Secretary of water supply and sanitation Parameswaran Iyer was in conversation at Off The Cuff about the implementation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Swachh Bharat mission. Iyer, who heads the programme for rural India, spoke at length about the government’s efforts to bring about a behavioural change in the Indian population. His aim is to make villages and towns open-defecation free and keep it that way.
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
From left: Parameswaran Iyer, secretary, ministry of drinking water and sanitation; Manasi Phadke, associate editor, ThePrint; Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of ThePrint
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
From left: Parameswaran Iyer; R.A. Shah, solicitor and senior partner, Crawford Bayley & Co; Deepak Parekh, chairman, HDFC (extreme right)
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
Sitaram Shelar, founder & director of Centre for Promoting Democracy, queried Iyer on Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s sanitation measures which are in conflict with Swachh Bharat’s.
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
From left: Sanchita Mitra, director, Sanrocks Global Fashions; Rajiv Mitra, MD, Govind Milk & Milk Products Pvt. Ltd.
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
Iyer, who is the Centre’s point-person for Swachh Bharat in rural India, said: “Ultimately, we want [people] to understand why a toilet is important.”
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
Journalist Priyanka Sinha Jha asked Iyer why sanitation workers are not provided with adequate safety gear.
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
“We have 4.5 lakh swachhagrahis in India and would ideally like to have one in each village,” informed Iyer.
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
Suketu Shah, joint MD, Mukand Infinite Resolve, had a comment to make on Swachh Bharat’s Waste to Wealth initiative.
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
Deepak Sethi, founder, SolutionsQED, was among the audience.
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
From left: Joydeep Roy, partner, Pricewaterhouse Coopers; Sunil Kanoria, vice-chairman, SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd, and R.A. Shah. Kanoria was concerned about the sustenance of open-defecation free programme.
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
From left: A.N. Roy, former DGP, Maharashtra; Joydeep Roy; Nirmal Jain, founder & chairman of IIFL Holdings; Omkar Bhattacharya, country head – revenue, ThePrint
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
From left: Parameswaran Iyer; Nirmal Jain; Shekhar Gupta
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
From left: Arifa Khan, founder, Himalaya Labs and Fintech Storm; Shekhar Gupta; Harsha Mehrotra, architect; Rupa Subramanya, economist; Vivek Dehejia, economist
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
From left: Parameswaran Iyer; Ishan Raina, adviser, NSDC; Anjali Raina, executive director, Harvard Business School
Off The Cuff with Parameswaran Iyer
From left: Rupa Subramanya; Vivek Dehejia; Parameswaran Iyer
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