much, then you know, you decided to come back. So, don't you think it's too late in the day to take this call? You know, you could have done your whole graduation from here also. Ma'am, exposure which I got during the Masters as well as my full-time job. As I previously mentioned, I was interacting with some civil servants and during this time I realized, ma'am, that the research which is done by the scientists it will remain only on paper unless it is implemented on the ground level by the civil servants. And I thought I could be a good interlocutor because by that time I had decided that I wanted to go into policy making. And when I looked into the career trajectory of a civil servant in India, the first half deals with policy implementation and stakeholder management and the second half goes into policy making. I understand what you are trying to say here. My question is very, very different. It's to do with, you know, the right timing of making the right kind of career choice. So maybe, you know, you can afford but not everyone can afford to have spending, you know, so much of money on post-grad and then coming back here. So are we somewhere lacking in a system in education system where we are not able to support and help make children take the right career choices at the right time? Ma'am, to answer your first question with respect to the affordability, I was able to repay most of my loans with respect to the job which I had in the US. And to answer your second question with respect to the timings of the decision, the fact that we have age limits for UPSC up to 32 years, as well as for different organizations, we have a maximum age limit. I believe that it itself tells us that we are asking the students to get exposure and then make a career choice because a lot of students, even after going to engineering, they try and explore in different fields like MBAs or directly into civil services. So I feel that this is a right ecosystem because we are allowing the children to explore and then find the area of their interest. Any notable adminite from your university who inspires you? Ma'am, there are many. To note, a couple of them is Sir Vishwa Saraya, after whom we celebrate the engineers' day. And Ma'am also Rajiv Bajaj, who is the CEO of the Bajaj Company. Columbia. This is from Columbia. In Columbia? Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Bhupen Hazarika are the two. Okay. And what is your view on brain drain? How can we address this? Ma'am, to see why brain drain is occurring, there are two major issues which exist. One is people go from India to outside countries in the search for better quality education, as well as better standard of living through better job opportunities. So to address these things, firstly to deal with the educational attainment, I believe that we should focus on a research-based ecosystem in India, wherein students have much more flexibility in choosing their courses, as well as there is interdisciplinary approach. And Ma'am, to address the second question with respect to job opportunities and standard of living, I believe that we have great potential for the creation of entrepreneurs. And if we are able to tap in these resources with the recent initiatives we are taking, like opening up of the defense and the space sectors, as well as entrepreneur support schemes like Stand Up India, I feel that this is the right way to go. And we can also try and ensure that these startups, they become unicorns rather than staying dwarf. So this is the approach I believe we can. You are reading news papers? Yes Ma'am. And the US was in news. It's in news right now for what reasons? Ma'am, one of the reasons is Afghanistan. Just the new news in the last one of the days. Yesterday there was a news in Texas wherein they had passed a law on anti-abortion. Anything to do with climate change? Yes Ma'am. Like the John Perry. Anything? Yes Ma'am. There was Cyclone Ida in the northeast. Why is it in news? Ma'am, this is one of the strongest Cyclones. Especially in New York it has caused a rain of 3 inches and which is one of the maximum. And did he die? There were around 45 to 50 deaths Ma'am but I am not sure. What do you think is the reason for this flood? There are multiple reasons. The basics ones which include that the Cyclones are because of the rising sea surface temperatures. But the extreme events of these Cyclones is also because of global warming with rising temperatures of air. The air is able to hold more moisture and it is pouring down really. Is it because of global warming this has come, this spread has happened? The increase in number, the frequency of these events is basically according to even the recent IPCC report it has said that a major cause of it is global warming. There is one last question. Yes Ma'am. This is about Maharashtra. So you know again it was in news that VGP and MNS is demanding to open temples in Maharashtra. So what is your view on that? Ma'am I personally believe that the temple should not be opened because right now we are having cases of the order of 4,000 to 5,000. And we are saying you can open leaker shops and why not temples? Ma'am, leaker shops right now in most of the cities they are operating on a token based basis. So there is not crowding in these shops. A token is raised and then the delivery is made. As well as the leaker shops also help the state to generate incomes or revenues. Some of which it is losing because of the lockdowns. But with respect to religious places Ma'am there is a lot of crowding in these cases. You can also implement token system or something of that. Certain temples also can open it. Ma'am but with respect to the leaker shops the amount of population or the percentage of population which has access to leaker is much smaller as opposed to people who want to go to the temples. So in that sense I believe that it is best interest of everyone to keep it closed. Sir, I did my engineering in Pune. You did your engineering in Pune but you are from Maharashtra. Tell me something about Peshwa Bajirao. So Bajirao Peshwa first he was one of the prominent establishers of the Peshwa dynasty which existed. And then he also ensured that all the different sex of Maratha communities like the Sindhya's Boslis they were working in coordination rather than opposing each other. And so he was also expansionist and one of the prominent leaders it is said that he took his kingdom from Attaq to Mattaq. Attaq is in Afghanistan and Mattaq is in South India. So he is basically a great leader from the Peshwa dynasty. And he is credited with as you said expanding the boundaries of Maratha empire. So at its peak what were the how much region of India did the Maratha empire cover? Sir, I would say the current geographical area in terms of that around 60 to 65% of the area was covered by Maratha occupation. Vinayakya graduated from Columbia University. Recently last year during the Black Lives Matter movement we saw that many statues were dismantled, confederate statues and also some statues in UK as well. So do you think it is a logical trend? I mean history should be left as it is so that people should know about what those personalities have done and they should interpret, people should interpret themselves. Do you think bringing down those statues is logical? Sir, I don't believe that bringing those statues is logical and I believe that this is more of the work of small marginal sections who are miscreants and who are trying to promote violence in such cases or try to instigate that feeling of racial discrimination among the masses. So this is more of a symbolic nature and there should be more rules and regulations to detail such people from doing such acts. Tell me that why Silicon Valley is different from the rest of the world in terms of its encouragement to entrepreneurship. What is so special about Silicon Valley? Sir, I don't have exact knowledge about it but I believe that the incubation centres as well as the interdisciplinary approach which is seen in this ecosystem of Silicon Valley is something that promotes the entrepreneurs to go there and set up their businesses because they also get a lot of mentorship from the next-hand entrepreneurs so that is also another thing. Okay. You have worked for some time in the renewable energy in the broad range so can you tell me what is the status of adoption of rooftop solar in India? Sir, currently it is very low. It is one of the orders of four gigawatts and out of which around 2.5 to 3 gigawatts exist in three states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka. So a lot needs to be done in this scenario because we are targeting around 40 gigawatts by 2022. Okay. And which country is the world leader in rooftop solar? I am not a person. Okay. You have also mentioned watching English TV series in one of the companies so what is the last TV series in that year? Sir, I saw a genius of Albert Einstein and prior to that I saw Chernobyl. Chernobyl. These were the two. Okay. So as you saw Chernobyl, there were a lot of after effects of the blast that happened. So do you think as renewable energy option, nuclear energy is really sustainable? Because the per unit cost of nuclear energy is quite high as compared to solar or wind energy. So do you think why governments are actually investing in nuclear energy? The waste material is also volatile to handle. So why are they interested in it? Sir, to answer your first question with respect to my opinion, I believe that the green energy in terms of solar and wind should be the future because as you rightly pointed out that it is very expensive to set up a nuclear power plant as well as it has toxic wastes which are generated. And if we look per megawatt or per unit prices, nuclear somewhere costs around 6 rupees per unit whereas solar is costing right now 2 rupees. So I believe that green energy is the future. And sir, worldwide we are seeing a decrease in nuclear installments especially after the Fukushima disaster which occurred in Japan. Almost every another plant of nuclear is currently established in China and in India also we have only 7 gigawatts of capacity which is less than 2% of our installed capacity. So I believe that worldwide there is a decrease in installation of nuclear power plants rather than people looking forward to investing in it.