This is my first choice in the office.

O P Tyagi

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For Arun Balakrishnan newly-the new Chairman cum Managing Director of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd(HPCL) -one of India's leading Fortune 500 companies, welfare of the staff & thereby ensuring progress of the company are of paramount importance.Politeness,sharpness coupled with dedication are major strengths of Balakrishnan who after assuming the post of CMD of HPCL on April 1, 2007 gave an exclusive interview to <whispersinthecorridors.com> .Hitherto he was Director (Human Resources) with the HPCL--one of the India's leading Fortune 500 companies.

He started his career with HPCL over three decades ago. He has handled various portfolios in Marketing, Corporate and HR of the oil major and possesses a rich experience in the oil sector. He also had a 5 year stint with the Oil Coordination Committee as Director - Planning.

In his capacity as Director - Human Resources, Balakrishnan introduced a number of contemporary People Management initiatives. As a result the Corporation came to be acknowledged as one of the 'Best Employers in India -2004' in the study conducted by Hewitt Associates and CNBC- TV 18. Under his leadership, HPCL was also the recipient of 'Award in Best Work Place Practices' by Asian Forum for Corporate Social Responsibility, Philipines in 2004. HPCL also received the Golden Peacock National Training Award for 2005 and an award for Commitment to Building and Learning Organisation by Peter Senge in 2006.

In the recent past, the All India Management Association has conferred a fellowship and the Institute of Engineers (India) have presented a Scroll of Honour for recognition 'of his outstanding contribution to the profession of Chemical Engineering'.

Arun Balakrishnan feels "current ceilings on product pricing are not very helpful. Hence Finance will be a key focus area." His mind has many innovative ideas which he would share with the concerning authorities & world at an appropriate time. A relaxed but confident CMD of the oil major unfolded his aims and roadmap for steering the company to newer heights.Here goes his interview:

1/Will you please list your at least two priorities?

I have taken over the mantle of HPCL from April 1. The transition itself was uneventful as the HP top team has always been well knit and professional. My predecessor M. B. Lal who superannuated on March 31, 2007, has bequeathed me a well managed Company with well thought out strategic objectives and proven processes. I am thankfull for that.

2/What are your expansion plans?

As the months roll by, challenges will come by. The first and major one would be attracting and retaining talent. It takes about two to three years to train a fresh engineer on the intricacies of refinery operations.Same is applicable for ERP, Finance and HR.

And someone comes and offers him/her three times what he/she gets. Luckily PSU salaries are due for a revision effective January 2007. But even if the salaries are doubled, it would be difficult to match the market. So high levels of recruitment and attrition are going to be part of life.

The second challenge would be project management. We have nearly Rs. 5000 crores of projects to be carried out in the next two years. This is in addition to the huge investment in our Bhatinda Refinery project. Needless to say, some innovative thinking is required to get things done as per schedule.

Third challenge would be managing cash flow. Large projects have large incubation periods. Current ceilings on product pricing are not very helpful. Hence Finance will be a key focus area.

3/What are other issues that need to be addressed?

Taxes and duties are another area of concern. Maybe we need to consider reduction of duties on petrol so as to bring its price in line with that of diesel. This can deter the shift to diesel for cars in India. And probably, more appropriate use of our refinery products

Jha to retire this month

Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs in the Government of India Ashok Kumar Jha is retiring on April 30. He is 1969 batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre.

Who has misled Forests Minister ?

The reasons for standstill in the appointment to all top post in Forestry Wing of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, if the IFS circles are to be believed, has been conspired by some people to give wrong advice to the Minister about his powers but the reality is to deprive a few competent people to become DG Forests. It also helps the people to do all they want.

Name of Saxena is also in circulation for TDSAT

Name of former Member of the DoT A K Saxena is also in circulation for the post of Member of TDSAT.

Sen and Goel get pro-forma promotion

Two 1982 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officers Pradeep Sen and N C Goel who are on deputation to the Government of India have been given pro-forma promotion.

Two IPS officers promoted in TamilNadu

1988 batch IPS officer A Kalimullah Khan and 1990 batch IPS officer N Chenbaharaman have been promoted to the rank of IG in TamilNadu.

Bains is back to Rajasthan

1976 batch IPS officer K S Bains is back to the parent Rajasthan cadre after completion of central deputation tenure. On return Bains has been appointed DG Jails.

Dismissal of Customs official recommended

The CVC has recommended dismissal of an IRS officer A C Doshi.

Sangtam & Saira Bano may go to RS ?

Congress-the majority partner in the UPA government is considering to recommend names two persons for being nominated to the Rajya Sabha in the category of nominated MPs. They are: K A Sangtam former Rajya Sabha MP from Nagaland and noted Bollywood star of yesteryears Saira Bano.

Jain gets posting in Rajasthan

S N Jain, IG in BSF, who is back to the parent Rajasthan cadre has been appointed ADG Training. He is 1980 batch IPS officer.

IDAS postings

There is IDAS reshuffle. New postings are :- Mssrs Sunil Mathur CDA Allahabad to Avadi, Priti Mohanty CDA Allahabad to Meerut, Dilip Biswas Delhi Cantt to Avadi, Ms Bindu Agnihotri FA DTC to APTRAL Simla, Rakesh Ranjan Shapore to Kolkata, Sanchita Kar CFA Jabalpur to CDA Jabalpur, D K Sharma CDA Meerut to New Delhi, V Venugopal New Delhi to Kolkata and Alok Chaturvedi CDA Pune.

Alok Mehta gets award

Editor of Hindi Outlook Alok Mehta has been honoured in Bhopal with the Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Award.The award consists of a citation and a cash prize of Rs One Lakh .

Mitra moves to Ishapore

Anuradha Mitra IDAS officer who was Director Expenditure in the Government of India on return to the parent cadre has been moved to Ishapore as CFO.

Karan Singh no longer Member of IIC

Resignation of senior Congress leader Karan Singh has been accepted from the Executive Body of the India's elite India International Centre.Karan Singh had resigned over his inability to get Railway Minister Laloo Yadav inducted into it as a Member.

IAS reshuffle in Orissa

There is IAS reshuffle in Orissa. New postings are :-Mssrs D K Singh State Project Director OPEDA,balkrishna Sahoo Collector,P C Patnaik Collector Kalahandi,K C Barik Secretary Vidhan Sabha,A K Padhee Director Agriculture,R R Mallick Director Municipal Administration,Sanjay Kumar Singh Collector Jaipur,Suresh Kumar Vashistha Collector Mayurbhanj,Shubh Sharma Director Employment,Narendra Bahadur Singh Rajput Joint Secretary GAD,Sujata Raut Collector Cuttack,V Karthikeya Pandian Collector Ganjam,Girish S N collector Angul,D Chakrabarti Collector Jharsuguda,Krishna Kumar Collector Sundargarh,Mrinalini Darswal Collector Nuapada,Raj Kishore Choudhury Director Panchayati Raj.

1991 batch IAS gets super-time scale in Orissa

1991 batch IAS officers in Orissa have been given super-time scale in Orissa.They are Mssrs Madhu Sudan Padhi, Satyabrata Sahu, Vijay Arora, Durga Prasad Das, Pramod Kumar Mohanty, Sailendra Narayan Sarangi, Rahas Bihari Nayak. Two officers who were allowed pro forma promotion are Sanjay Rastogi and Saurabh.

Major IAS shake-up in Andhra Pradesh

There is major IAS reshuffle in Andhra Pradesh. New changes are :- MssrsV.P. Jauhari Special Chief Secretary (Rural Water Supply), Panchayatraj and Rural Development, M. Samuel - Principal Secretary, Revenue, A.P.V.N. Sarma - Special Chief Secretary, Social Welfare, Ajoyendra Pyal - Principal Secretary, Home, A.K. Tigidi - Principal Secretary (RIAD), General Administration Department. M.V.P.C. Sastry, Principal Secretary, Panchayatraj and Rural Development, M. Veerabhadraiah - Managing Director - AP Warehousing Corporation, Md. Shafiquzzaman - Principal Secretary, Rain Shadow Area Development, Ranjeev R. Acharya - Commissioner, Commercial Taxes. T.S. Appa Rao - Managing Director, AP Cooperative Bank, J. Ramanand - Managing Director, Nizam Sugars Limited, S.N. Mohanty - Principal Secretary, Youth Services and Sports, B.R. Meena - Vice-Chairman and Housing Commissioner, AP Housing Board, C.V.S.K. Sarma - Chief Commissioner, Greater Hyderabad; Ajeya Kallam - Principal Secretary, Agriculture. A. Giridhar - Managing Director, AP State Finance Corporation, Dinesh Kumar - Principal Secretary (Institutional Finance), Finance, Pushpa Subrahmanyam - Secretary Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Veena Ish OSD AP Bhavan, Delhi. Busi Sam Bob, Principal Secretary, Industries, Lakshmi Parthasarathi Bhasker - Principal Secretary, Transport and Buildings, A.R. Sukumar - Commissioner, Agriculture, Poonam Malakondaiah - Secretary, Finance, S.K. Joshi - Principal Secretary, Information Technology and Communications, K. Ratna Prabha - Principal Secretary, Public Enterprises. Suresh Chanda - Secretary IT, Anil C. Punetha - Commissioner, Family Welfare, C.B.S. Venkataramana - Principal Secretary, School Education, P. Krishnaiah - Secretary (Services), General Administration, Vijaya Kumar - Commissioner, AYUSH , D.R. Garg - Secretary (Sarva Siksha Abhiyan), K.V. Ramanachary - Executive Officer, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, Adhar Sinha - Managing Director, AP Dairy Development Corporation, Neerabh Kumar Prasad - Commissioner, Industries, Sutirtha Bhattacharya - Secretary (Projects), Irrigation, Satish Chandra - Commissioner, Employment and Training. Sunil Sharma - Commissioner, Municipal Administration, Adityanath Das - Secretary, Irrigation, Hiralal Samariya - Commissioner, Excise and Prohibition, Karikal Valaven, Managing Director, Bewerages Corporation, K. Madhusudhan Rao - Commissioner, Horticulture; R. Subrahmanyam - Managing Director, AP State Housing Corporation, D. Murali Mohan - Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh and N. Nageswara Rao - Additional Secretary, Social Welfare.

New Directorate to be created in TamilNadu

A new directorate for the welfare of minorities is being created in TamilNadu.

Inside story of Arunachal Pradesh politics

Dr. Avinash Kumar Mishra IFS (AGMUT-79) who was posted as Resident Commissioner Government of Arunachal Pradesh was unceremoniously removed for hobnobbing with Shri.Dorjee Khandu Minister(Power) and asked to handover charge to K.K.Sharma IAS(AGMUT-83) .On hearing this, 45 MLAs belonging to different parties which Includes 11 Ministers signed and submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Apang that Dr.Avinash Kumar Mishra IFS(AGMUT-79) should not be removed but he did not pay heed to their demand. This was taken very seriously by the MLAs and Ministers with whom Dr.Avinash Kumar Mishra is very popular due his long association with them for the last 26 years.
A simmering was already brewing against Arunachal Chief Minister due to his family involvement in functioning of day to day Government. All the MLAs and Ministers who are camping in New Delhi also complained to High Command about his blatant corruption and neopotism. Now all the 11 cabinet colleagues who submitted their resignation to Party President Smti.Sonia Gandhi and has demanded his immediate ouster as Chief Minister.
This precipitated the situation and Mr.Gegong Apang Chief Minister is on the brink of losing his Chief Ministership. He is now persuading Dr.Avinash Kumar that the transfer was done at the behest of IAS lobby but the storey is other way round. Now Shri.Dorjee Khandu Minister(Power) is likely to replace Shri.Gegong Apang today as New Chief Minister Arunachal Pradesh and after Government is formed Dr.Avinash Kumar Mishra IFS is likely to be posted as Principal Resident Commissioner Government of Arunachal Pradesh.

IAS changes in TamilNadu

Ramesh Chand Meena will now beSecretary of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC). R. Lalvena will be new Controller of Examinations.

FORUM

Is it the right way to celebrate Civil Services day ?

April 21, 2007, will be celebrated as Civil Services Day PM's awards will be given to Rajiv Chawla and RS Pandey for excellent work done by them by way of computerisation of land records in Karnataka under Bhoomi project and enabling participation of public in community projects and services in Nagaland.
But the big question is how to undo the damage done to institution of civil service by appointing Cabinet Secretary in 2004 few days before his retirement and extending his fixed tenure of two years by another year few days before his superannuation last year. The manner of appointment and subsequent extension has robbed Cabinet Secretary of legitimacy and stature. His position as head of civil service has been compromised to a considerable extent. For example, he could not resist appointment of Foreign Secretary in highly controversial circumstances resulting in virtual exodus of large number of highly competent Foreign Service officers.

Further there has been hardly any progress in implementation of much touted Administrative Reforms and attempts made to dilute RTI Actby excluding file notings do not augur well .There being no let up in number of suicides by farmers in Maharashtra inspite of announcement of relief package by PM gives some clue to state of governance in the country. Under these circumstances giving awards to two officers without addressing the core issues is hardly the best way of celebrating Civil Services Day.
Jawed Chaudhry

Delhi is better administered than Mumbai

Having lived in Delhi for major part and now in Mumbai, I find Delhi is far better administered than Mumbai in terms of roads, greenery and general cleanliness...Administration is more level headed in Delhi than in Mumbai...
Abhinav Chopra

Aaj Ki Aawaz

See for yourself the inaccuracies of Psephology,
It comes out as just fakelology!!!

NDTV says BSP is ahead and IBN says SP,
And my psephology says next Sarkar will be formed by BSP!!!

IBN survey shows Mulayam as more honest, better for development and CM Number Ek,
NDTV survey shows the IBN survey to be a fake!!!

NDTV survey shows Mayawathi as more honest, better for development and CM Number One,
Each other's surveys NDTV and IBN make fun!!!

But both surveys agree that Mayawathi is a better administrator... reveals the mind,
That this time to Mayawathi the UP Voter is going to be kind!!!

IBN Survey says SP will form the Sarkaar,
NDTV survey says BSP is ahead and SP ki hogi har!!!

Mayawathi is going to need help to form Sarkaar… will it be BJP or Congress???
Or will Mayawathi go the SP way… they say she's already working on Project Ingress!!

Body language of Mayawathi is confident and relaxed,
Mulayam looks like both his body and mind are being heavily taxed!!!

Fact is with caste, creed and area factors UP has been Psephologists graveyard,
To predict the outcome is indeed very very hard!!!

And UPites have also opined that Star power is not going to sway their mann (minds),
Stars are fun but what will sway votes as usual will be distribution of booze and dhann!!

Abs right in UP Muslims are no longer a minority,
In UP Muslims are now a majority!!!

UP Government has filed a review plea…… demand count should be on weight,
On this UP Government's Counsel will debate!!!

And another survey by ET says Muslims are doing better than what is being projected,
So taking both into account Muslims no longer need to be protected!!!

Dr. E.C.'s diagnosis ….Pawar is suffering from sugar and BJP ka 'disc ho gaya slip',
E.C. says Pawar's been unfairly sugary and BJP has been shooting from its hip!!!

E.C. should also look at S.P.'s Muslim inciting posters….aim is clear,
Now SP may use the BJP CDs to incite in Muslims fear!!!

BJP did it openly whereas SP does it tacitly…… khulla aam versus chori chori,
And with SP in power in UP there is also jorra jorri!!!

Laloo says that SP is a Corporate ……. of Businessmen and for Businessmen too,
He says that SP has literally flushed Samajwaad down the loo!!

Congress is set to loose the MCD Polls……… Shiela has cause to worry,
Because under the MCD debacle her Chief Ministership ho sakthi hai bury!!!

Though Shiela is at pains to explain that this time the biggest issue is inflation,
And this is the cause of Congress's Vote Bank mein deflation!!!

Amrinder's not Dawood or Chotta Shakeel,
Words used by his able Vakeel!!!

So Court gave him bail till the end of July….. Amrinder's coming back on Monday,
Though final decision will be taken by Amrinder on Sunday!!!

83 SEZs have been cleared and new norms announced,
This open ended licensing needs to be denounced!!

Time is the essence ….. otherwise the motive is defeated,
SEZs could be misused to keep the Property Market heated!!!

And why allow Cities to be expanded…. why not create new Cities,
In the cleared lot this is one of the biggest pities!!!

BCCI is now the Board for Crushing Cricket in India…… finished the game,
And our Players just ran after money and fame!!!

Followed the Board that was just interested in raking in big bucks,
Our players just ran after money and on the field got out for ducks!!!!

Any other person would have resigned,
Out of sheer shame resignation letter he would have signed!!!

But Pawar and gang are in no mood to do so,
Not willing to go!!!

Laloo should be given the job of getting Pawar to see the writing on the wall,
And to force him to take the call!!!

Cricket First should be the motto,
Today being in BCCI or in Team India is treated like winning a Lotto!!!

Bharat Kumar

Aaj_ki_aawaz@yahoo.com

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CORPORATE

Vikram Amin is ED of Essar Steel

Vikram Amin has been appointed Executive Director of Essar Steel Ltd, He will be based at Hazira.

Airbus 380 to reach Mumbai this month

World's largest Commercial passenger aircraft Airbus 380 is expected to reach Mumbai airport this month.

Bhopal to have private FM Channelss

Bhopal will have first private FM Channel next month.