Your site has become a fish market. There are more news which actually do not concern the real bureaucracy that controls and governs India. Please moderate it a little and news related to the top 5 Civil Services, namely, IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS, Customs and Central Excise and IRTS (Forest Service may also be included) should be given in the main segment. Anybody who truly understands the functioning of bureaucracy in India knows for sure that it is these services who actually are involved in decision making and taking and actually provide a direction to the Country. All rest are basically in support role and are no better than Central Secretariat Services who have no say and no role to play in the top bureaucracy.
In case you are compelled to include them to increase your TRP/visitors, you can have a separate segment for "Transfer and postings of others" where their news can be separately given. I mean no one is interested nor does it matter which Civil or Railway Accounts Service officer has been posted where as they actually don't contribute directly in decision making. Similarly a Railway Personnel Service officer or a Defence Accounts Service Officer or a P&T Accounts Service Officer or an Engineer in any department hardly plays a significant role in the day to day governance.
I am speaking after watching this bureaucracy for almost last 35 years and my opinion is supported by the various surveys done regarding the importance of various services.
I would strongly suggest to change the format and make it more exclusive so that the interest of general public, journalists and political groups who hold or are involved in the process of power politics do not loose their interest in your site. Thank you.

Gyan

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For hardworking,dedicated and sincere P.D.Vaghela, Managing Director,Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd(TCGL) "tourism has definitely come of age" in the Gujarat state. While, tourists inflow has gone up by 30 per cent in Gujarat, the state Government has allocated an exclusive budget of Rs.100 crore for tourism development in the state,said P.D.Vaghela in an exclusive interview to <whispersinthecorridors.com>

He also disclosed that a slew of incentives for new hotels at select locations had been declared by the Gujarat Government.Besides several policy initiatives had been at the behest of Chief Minister Mr.Narendra Modi,said Vaghela.Event based tourism has been instrumental in promoting tourism and attracting a large number of tourists. Replying to a question TCGL MD ,Vaghela said that a number of innovative steps like improvement in infrastructure at tourist places and involvement of local people ;were taken to give a fillip to tourism in Gujarat.He also said that the TCGL's strategy to promote Gujarat as a leading tourism destination at national and international level,had clicked.

Here goes P.D.Vaghela's interview.

1/What innovations have you done to woo tourists?

The State Government had declared year 2006 as Tourism Year with the following broad objectives:
* To promote development of tourism and in turn put Gujarat as leading tourism destination at national and international level
* To attract domestic and foreign tourists to Gujarat
* To create additional employment opportunities in the State
* To improve tourism infrastructure in the state
* To ensure people's participation and involvement of local bodies in promotion of tourism

2/Can you tell us your three achievements?

Overall Tourists inflow to Gujarat has gone up by 30%.

In the tourism sector, a total of 33 MOUs were signed for 68 projects with expected employment generation of over 40000 direct jobs. The total investment comes to Rs. 10785.50 Crore. In the Aviation sector, MOUs worth Rs 10000 crore signed.

Won the National Tourism Award in 2007 for the Best Tourism Friendly Monument-Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeolgical Park.Won the National Tourism Award in 2007 for Excellence in Publications (collateral)

3/Are you in a position to say that tourism in Gujarat has come of age? Please explain how.

Yes, definitely 100 crores budget has been allocated exclusively for tourism development in the state.Tourists inflow has increased manifold in the State. Events like Navratri Festival and International Kite Festival are being organized on a global scale every year in the State. Gujarat is being recognized all over the country, having won many national level awards this year. Investments in the tourism sector have been pouring in enormous numbers, through the MOU route.

4/What policy initiatives have been taken by your state?

Following policy initiatives have been taken:

Tourism Policy 2003-2010 is in force for promotion of tourism in the state and with overall impressive growth of Gujarat economy, policy initiative in social sector and excellent infrastructure, tourism in Gujarat is expected to grow considerably. Recently, Government has signed 38 MoUs worth Rs. 20,785 crores have been signed.This includes not only tourism related projects but also ventures pertaining to aviation and pilgrimage tourism.

a) Gujarat Tourism Council headed by Chief Minister Mr.Narendra Modi has been set up.

b) Hotel investment incentive scheme has been declared to boost total investment in related destinations.

c) Three policies namely Heritage Hotels Policy, Eco Tourism Policy and Medical Tourism Policy have been declared during the year.

d) Entertainment tax has been reduced from 50% to 25%.

e) Luxury Tax has been significantly reduced along with restructuring in tax slabs & enhanced exemption limit to Rs. 500/-.

f) The Value Added Tax(VAT) on Food & Beverages(F & B)has been reduced from 12.5% to 4%.

Marketing of Gujarat Tourism has been started on consistent basis nationally and internationally. Event based tourism has been instrumental in promoting tourism and attracting large number of tourists. These policy initiatives will certainly help in promoting Gujarat tourism at a faster rate.

5/Which are the key areas where Gujarat scores over other states?

Gujarat has 5000 year old civilization and excellent monuments. Apart from this the state has excellent infrastructure in terms of roads, electricity and air connectivity. It is one of the safest states in India. Gujarat is blessed with a variety of tourism products like wildlife,desert,sea beaches,hill stations,etc. It has unique wildlife like the Asiatic Lion,Wild Ass,BlackBuck and a variety of bird life.

6/What steps have you mooted for promoting budget hotels/tourists?

Gujarat Government has declared incentive scheme for hotels this year. Hotels with a minimum 20 rooms being setup at selected locations in Gujarat will be eligible for five year tax holiday on electricity duty, luxury tax and exemption of payment of stamp duty on land.

Cabinet reshuffle at Centre

Cabinet reshuffle at the Centre is on the anvil. Grapevine has it that Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will reshuffle his cabinet after Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Food Authority in the offing

Government of India is contemplating to set up a Food Authority this year.

Haryana to face shortage of IAS officials

Haryana may face shortage of IAS officials in the days to come since 46 of them from the state are retiring in the next four years.

Punjab officials unwilling to go on deputation

IAS officials from Punjab, it seems, do not have any interest in going on deputation to GoI. As against the sanctioned strength of 31, only six from the state are on deputation.

HC Judge transferred toChandigarh

Seniormost Judge of the Madras High Court Justice P. Sathasivam has been transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

IA & AS officer shifted

Saurabh Mallik, a 1994 batch IAAS officer and Director at the National Academy of Audit and Accounts has been transferred to Thiruvananthpuram.

New posting of Chauhan in Sikkim

Vishal Chauhan has been appointed District Collector (East), Land Revenue and Disaster Management Department, in Sikkim. He is 1998 batch IAS officer.

4647 additional posts are to be created in CBEC

As many as 4,647 additional posts in the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) are being created to strengthen its audit wing and also to beef up the service tax machinery. About 1,206 of the 4,647 additional posts have been identified for service tax. About 1,860 persons would be earmarked to the audit wing.

IAS officer presented reading of poetry

Anthony de Sa, a 1980 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, presented a public reading of his poetry at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 10th April. The function was organized by 'Delhi Poetree', an organization which conducts regular presentations, featuring contemporary poets in English, Hindi and Urdu. Anthony, (who writes under the name of Tino de Sa), read 18 of his poems to a packed hall. Two of these had earlier been selected for an Anthology by the Poetry Society of India and one had won a prize in the UK.

ADG wild Life post lying vacant

Post of Additional Director General of Forest (wildlife) in the Ministry of Forests and Environment is currently lying vacant.

Postings in Income-Tax
Mssrs P K Jha, Ranu Mukherjee and Rajendra Singh Negi have been posted as DGIT Vigilance.

31 PCS inducted into IAS

31 PCS officers in the country have been inducted into IAS.

IAS-IPS reshuffle in Uttarakhand next week

IAS and IPS reshuffle is expected to take place in Uttarakhand next week.

FORUM

Only withdrawal shall not suffice

One couldn't agree more with Aruna (Limaye) Sharma that the columns introduced in the new ACR forms for women officers are indicative of gross gender insensitivity. These also do not apparently have any bearing on the discharge of official duties by our lady colleagues. Hence mere withdrawal of the columns shall not suffice unless the responsibility is clearly fixed for their introduction in the first place and the guilty punished suitably for this indecent mischief.
N N Ojha

Let CAG and CVC carry out audit

It appears from facts revealed recently about department of defence estates that total adhocism is prevailing and there is no fear of being caught or found out. All kinds of unthinkable thing are happening. That is why there was a serious move to wind up this department few years ago. The move was abandoned under pressure but things seem to have worsened further. Let CAG and CVC carry out a combined audit of this department which can give tough competition to even DDA in matters of corruption and inefficiency.
Shobhana Mishra

Independence of Judiciary must be maintained

Separation of judiciary from executive is backbone of democracy. Day in and day out, judiciary tries cases against executive. Therefore independence of judiciary has to be maintained at all costs.
There is big lacuna in RTI Act. Although CJI and CJs of HCs are given powers to appoint public information officer and its appellate body, surprisingly, there are no powers to appoint commission to deal with the questions arising under RTI in relation to judiciary. Resultant effect is that central commission/state commission gets freehand to requisite presence of dignitaries from judiciary which unwarranted. Such lacuna is required to be corrected immediately.
Madhuri

Aaj Ki Aawaz

In Maharashtra Congress has suffered a setback,
In fact you can say Congress ko kiya Voter ne whack!!!

Heavyweight Mohite lost though Rane tried his best to make him win,
But Public put him in the discards bin!!!

With every election Congress sinks deeper into despair,
And its Leadership is not interested in any repair!!!

Now all eyes are on UP ….. if Congress is perceived to have lost more ground,
Then there is chance UPA is outward bound!!!

And if Gandhi strongholds are breached then Congress's really had it!!!
You can say Congress would have dug itself into a deep pit!!!

Congress needs to go back to the drawing board,
In recent elections against Congress the people have roared!!!

HP and Delhi Congress is predicted to loose,
And into both States BJP is expected to cruise!!!

Jaago Congress waalon Party is in a bad shape!!!
And people who tell you this unka mooh math karro tape!!!

First they slyly allow export of Dals and now Dals are being imported,
Ask them in the first place why did they allow Dals to be exported!!!

Why make money at the cost of the Public????
This is not a Banana Republic!!!

Navin Chawla should excuse himself form the BJP case,
Mentally against BJP Chawla holds a mace!!!

In fact his closeness to Congress has been proven beyond doubt,
In fact from EC he needs to be shunted out!!!

Now SP is using Saddam's hanging CD… is India or UPA to blame???
If Muslims cannot see this then it's a real shame!!

What is SP trying to tell its Muslim Vote Bank???
By pulling of this Saddam hanging CD prank!!

Is SP saying that under SP Muslims can do what they want????
Marro logon ko ya bombs karro plant!!!

Otherwise what other message can this CD give,
That all will be forgiven as long in a SP ruled UP Muslims live!!!!

And the CD's were distributed at a rally addressed by Natwar Singh,
We know why SP ke gunn gaata hai Natwar sing and why on Congress dirt karta hai Nut fling???

Agrarian States have to look towards value addition,
That's if they want to improve their financial condition!!

Without this Farmers can never get a fair price,
Especially for wheat and to lesser extent for rice!!!

Value addition….. flour, biscuits, maida and bread,
Just grains ke instead!!!

In the blue corner are Bhattal and Dullo and in the red Amrinder Singh,
At each other punched karr rahe hai fling!!!

Amrinder's not in a hurry to return home,
In Delhi for some time he wants to roam!!!

See for yourself the shallowness of Indian Bourses,
Just on the back of Infosys's results upward the Sensex courses!!

What has Infosys to do with other Sectors…… why have these gone up????
No wonders they say Sensex's rise is just one big gup!!!!

Its just foam that has collected on the top,
And its predicted very soon the bubble is going to pop!!!

The Jet Sahara deal,
Is for Sahara a steal!!

The hidden figures show that Sahara gets much more than is being said,
And fact is that Sahara Air is on its deathbed!!!

For the Sahara Group its good riddance to a venture gone horribly bad,
Many would say that Jet has been had!!!

First Jet overbid and then backed out and then settled to buy,
And now as Jet's low cost Airline Sahara will fly!!!

Basically the costs of backing out proved to be too high,
And Jet ne Sahara ko kiya buy!!

Aiyer's been overruled and India will bid to host 2014 Asian Games,
Mr. Unsporting and Mr Spoil Sport are two of Aiyer's new names!!

Aiyer's logic is that Congress will not be in power when Games will take place,
And after putting in work for the games it'll be difficult to put on a sporty face!!!

Bharat Kumar

Aaj_ki_aawaz@yahoo.com

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CORPORATE

Bajpai to chair FPSBI

Former Chairman of SEBI and LIC G N Bajpai will chair the board of professional review of Financial Planning Standards Board India (FPSBI).

Key postings in Infosys

S. Gopalakrishnan will be new new CEO and Managing Director and S. D. Shibulal new Chief Operating Officer of the Infosys. Nilekani will continue to be Co-Chairman of the board.

Dilip Verma to join AIG

MD of Tata AIG general Insurance Company Ltd is joining the American International Group .

Pathak to retire

R N Pathak, Director, West Region of the INDIAN, is retiring this month.

Loona resigns

R S Loona, ED SEBI (Legal), is reported to have resigned.