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Amit Brahmo

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Secretary in GoI seeks VRS

Secretary Official Languages in the Government of India, Devdas Chhotray, has sought VRS. He is 1971 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre.

Mauskar is JS Environment

Jayant M Mauskar is new Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Forests and Environment in the Government of India. He is 1977 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

( We said this on July 12 )

Sahota is new JS Panchayati Raj

Avtar Singh Sahota has been appointed new Joint Secretary Panchayati Raj in the Government of India. He is 1980 batch Indian Economic Service Officer.

Kiran Chaddha appointed JS Defence

Kiran Chaddha has been appointed new Joint Secretary Defence. She is 1974 batch CSS officer.

( We said this on June 2 )

Atul Chaturvedi to be AS Commerce

Atul Chaturvedi is being tipped to be Additional Secretary and FA in the Ministry of Commerce. He is 1974 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre. Presently Chaturvedi is Additional Secretary Rural Development.

Avay Shukla to be AS Rural Development

Avay Shukla is being tipped to be new Additional Secretary Rural Development in the Government of India. He is 1975 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre.

Srivastava to join ATFP !

B K Srivastava is likely to join as Member Safema Appellate Tribunal in a month or two. He is 1971 batch IRS officer.

Will Dr Sen be CSI ?

Grapevine has it that Principal Secretary in the Planning Commission, Dr Pranab Sen, is being appointed Chief Statistician of India in the pay-scale of Secretary to the Government of India.

1982 batch Civil Services to celebrate 25 years of service

1982 batch Civil Services (IFS-IAS-IPS) is celebrating 25 years of service. A contributory dinner has been organized at Surajkund Tourist Complex, Faridabad, Haryana on September 2 (Saturday) at 7 PM by D S Dhesi, Hem Pande and Dr Dalip Singh. Over 40 Batch -mates have already confirmed participation. Send email to dalip9999@yahoo.com. for joining or confirm on 09316121891 to Dalip or 09316121886 to DS DHESI or 09810132693 to Hem Pande

Singh goes to CBI Training Academy

DIG CBI in Jaipur, Harish Chandra Singh, has been moved to the CBI Training Academy,Gaziabad.

Govt extends tenure of Delimitation Commission

The Government has extended the tenure of the Delimitation Commission upto July 31, 2007. This has been done to enable the Commission complete its job.

Separate Directorate for e-governance in TN

Tamilnadu government has decided to set up a separate directorate for e-governance and appoint an IAS officer to head it.

45 IAS officers of 1976 batch empanelled

Altogether 45 IAS officers belonging to 1976 batch are believed to have been empanelled to the rank of Additional Secretary in the Government of India. They are Mssrs :- S Sundareshan and C K Mathew (Kerala), Sumit Bose and Uday Verma (Madhya Pradesh), Sanjay Narayan and B C Khatua (Maharashtra), D V Singh ,Shashi Prakash and A E Ahmad (Manipur-Tripura), Dr Sutanu Behuria and S Vijay Kumar (Himachal Pradesh), Anil Kumar (Nagaland), R C Mishra and Hawa Singh Chahar (Orissa), A Didar Singh ( Punjab), M Raman and R Gopalan (TamilNadu), Dr Sayed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi, Veena Upadhyay, P Uma Shankar, P K Mishra and Ashok Kumar Khurana (Uttar Pradesh), Ms Vibha Puri and N S Naplchyal (Uttaranchal), Rajiv Sharma and K S Money (Rajasthan), Ms Bhupinder Prasad, V V Bhat and Vanhela Pachuau (UT), R P Singh , R H Khwaja, K V Rao and Ms Minni Mathew (Andhra Pradesh), Samirender Chatterjee and Naba Kumar Das (Assam-Meghalaya) U K Sinha,P K Basu and S K Sharma (Bihar) R S Gujral and Amita Chaudhry (Haryana), S L Bhat (J & K), Mukhtyar Singh (Jharkhand), Debaditya Chakraborty, Dr A K Chanda and K S Ramasubban (West Bengal).

IAS changes in West Bengal

There is IAS reshuffle in West Bengal. New postings are ;- Mssrs Dushyant Narial Director DPEP,R I Singh MD Medinipur,Pravir Kumar Sen Director Labour,Kanta Prasad Sinha Director School Education,Shyamal Kumar Bhattacharya Director Social Welfare and Rajesh Sinha DM Cooch Bihar.

IAS officer dies in Jharkhand

1974 batch Jharkhand cadre IAS officer Chintu Nayak has passed away in Ranchi. He was 59.

TAIL-PIECE

A French teacher was explaining to her class that in French,
unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
"House" for instance, is feminine-"la maison." "Pencil", however, is
masculine-"le crayon."
A student asked, "What gender is 'computer'?"
Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two
groups,
male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether
computer
should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give
four reasons for their recommendation.

The men's group decided that "computer" should definitely be of the
feminine gender ("la computer"), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is
incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for
possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending
half
your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be
Masculine ("Le computer"), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they
ARE
the problem; and
4.as soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a
little
longer, you could have gotten a better model.

.........The Women Won!

BY- A CONTRIBUTOR

FORUM

I know of the expression creme de la creme. The so called career bureaucrat has used the expression cream de lux cream for IAS. Do these words refer to some variety of LUX cream soap or soup or may be biscuits?

A responsible Officer

cream de lux cream! Ha! Ha! Thats a new term- only a career bureaucrat, especially a generalist, can think of such crap! Uneducated pompous bastards!!

Technocrat

Only by applying cream to all the Ministers and senior bureacrats, both at the State and in the Centre, the cream de lux cream survives.

Mani

Just because you are saying that you are the cream doesnt make you so dear friend! Ask the public , ask anyone who matters or who doesnt matter and they will tell you what the perception of bureaucrats is. Had the bureaucrats really worked India would have been far ahead in every field. Wherever the government has withdrawn and given a fairly free hand to private sector it has outshone everyone in the world. Bureaucrats are not only corrupt to the core but only do that work which suits them. The nexus of politician, bureaucrats and criminals is coming to light again and again. What does anyone get a committee again headed by a retired bureaucrat. Who gets a post retirement job for toeing "His Masters Voice"

Pankaj Garg

Aaj Ki Aawaz

Does Ramdoss want to be the infamous Dr. No????
To CSE's Report he's said 'ille po'!!!!

Leave Manmohan now even his Cabinet Ministers have taken it on themselves to issue clean chits!!!! Ramdoss has given a clean chit to Cola Companies!!!! Ramdoss says that there are inconsistencies in CSE's findings!!!!! So once again the Cola Giants have won and the Indian Public is the loser!!!! Well this can be rectified….. just stop drinking Colas!!!!

Nut's reply to Show cause Notice shows that he's lost it,
Now one can understand how he's dug himself into a pit!!!!

Rather than replying to the question, Nut chooses to point fingers at the issuers of the Show cause Notice!!!! He says that two Members of the Committee had been expelled from the Party……so what??? They were re-inducted and are in the Party today!!! Then Nut says our Embassies and delegations promote our goods all over the World…… arre bhai Nut ji but you were caught promoting your son and his friends!!!! Seems Nut is missing the point…….Nut in Wonderland!!!! Congress has confirmed that the Oil for Food scam was a Father and son job!!!

For a man who initials N.D. mean Non Decisive no one expected him to decide,
N.D.T. says Jairam will be next FM…. glee Jairam could not hide!!!

N.D. Tiwari earned himself the name of Non Decisive Tiwari!!! Jairam's heart missed a beat when N.D.T. said at a Public Function that Jairam was tipped to be the next FM…. Jairam of course just said ' no comment' and added to the speculation!!! In fact they say Jairam's smile was a 'dentist's dream' ….. he showed all the teeth in his gob!!!! By the way …. just for the record…. Jairam is a Communist in Congressman's clothing!!!!

Laloo's is a case study for IIMs……. well there can be some more case studies on this man,
In fact after these studies are made Public IIMs may impose on Laloo a ban!!!

Like Laloo's scams and the ensuing investigation and cases could be a case study for the Investigation Agencies and Judiciary on how investigations and justice are derailed!!!! Laloo's rule in Bihar can be a case study of what happens when goons get to rule!!!! Laloo's family can be case study on how Family Planning has gone wrong!!!! Laloo equating his longevity to the poor old Aloo can be a case study of how an innocent tuber transformed into a symbol of hate!!!!

Mulyam is now on a saree distribution spree,
Okay that takes care of 'her' what about 'he'?????

Mulayam is distributing sarees worth Rs. 250 crores!!! In fact now Mulayam is in 'dole' mode!!!! But why is he spending money on purchase of a helicopter and a plane for the CM , when he knows he's going to get booted out and in all probability Mayawathi will get to use these???? Maybe its his way of buying peace with Mayawathi so that she does not hound him after she becomes CM!!!!

Pakis were caught tampering with the ball,
After getting caught they started to bawl!!!!

This shows the Paki mindset!!!! They cheat and when they are caught they bawl and threaten!!! What crybabies!!! The ICC should come down like a ton of bricks on these cheaters!!! And seeing Paki Government's flip flops with India seems cheating comes naturally to Pakis!!! Boo !!!

Bharat Kumar

aaj_ki_aawaz@rediffmail.com

WHISPERS .... CORPORATE WORLD

New face to be CMD GAIL ?
Whispers doing the round in the Petroleum Ministry say that this time there will be a new face on the post of CMD GAIL.What is the significance ?.

Will there be role of Haryana ?

Will there be a role of Haryana in the appointed of the new CMD of the ONGC ? One has to wait and watch ?.

Interviews for HMT' CMD on 25th

Interviews for the post of CMD in HMT would be conducted by the PESB on August 25.

Akash Taneja to join FICCI as ED IIPD

Akash Taneja, an Indian Trade Service officer and Intellectual Property expert is joining FICCI on deputation. He would be taking over as Executive Director of IIPD where he is expected to play a key role in galvanizing the Intellectual Property Rights movement in India.

Two full-time Directors of Peerless

Deepak Mukherjee and Jayanta Roy have been appointed full-time Directors of the Peerless.

Pradhan is GJEPC ED

Arvind Pradhan has taken over as the Executive Director of the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEP}.

Low, low last minute fares from Indian

Spot Fares now from 22 cities
Flying by Indian has got more exciting. Never before low fares are now available for last minute travel from as many as 22 cities.
Spot Fares, introduced from 1st Aug. 2006 on flights out of the metros - Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore - have now been extended to flights departing from 16 more cities. These cities are Ahmedabad, Kochi, Bhubaneshwar, Lucknow, Nagpur, Madurai, Guwahati, Chandigarh, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, Jaipur, Goa, Visakhapatnam, Agartala, and Bhopal.
Available on a "first come, first served" basis a few hours before the scheduled departure of a flight, these fares are available on flights that have unutilized capacity till a few hours before departure. Passengers can buy the tickets through travel agents, through the 24 X 7 toll free number 1800 180 1407, on-line or even at the airport. A boon indeed for those making last minute plans ! These fares are available till 30th Sept.2006.

THE TELEGRAPH WRITES

Voicing the whispers
Suresh Mehrotra is focused on bringing what goes on inside the country’s corridors of power to the world outside, says Smita Tripathi
FACE OF THE WEEK - Suresh Mehrotra

Three guesses as to what most IAS officers do on reaching office every morning? Order a cup of tea? Bury their noses in a newspaper? Heck, maybe even do some work and ask for the list of appointments for the day?

Oh no, they crank up their computers and log on to www.whispersinthecorridors. com, a website, which has taken the country’s bureaucracy by storm. Who is going to be the next cabinet secretary? Who has moved up the ladder? Who has been kicked off it? Have transfer orders been issued? And who is returning to their cadre? Basically just about all the inner goings on in the corridors of power find its way to this website.

So who’s the mole spilling all the bureaucratic beans? Some speculate that he must be a bureaucrat while others suspect he’s a low-level functionary in the personnel ministry. But they are all wrong. Meet Suresh Mehrotra, a doctorate in history and a journalist by profession who runs the whispersinthe corridors website from a small room in his house in Bhopal — with just one computer. Mehrotra has informers in every department and even senior bureaucrats leak to him. But ask him to reveal their names and he’ll grin and repeat the old mantra: “A journalist never reveals his sources.”

No surprises there! In fact, Mehrotra’s sources are placed so deep within the system that hardly any information on the country’s “Iron Frame” passes him by. Consider this: a few months ago Mehrotra got a call at the crack of dawn with earthshaking — from a bureaucratic point of view — news. The cabinet secretary had been given a two-year extension.

Mehrotra uploaded the information on his website immediately. It was only later in the evening that the government announced the decision and it became the top story on every news channel. However, by this time most bureaucrats across the country were hotly debating the last minute change, thanks to Mehrotra’s website.

Says Mehrotra, “People expect me to know everything. I have senior IAS officers calling me to check whether their name is on a particular list or not.” It goes without saying that he doesn’t mind the attention. In fact he basks in it. “People often refer to me as Mr India (referring to Anil Kapoor’s role in a film of the same name), since I’m only heard and not seen,” he laughs.

Whispersin thecorridor.com started humbly enough in March 2001, with an initial investment of around Rs 50,000. It received only two hits on Day One. Today, it has more than 2.6 million visitors and is read both by bureaucrats in India, and also those attached to Indian embassies abroad. In fact, the site enjoys such credibility that bureaucrats often quote it.

Mehrotra has an anecdote about a senior officer who was hoping to be transferred to a new department. Whispersinthecorridor carried an item that he was about to be transferred, so the officer went to his boss asking to be relieved of his job. His ingenious argument? — ‘if the website said it, it must be true’. He got his orders the very next day.

Says Mehrotra, “Sometimes I know things before the officers themselves.” He goes on to talk about a secretary level officer who the website said was going to be moved to a different ministry. The officer’s son-in-law called him up from the US to ask if it was true. The officer, not a regular visitor of the whispersinthecorridor site, had no clue but two days later, he was moved.

Just how does Mehrotra get all this sensitive information? “It’s a give-and-take relationship. Some information I part with, and some they give me,” he says referring to his bureaucrat buddies. On an average, Mehrotra sends out between 25 to 30 mails a day and makes around 50 calls to various people sitting not only in Delhi but also in other state secretariats.

And how did it all start? “It was my fascination with the bureaucracy and the way the government worked. I was never much interested in the political side of things. It was the bureaucrats who attracted me,” says Mehrotra.

So in the mid-1980’s, Mehrotra, then the bureau chief of the Free Press Journal in Bhopal started a weekly column called Whispers in the Corridors. Of course, the column only covered the activities of the officers of the Madhya Pradesh government. “It was a huge success and I realised that there were a lot of people who were interested in knowing what was happening at the seat of power,” he explains.

In 1992, Mehrotra moved to Delhi for a year. “I spent most of my time in Delhi meeting bureaucrats. Today most of them are my close friends,” he says. From 1997 to 2000, Mehrotra was the editor of National Mail and then went on to edit the Hindi daily, Nayee Duniya.

However at these organisations, he didn’t get much chance to pursue his passion for the bureaucracy. So in 2001, he set up the website. “I thought it was time for me to do something on my own. The website was just an idea,” says Mehrotra who initially had to face a lot of flak from his bureaucrat friends when he called them up asking for information to put on his site.

Cut to the present and it’s an entirely different story. “Now people often call me up and give me information, even without my asking for it. In fact, sometimes they try to plant stories about others. I need to be cautious and crosscheck such information with my sources,” says Mehrotra who as a rule tries to stay away from controversies. “I concentrate only on the comings and goings rather than on issues of corruption. Investigative journalism is for newspapers. I only give information,” he declares.

Running the website costs Mehrotra around Rs 50,000 a month thanks to the server fees and the telephone bills. He has also recruited one person who uploads the site daily at around 11 am. Apart from that, it’s a completely home-run operation.

For the first couple of years Mehrotra wasn’t making any money, but now he says he is breaking even. The site gets advertisements from the Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh governments. “Most advertising is through contacts. I don’t undertake any marketing,” he says. But now, more and more people are approaching him for advertising. Recently the IAS Wives Association has started advertising on the website for a new housing complex that they are building.

So what’s the future like for whispersinthecorridors. com? Like all dot.com entrepreneurs, Mehrotra hopes that some day the site will be big enough for a company to make him an offer he just can’t refuse. Till then, Mehrotra continues to do what he loves — give voice to all those whispers floating around in the corridors of power.

Photograph by Jagan Negi