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Empanelment of 1987 &1988 batch jointly !

A serious thought is being given in the GoI to prepare a joint list of 1987 and 1988 batch IAS for the empanelment to the post of Joint Secretary level. Will it be possible?.

Mishra to be CVO AAI

D S Mishra is all set to take over as CVO of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).He is 1984 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.

What caused confusion over Nand Kumar's shifting ?

Grapevine has it that since PM called Nand Kumar alongwith Textile Officials on Tuesday, it was believed that he is being made Secr (Textiles). Later it came to be known that PM held discussions about Sugar Export with him .

NHAI Chairman proposal stopped ?

Special Secretary Coal Pradeep kumar was the first to be proposed to become NHAI Chairman. Why has it been stopped then?.Is it because of Baluji or Laluji ?.

Will Lalla be Chairman in Maharashtra ?

Grapevine has it that Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, S S Lalla is being appointed Chairman of the Maharashtra Human Rights Commission. He is 1977 batch IAS officer,

Alpana Dubey posted in MEA

Ms. Alpana Dubey (IFS '2002) has been posted as Under Secretary in Southern Division in MEA after her return from language posting in Tokyo.

Indrajeet to be Director Home

Indrajeet is being appointed Director in the Ministry of Home Affairs. He is 1988 batch IDES officer.

Ray to be Member of CBDT

Prasantha Ray is all set to become new Member of the CBDT after the superannuation of Arun Bhargava next month. He is 1971 batch IRS officer.

IAS or IFS not to be Member of UPSC !

If top sources are to be believed, this time no IAS or IFS will be appointed as Member of the Union Public Service Commission.

Tamil IAS to be PS to Chidambaram !

It is widely believed that a Tamil IAS officer will be new PS to Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

IPS reshuffle in Madhya Pradesh

There is IPS reshuffle in Madhya Pradesh. V M Kanwar will be new ADG Administration.ADG Administration Nandan Dube has been made ADG Fire Services.Surendra Singh has been appointed ADG Law and Order. Rajendra Kumar has been moved to Indore as IG.Shailendra Shrivastava IG Indore has been shifted to Bhopal as IG Training.

IAS officer re-employed in Punjab

V N Ojha DG of the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Punjab has been re-employed for one year.1970 batch IAS officer Ojha was to retire on September 30.

Shome Gets extension

The appointment committee has approved the extension of Parthasarathi Shome as Adviser to the Finance Minister, at the level, rank and pay of Secretary. Now Shome would continue as Adviser for a period of three years beyond September 30,

A K Singh is Secretary Textiles

A K Singh will be the new Secretary Textiles in the Government of India. He is 1972 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre. Singh is presently Special Secretary Agriculture. He will succeed D P Singh who is superannuating on September 30.

G K Pillai is new Secretary Commerce

Gopal Krishna Pillai has been appointed new Secretary Commerce. He is 1972 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre. Pillai is presently Special Secretary Commerce. He will succeed S N Menon who is retiring by this month end.
( We said this on September 5 and again on September 11)

Viswanathan promoted in GoI

N A Viswanathan has been promoted and posted in the rank of Secretary in the Government of India as DG National Productivity Council (NPC).He is 1972 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.
( We said this on July 19 )

Manoharan is Additional Secretary Water Resources

S Manoharan has been promoted to the rank of Additional Secretary in the Government of India.1975 batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IAS officer Manoharan has been posted in the Ministry of Water Resources.

Sinha promoted in GoI

B K Sinha has been promoted to the rank of Additional Secretary in the Government of India. 1975 batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, Sinha, will now be Additional Secretary Panchayati Raj .
( We said this on September 14 )

Lalitha Kumar gets promotion

Lalitha Kumar has been promoted to the rank of Additional Secretary in the Government of India and posted in the Department of Statistics and Programme Implementation. She is 1974 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.
( We said this on September 4 )

Dr Sarat Chandran to join GoI

Dr U Sarat Chandran has been appointed as Adviser in the Planning Commission .He is 1974 batch IAS officer of Orissa cadre.

Avay Shukla to join GoI

Avay Shukla is joining the Government of India as Additional Secretary Agriculture and Cooperation. He is 1975 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre.

Chakravorty to join Inter-State Council

A M Chakravorty will join the Inter-State Council. He is 1974 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre.

Dr Sugathan promoted

Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs Dr K S Sugathan has been promoted to the rank of Additional Secretary in the same Ministry. He is 1973 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.
( We said this on August 29 )

FORUM

No place for honest officers

It is a slap in the face of competence when your yardsticks for these postings itself are heavy duty contacts, forceful string-pulling and mutual gratifications by coteries of officers. They not only get posted, but continue despite surfacing of scandals brushed under the carpet with alacrity by all concerned and also get posted to multilateral bodies/agencies as a reward for their inefficiency? It is sickening, the deeper you go into it. Any honest frank-mouthed officer is quickly shown the door and has to cool his heels in postings the equivalent of Siberia! That's the way the cookie crumbles .Thats it. But one still wonders who gave these rats the authority to infest these public institutions with such impunity as if it is something bequeathed by their Fathers to them. Will there be no justice and transparency in postings?

Bhavna

Pl do research !

Has anybody or you have really tried to find out about those Chief Commissioners of Income Tax who never have been posted in Delhi/Bombay throughout their entire career and inspite of preferences in the transfer proforma for such stations did not get it. On the other hand number of officers have been transferred from Delhi to Bombay and vice versa. Please do some research on this also and don't claim that everything is fair in these two services

Tushar

WHISPERS .... CORPORATE WORLD

Three Directors in Coal India to retire

As many as three Directors in Coal India Ltd are slated to retire next year. They are Ajay Kumar of CLL, SA Yusuf of WCL and SK Vartiyar of NCL.

Committee set up by DoT

The department of telecom has set up a committee headed by telecom commission member (technical) K. Sridhara to study spectrum utilisation efficiency of Indian operators.

Jain is President Jaipur Management Association

K L Jain has been appointed President of the Jaipur Management Association.

Lt Gen (Retd) Bhandari is VP

Lt Gen (Retd) P P S Bhandari has been appointed Vice-President by the Tulip IT Services Ltd..

Spot Fares, Unchecked Fares get extensions

Good news for the travelling public ! The increasingly popular low fares offered by national carrier Indian will continue to be around for some more time.
Unchecked Fares or "X" class fares presently available for travel on the domestic network till 30th Sept. 2006, have been extended for a whole year, with travel to be completed by 30th Sept. 2007.
Similarly, Spot Fares available for eleventh hour travel have also been extended till 31st December this year. Also, passengers travelling from three more stations -- Khajuraho, Varanasi and Srinagar - will now get the benefit of Spot Fares. With the addition of these three stations, Spot Fares will now available from 25 stations on Indian's network.

TOP BRASS- SPEAK

The National Thermal Power Corporation(NTPC)is poised to take a quantum leap in the power sector by almost doubling its power generation capacity from existing 26,194 MW to 51,000 + MW Company by the year 2012.Even the NTPC is going to make forays into coal mining sector.
These views were expressed in a free and frank interview to "whispersinthecorridors.com"by NTPC chief T Sankaralingam.

Here is his interview

Questionnaire from 'Whispers'

Q.1 What are your expansion plans?

Ans. Today, NTPC is a 26,194 MW Company (including 1054 MW in joint ventures) and has been working towards achieving the target of additional 3210 MW during the current financial year.
We plan to add 21, 941 MW during the 11th Plan which would make us a 51,000 + MW Company by the year 2012. This amounts to nearly doubling our capacity by the year 2012. We also have plans to become a 75,000 + MW Company by the year 2017.
This will include hydro capacity of about 9,000 MW by the year 2017. Nuclear power generation is also being considered as a long-term option and we are looking at this option seriously.
Our strategy for capacity addition will include expanding the existing stations, developing greenfield projects and bidding for projects under the competitive route.
We are diversifying and expanding our business by way of backward and forward integration such as coal mining, coal washery, fuel sourcing, power trading, etc. covering the entire energy value-chain.
The Government of India has allocated 8 coal mine blocks to NTPC, 2 of them to be developed through JVs with Coal India Ltd. By 12th Plan period, we expect to meet nearly 20 to 25% of the coal requirement from the Company's own mines. Thus, NTPC is poised to become the second largest coal producer in the country, next to Coal India Ltd.

NTPC has won an oil/gas exploration field in Arunachal Pradesh in partnership with Canaro Resources & Geo Petrol under NELP Round V through competitive bidding. The production sharing agreement with the Government of India has been signed. Encouraged by this success, we have decided to bid under NELP Round VI. Acquisition of oil/gas exploration blocks will further strengthen the fuel security and economics of our operations.

Q.2 What is your view about the nuclear power? How will thermal power match cost effectiveness vis-à-vis the nuclear power?

Ans. Nuclear is, in fact, one of the conventional sources of power and countries like France have over 70% of their power generation coming from the nuclear source. Some other countries have substantial share of their power generated from the nuclear source. India is also planning to increase the share of nuclear power in its power mix.

Some recent developments are likely to open up opportunities and give a boost to nuclear power generation in India. NTPC would like to utilize such new opportunities and be a part of the efforts for achieving country's energy security.

Q.3 Please tell us your opinion about the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Ans. This is a very important step. The Governments of both the countries are engaged at the highest levels to finalise the details. Any initiative which promotes civil nuclear program of the country in line with our stated national policies and priorities is a welcome step.

Q.4 The Planning Commission's documents has sought for increasing coal efficiency in thermal power plants from 30 percent to 39 percent. Where does the NTPC stand and by when do you think that this target can be achieved?

Ans. The conversion efficiency of NTPC power stations today is around 36%. NTPC is introducing super critical parameters in several new units like in Sipat and Barh. These units will have conversion efficiency of 38-39%. In super critical units with higher steam temperature parameters, the conversion efficiency may go up to 40% and is achievable.

We strongly advocate and support the Planning Commission's policy directives and we are moving towards achieving this goal.

In addition to adoption of super critical parameters, continuous efficiency improvement of the existing units will also result in efficiency gains. Various groups within the company such as engineering, operation services, R&D are working towards the goal of continuous improvement in reliability of operation and efficiency. All this will lead to higher conversion efficiency in the near future.

Q.5. Under the 'Bharat Nirman' scheme, how many villages the NTPC has taken for rural electrification. Please give details.

Ans. Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana takes care of the rural electrification component of 'Bharat Nirman' scheme, a time bound plan for rural infrastructure development undertaken by the Government of India, in partnership with State Governments and Panchayat Raj Institutions. The scheme is to be completed by the year 2009.

Under the Scheme, the Ministry of Power has the responsibility of providing electricity to the 125,000 villages which have remained uncovered by electrification. In addition, 23 million rural households are to be provided electricity.

NTPC has been making significant contribution to this Yojana through its involvement in projects for electrification of over 40,000 villages in about 30 districts spread across 5 States namely West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa.

Now fly Indian, redeem points on partner brands

Flying on India's leading airline Indian is now more attractive than before. Passengers can accrue points by flying Indian and redeeming them on other leading brands and vice-versa, under the new coalition loyalty program called i-mint. The other five program partners, who have come together on a single platform to create a reward based value program for the customer are ICICI Bank, Airtel, HPCL, Lifestyle Stores and Make-my-trip.com.
The i-mint coalition loyalty program has been initially launched for membership at Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad and will be subsequently extended to cover the entire country. Under the program, i-mint members can earn points by buying petrol at HP outlets, paying Airtel mobile bills, buying clothes at LifestyleStores, buying a hotel package through Make-my-trip, buying an Indian ticket or using ICICI credit card. He/she can then add up all the rewards points accrued to get a product from any of the above partners.
An i-mint member buying an Indian ticket will get 6 points against every Rs.100 spent. Points can be earned only on the basic fare portion of tickets purchased on domestic or international sectors of Indian or Alliance Air. Cardholders can earn points on both existing FFP program of Indian as well as i-mint. For more details about the program, catalogue of rewards, etc. passengers may log on to www.imintpoints.com.