2nd interview

VS : So Ashish you were working with Nomura in 2010. What did you do after that ?
Me : Sir I am already in IRS.
VS: What ? IAS?
Me : Sir, IRS-IT. Income tax.
VS : How do you find IRS ?
Me : Very good sir. Liking it. (smile)
VS: (Passes buck to gentlemen sitting on right.)

M1: How is IRS ?
Me: Very good sir.
M1: How is the academy ?.
Me; (Smile)Sir it is one the best academy I have seen anywhere.
We have world class sports facilities, extracurriculars and good syllabus.
M1: But its only 20 years old ?
Me; Yes sir. But lot of changes have been brought over the years
M1: Why you want to leave IRS ?
Me: Sir, Both IRS and IAS are complementary in nature. Given that irs collects revenue and IAS spends it on the developmental work. When i started the preparation, the kind of job that I wanted to do was more in sync with IAS. I would like to spend....
Me: (Cuts)Oh ! So you like to spend ?
Me: (Smile...i smell corruption) Sir i meant to say that if you look at my bio-data, then you will find that first I moved from IT to finance and now to revenue.
I like to explore new disciplines and like being challenged constantly. I believe that  where there is a confluence of lot of disciplines, there we find generation of new knowledge.
M1: (Cuts)Oh so you might leave IAS as well?
 Me : (smile)IAS gives me that opportunity to be working in diverse disciplines say education, health, defense(looking at VS :) ) etc, without changing the job.
M1: You had good salary of 650000, why did you leave it ?
Me: (Confused....it was a lot more ...did i fill form correctly?)Sir you talking about Lehman.
M1; No nomura. (Mumbled inaudibly)Oh sir it was basic.
(Smiled) Sir, it was very clear that after three years of working....My career was going to be made outside India. I didn't want to go outside. I wanted to work in india.
M1:(Surprised) Did they ask you to go outside India?
Me ; Yes sir, they asked me to permanently shift to japan.
m1: (Surprised) Everybody wants to go outside! Don't you ?(looks into my eyes)
Me: (Smile) With a shrug of shoulder and negative nod of head.
(I look at M1, M2, VS they seem impressed...)

M2: Ashish I will ask about international relations.
Me:(Smile)
M2: What is it with india lately ? It seems almost everywhere in every forum ? Is there a consistent stand ?
Me: Sir given that after the financial crisis, the center of world's economic power is shifting to asia. China and India are its leading economies. We are the second fastest growing economy in the world. It's logical that we are taking a more proactive stand in different forums in the world like G-20, BASIC, RIC,BRIC,IBSA, world bank-inf reforms etc. I think we should take a cue from China's foreign policy as it is becoming more and more prominent in the world. We are taking our rightful position.

M2: (nods) China has aksai chin and we have arunachal pradesh. Shouldn't we swap ?
Me:(pause) Sir, I am not the right person or authority to comment on the issue. Already talks are going on. But sir, as far as I understand the issue, it's the issue of macmohan line drawn with a thick pen. Given that China burma had similar issue and sorted it out in 1960s. I don't see any reason, why  can't we solve the issue. Already border talks are going on.

M2:(nods) What do you think we can get from china?How do u see china vis-a-vis India?
Me: Sir, World has space for both of us. We have synergy in our relationships. I would say that economic
relation is substructure for rest of the relations including foreign relations.
Already china is our 2nd largest trade partner with 60bn$ trade. Our planning commisions have recentloy met. Youth delegations are being sent by both countries. So people to people contact is happening.
We have complementary economies - they have hardware, we have software. Given that we have manufacturing policy which seeks to increase its share in GDP to 25% and create 10 mn jobs. China can give us lot in manufacturing expertise and we can do same in services.
 Wrt infrastructure in XII th plan we need 1 trillion $.Out of which 500bn $ has to come from private sector. With the kind of infrastructure expertise they have shown in Sanghai along with the huge FX reseeve, they can definitely help us.
(M2,VS smile....Board seems impressed)

(Now on left)M3: Ashish I will ask you questions deep in finance?
Me: (Smile)Sir, i will try to answer them to the best of my ability.
(VS smiles)
M3: Shouldn't government increase the tax on rich and less tax on poor ? is it the right way to make tax policy ?
Me : (Pause) Sir, tax policy's goal is to increase the tax revenue, which is the product of tax rate and tax base. So  if we look at laffer's curve then we need to find a point where that product is maximum, though laffer's curve is too simplistic. But it can be our starting point
M3(nods) : yes.... laffer's curve is very simplistic!
Me:(Continuing)So sir if we increase tax on rich only then we will go back to India of pre 90s when the tax revenue was very low. We should devise policy in such a way that that product - the tax revenue becomes maximum.

M3(nods): Ok Ashish. We have been hearing about this policy paralysis.What is it ? Govt it seems only cares about rich ?
Me:(Smile...artificial pause...thank sriram sir....one day ago same question he asked !) Sir Govt has the intent  to pass lot of reform bills, but I think as of now around 40-60 bills are pending in the parliament due to coalition politics etc. So these bills as not getting passed. All of these bills concern the common man - like education, where educational malpractices bill, foreign university bill are pending; health - NCHER bill, Food security bill, whistleblower bill etc. So I would say that it's not policy paralysis but (pause) "POLICY PAUSE". I am very hopeful that we will get through this soon.
(Look at all the members of board as I finish this sentence triumphatically....all seem impressed)

M4: Ashish I will ask about law and order. Lately it seems that in many states the law and order situation has improved. What do you think are the reasons.?
Me: Sir there are myriad reasons like political, social, economic, administrative, historical etc.
Like for eg. Political reasons like recently in elections instead of regionalism or castism development plank is there, like in bihar.Ppl are getting empowered.
Economic reasons like growth of india has given lot of money in the hands of govt, which it is spending in health, education. PPL are geting employed and empowered...so law and order situation improving.....
(VS unsatisfied ...cuts...says..but its not only growth but development which is improving the law and order )
Me:(Smile) Thank you sir, I totally agree.

VS:Were you born@ Hoshangabad?
Me:(Thinking he must have been collector of hoshangabad once upon a time) (Smile)No sir, I was born in Jhansi. Though my dad works in Itarsi in railways and my younger sister is married in hoshangabad.
VS: So what do you think about Hoshangabad. Is it developed or under developed or .... ?
Me: (Smile) Sir recently I had a talk with distt collector of hoshangabad.He treats me like his younger brother, When I go to meet him he is always busy....in 5 minutes innumerable phone calls(was trying to imply that I am aware of the pressures of the job).
 In agriculture hoashangabad was in top-3 distts in india this year. We had a bumper crop. So we are developed wrt agriculture but obviously it's not as developed as Mumbai or Shanghai.
 But sir, If i take an analogy then I would say like the gross happiness in Bhutan, I have found ppl of hoshangabad to be happy and content (smile).
VS: So, Are doctors reaching the hospitals on time and teachers reaching to schools on time ?
Me:(Thinking...Uncertain) Sir, Improvements are definitely taking place.But we haven't reached to the point where we should be....
VS: You haven't been in hoshangabad for long ? Isn't it ?
Me (Smile) : Yes sir...As you can see in my biodata that in last 10 years I have been constantly moving in India and abroad.....I haven't been able to live at a single place for more than 6 months.
VS(Smiles): Thank you. Your interview is over !
Me: Thank you sirs.
Get up and push chair back ....put chair back in the original position. Again say Thank you sirs. A final look at all the members. Left.

As soon as I came out, I felt that interview has gone well. But I am not happy :( . I know that sterner test waits outside upsc building .......Life goes on....I see twilight !!!