00:00You're also a very proud Bihari, and you've been taking Bihar's story not just to the rest of the country,
00:08but across the world.
00:09You were recently in Bishkek talking about the civilizational glory of Nalanda and more.
00:18See, Gaurav, when I got appointed as the governor of Bihar, I brought the typical military ethos to the appointment.
00:30Wherever you go in the army, you take ownership of it.
00:33I took ownership of my regiment, I took ownership of the corps I was commanding in Kashmir.
00:39Now, as the governor of Bihar, I thought I have to extend the hand of leadership by taking ownership of
00:46Bihar.
00:46And I found the strongest point in Bihar was its civilizational legacy.
00:55Knowledge, the kind of knowledge hub that Bihar has always been, it's from Bihar that you found knowledge and civilizational
01:06Indian culture moving into Central Asia, moving into Southeast Asia.
01:11You'll be surprised even today, when a visiting head of state comes from a different country in Southeast Asia, he
01:20doesn't usually land in Delhi first, he lands in Gaya.
01:24And that's where I receive him.
01:26So, Bihar is very, very important.
01:29The story of Bihar hasn't been told sufficiently in India, nor abroad.
01:34And I think it's my prime responsibility to tell that story.
01:38And Bihar, I mean, here in newspapers, sometimes in the past you'd read, especially in Maharashtra or other places, you
01:48know, people from North India, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar being targeted.
01:53Or you'd hear that in other parts, fortunately, it doesn't happen anymore.
01:57But I want to understand, sir, Bihar is the cradle, not just of knowledge, but of very powerful empires, the
02:05Maureen Empire, the Gupta Empire, the cradle of religion, sir.
02:09Absolutely, the inspiration is drawn from there.
02:12It goes back to the birth of the Lord Buddha, 586 BC, if I'm not mistaken, 566 BC.
02:20It died in 486 BC.
02:22And thereafter, the Maureen Empire, Magad itself, the Gupta Empire, the golden age of the Guptas, which took Indian culture
02:31all over Southeast Asia.
02:33That is the place where Nalanda University, the first international university of the world exists, 10,000 students were there.
02:41People came from China, they came from Central Asia, all travelers who came to India came to Nalanda first.
02:48So that is what I say, the cradle of Indian civilization exists there in Bihar, and we need to use
02:54that.
02:54Sir, from that era to the situation in Bihar today, where we hear of paper leaks, where we hear of
03:07cheating, education is something where, which is one, your key result area, as a soldier, how are you tackling the
03:16challenge of education in Bihar?
03:21Firstly, Gaurav, the challenge is very akin to the challenges I faced in the Indian army.
03:29In the Indian army, it was all about leadership, taking ownership, as I said.
03:35It was a question of my comfort zone in the army once established that one could take leadership decisions.
03:41I'm striving to achieve that kind of ownership in Bihar with the knowledge.
03:47If I have that, then I'm in a position to take leadership decisions.
03:52But to get back to your original question, what went wrong with Bihar?
03:56I think it's a dynamic process in any state, any city, any village, any entity.
04:04There's always a dynamic state, ups and downs always take place.
04:07The good thing I can say today to our audience is that the Bihar story is now on the upward
04:15curve.
04:16You're finding things changing.
04:18I am the chancellor of 17 state universities.
04:22And I can tell you, we are professionalizing the entire approach to higher education in Bihar.
04:30Bihar runs India.
04:32If you really look at it, almost the entire bureaucracy, a very large segment of the bureaucracy, comes from Bihar.
04:40They run India.
04:41But Bihar doesn't run Bihar itself, perhaps.
04:44That's what people perceive.
04:45So today what we are looking at is bringing Bihar back to its primacy.
04:51And I'm sure that is going to happen in the very near future.
04:55What are the biggest challenges that you face as the governor of Bihar, as chancellor of universities in Bihar?
05:05Because when you talk about education, your college and mine, we had a large number of students from Bihar studying
05:13at the St. Stephen's College, at Delhi University.
05:16They would have to come out and study and then remain out for jobs.
05:21How big a challenge is that for you to ensure, one, they get their degrees on time, two, they're able
05:27to find jobs?
05:28I think you hit the nail on the head, Gaurav.
05:30There's no doubt.
05:31We are both from St. Stephen's College, Delhi.
05:34And we had the pleasure of doing a show once with all the speakers being from St. Stephen's too.
05:39And I can say this, that in St. Stephen's we had some of the finest students from Bihar, some great
05:48institutions such as St. Michael's, Patna, from where people came to our college.
05:53Unfortunately, that may not be entirely true today, but the revival process has all started.
05:58And we are looking towards creating a great knowledge hub once again back in Bihar.
06:05These universities, besides the central universities put together, we need a greater commitment, greater focus, better leadership in terms of
06:15higher quality vice chancellors, a technicalization.
06:20I'm very happy to say today, there's a great deal of digitalization taking place.
06:26There was a time when results couldn't be declared on time because of the lack of digitalization.
06:33Today, we have got a portal called the Samarth portal.
06:37For all 17 universities, it is running.
06:40It is from Delhi that it is run.
06:41And we find that it's much, much simpler with 46 domains that it functions on.
06:48It's much easier, right from admissions to declaration of results, including a digi-locker system in which your degrees, etc.
06:59are emplaced.
06:59And you can pick them out at will whenever you wish to.
07:03So there is a lot of modernization going on.
07:05But let me say that we cannot be impatient about this.
07:09This is something I hold myself back from sometimes.
07:13I find that I am a man in a hurry.
07:16I think that I will take an action and it will lead to a positive result.
07:22And I realize that in leadership, many times in an environment which is so dynamic as Bihar, you can't expect
07:30that to happen.
07:31So the process is a little slower than what happens in the armed forces.
07:35But nevertheless, the leadership style is almost the same.
07:39The leadership style is the same.
07:41But in the army, there are disciplined soldiers.
07:45You say,
07:48Absolutely.
07:52That's the way you function anyway in the army.
07:55What's the response in Bihar?
07:57In Bihar, let me say, well, you see, Bihar, as we were discussing earlier, civilizational cradle of India, the heart
08:06of Indian democracy, after all, Nalanda, Bodh Gaya, Rajgir.
08:11These are the symbols of democracy in India, from where it all started.
08:15So, to that extent, Bihar's democratic nature, the empowerment of its people, sometimes creates a political dynamism of a kind
08:26there.
08:27It's not easy to get past it.
08:29It's not easy to understand it.
08:30It takes time.
08:31I think I'm coming to grips with it, slowly.
08:35I'll take my own time to do so.
08:37But while I'm doing that, I'm not holding back from decisions either.
08:42Brilliant.
08:43Have mistakes been made?
08:44Sorry?
08:45Have mistakes been made?
08:47Mistakes, hugely.
08:49I mean, I make a mistake a day.
08:51365 mistakes a year are permitted.
08:55Right?
08:56As long as I don't repeat it.
08:58That's the important aspect.
08:59That's the element of leadership which we have always followed.
09:03So, with leadership, with the mistakes being made every day, I learn my lessons.
09:09I learn my lessons the hard way.
09:11Sometimes they are very embarrassing.
09:13Sometimes I feel very low and I feel very negative about them.
09:17But then I realize I've been 40 years in the army,
09:22six years in the National Disaster Management Authority as part of Government of India.
09:25This is my 47th year in the Government of India.
09:29I think you need to live with disappointments from time to time.
