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it on our site. Sanjeev Majupuria joins us as Editor Sanjeev Majupuria has joined us as the Editor & Country Head of <whispersinthecorridors.com> Hitherto Sanjeev was Resident Editor with "The Pioneer" which he had joined as Senior Correspondent on November 1,1991.He then graduated to the rank of Principal Correspondent and Special Correspondent. He was Resident Editor of "The Pioneer" ever since launch of the Bhopal edition three years ago. He has a vast experience of over 25 years in the field of journalism and has worked for daily newspapers like "Madhya Pradesh Chronicle"(now known as Central Chronicle), "Free Press Journal" and "The Telegraph." He has also done stringing for the "Reuters" as well as for an International weekly called "India Abroad" for 15 years . His stories have also appeared in "Safety & Risk Management", a monthly magazine published by the British Safety Council, London. A widely travelled Sanjeev Majupuria has been to Poland, Federal Republic of Germany, Switzerland, France, United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands and Dubai. Contact Nos. 094250 13232 and 094256 00494 Head Honcho Speak Work comes as a natural thing for Partha S Bhattacharya, who was not only able to bring the BCCL out of the red but also has made a mark ever since he joined as Chairman of the Coal India Ltd(CIL). In this era of mobile telephony, Bhattacharya last year organized two day brain storming sessions to improve coal production and overcome difficulties being faced by coal miners. The brainstorming session was so unique that neither Coal Minister nor any of the top officials of the Indian Ministry were allowed to keep their mobile phones on. The "vichar manthan"(brainstorming) did yield nectar in the shape of many positive things. The CIL Chairman Bhattacharya is quite agile but with an attitude of modesty he is able to win hearts of all. He told <whispersinthecorridors.com> in a chat, "In order to match the future demand of Coal, CIL has planned to introduce high capacity Heavy Earth Moving Machinery in its Open cast Mines. CIL has also plans to open up large Underground Mines to meet the future coal demand from Underground Mines in a big way. This will require technology transfer from foreign countries." 1/What is the 'mantra' for your success ? Pride of belongingness to the institution, making the work enjoyable
for self and other members of the team who share a common commitment. BCCL was formed in 1971 through nationalization of Coking Coal mines. Subsequently non-coking coal mines were also nationalized and handed over to BCCL. It became a Subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL) on 1.11.1975. During the initial years after nationalization, BCCL was producing around 19 to 20 mill. tons of coal. The production increased slowly and stabilized at around 27 to 28 mill. tons in the nineties. This continued up to 1999-00 (27.90 mill. tons). Since then the production started declining sharply and reached a level of 22.68 mill. tons by 2003-04. During the 5 year period 1999-00 to 2003-04, the Company incurred an aggregate loss of Rs. 3801 crores of which around Rs. 1874.6 crores were cash losses. These cash losses led to accumulation of huge liabilities towards PF authorities, suppliers of goods and services, employees and the CISF. The continuing fall in coal production during this period aggravated the financial crisis and the Company found itself in a vicious circle. The turn around from a near bankruptcy situation was made possible through dedicated and sustained pursuit, of a revival strategy focused on enhancing production of high value coking coal and washed coal, and arresting / reversing the trend of persistent decline in coal production since 1999-2000. The need for conceiving and pursuing a revival strategy focused more on value enhancement as well as on volume of production rather than on production alone arose essentially from the fact that the high density of population, difficult mining conditions and associated legacy problem severely restrict the scope of increase in coal production. Several decisive steps were taken towards the end of FY 04 and the order of the priorities was readjusted to turn around from a near hopeless situation. In order to procure production-holding items on a fast track and subsequent payment, sufficient powers were extended to concerned Directors. Secondly, funds for investment for replacement of worn out assets were tied up with CIL even before the Revival Plan could be taken up for approval. This paved the way for infusion of new equipment in the Company in 2005-06. Procurement of HEMM was adopted as a major thrust area. To supplement the drive to improve production from departmental mines by re-vamping the existing capacity, efforts were made to obtain coal production from isolated patches by deployment of hired HEMM. The combined outcome of these measures is a reversal of the trend of decline in coal production established since 2000-01. There was a growth in coal production by around 1 mill. tons (4.4% ). In 2003-04, the break-even level of production was around 30.68 mill. tons. Achieving increase in production of such magnitude was ruled out under the given circumstances. It therefore became imperative to focus on a) increasing production of high value prime washed coking coal, and, b) unshackle the constraints in value realization, wherever possible. Accordingly efforts were made to reverse the steep decline in washed coal production witnessed during the earlier years. The decline was halted in 2004-05 and in 2005-06 the washed coal production touched 22.9 lakh tons as against 18.65 lakh tons in the previous year - an increase of 4.25 lakh tons, i.e. 22.8%. Simultaneously, a remunerative price for washed coal was arrived at bilaterally with SAIL. The Washery segment incurring losses continuously till 2003-04, managed to turn around in 2004-05 with a profit of Rs. 58.38 crores has earned a profit of Rs. 280.06 crores in 2005-06. To further unshackle the constraints on value realization, BCCL pioneered e-marketing of coal sale to non-core sector. This was commenced in 2004-05 but has matured only in 2005-06. In 2005-06 the total quantity of coal sold and lifted through e-marketing was 2.95 mill. tons and the additional revenue realized over the notified price from such sale is Rs. 195 crores. As a consequence of all the above measures, acting in tandem, the Company has earned profit of Rs.205 crores solely from operations, for the first time in its history, in 2005-06 even after absorbing the impact of revision of wages under NCWA-VII signed in July 2005. 3/What are your priorities as Coal India Chairman To match the growth rate, we need to step up production from the present level of 363 million tonnes to 521 million tons by the end of XI Plan. Incremental production has to be stepped up from 84 million tons during X Plan to 157 million tons in the XI plan period. In order to meet this formidable task the priorities are (a) Achieving quantum jump in coal production thereby narrowing demand-supply gap. (b) Issues regarding environmental pollution & its mitigation. (c) Social dislocation/disturbances & its mitigation by formulating a more acceptable Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) policy to facilitate acquisition of land for mining and integrating the same with (d) restoration of used up land to original shape by implementing a well defined land reclamation policy that envisages large scale commercial plantation or pisciculture through Cooperatives or SHGs formed out of Project Affected Persons (PAPs) (e) Intensify exploration to establish further coal reserves. (f) Infusing appropriate technology specially for UG mining, coal beneficiation, safety etc. (g) Reducing cost of production to improve competitiveness (h) Tackling competition from upcoming domestic players as well as imported coal. (i) Beneficiating non-coking coal on a substantially larger scale & supplying quality coal as per buyers' choice. (j) Adopting safe mining practices with reduction in accident rate. (k) Adopting clean coal technologies-UG/SURFACE gasification of Coal, CBM, CMM, AMM, liquefaction of coal (l) Acquiring overseas mining stakes. etc. We cannot achieve this high growth alone and will have to download the challenge to technology providers and equipment suppliers. I am happy that the country has created a lot of equipment manufacturing capacity. It is good that the mining equipment industry in India is developing with quite a number of manufacturers operating and I am confident that they shall be able to deliver what they are expected in the years to come. 4/How do you foresee coal scenario in India when PSU majors like NTPC and SAIL are still importing coal? India produced 618 billion units of power during 2005-06 of which generation
through coal was 405 Billion units which clearly defines the role of
coal in India's power sector. CIL has ensured that no power station
ever starves of coal and if they have faced problems it is due to reasons
other than non-availability of coal. However, since high grade coking coal for steel making is not available in abundance, importing is required to supplement the indigenous availability. 5/List three major achievements in BCCL Reversing the trend of decline in coal production, introduction of e-marketing of coal, introducing coal production with hired machines amidst stiff oppositon. 6/Demand for Ad-valorem duty on coal has been sought by many states. What is your view on this? The matter is under consideration of the Government. A committee appointed by the Planning commission is examining the present system vis-à-vis Ad-valorem. A comment at this stage shall not be proper.
The country is already self-reliant in non-coking coal segment. Nevertheless the high GDP growth rates are associated with concern of its sustainability. Well in time it was realized that incremental growth in the supply of energy is crucial for sustaining the GDP growth. Accordingly, the Integrated Energy Policy (IEP) Committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. Kirit S. Parikh, Member Planning Commission. The committee has since submitted its report and has envisaged a major role for the coal sector to meet the country's growing energy needs in future. In a way this reinforces the earlier findings of the High Powered Fuel Policy committee set up in early seventies. The coal demand as projected in the IEP document is expected to rise at an accelerated pace and in 2031-32 be within the range of 1600 million tones (least coal consumption strategy) or 2600 million tones (continuing the present trend). As compared to current consumption of 460 million tonnes per annum, this represents a CAGR of 5.11 to 7.17 %. A CAGR of 6.05% shall be required to support coal consumption @ 2000 mtpa in 2031-32. The Public Enterprises in coal sector viz. Coal India Limited (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. (SCCL) accounts for 94% of current coal production of the country. With the adoption of a liberalized policy in allotting coal blocks to end users and its development through captive mining, other players are expected to come in the coal sector sooner than later. This will compliment the effort of the PSEs in meeting coal demand of the country. As a consequence, the country is expected to remain self-reliant in respect of thermal coal for all time to come. However, coking coal requirement will have to be met through imports to a substantial extent in the foreseeable future. 8/What innovations in terms of Technology and managements are in the offing ? In order to match the future demand of Coal, CIL has planned to introduce
high capacity Heavy Earth Moving Machinery in its Open cast Mines. CIL
has also a plans to open up large Underground Mines to meet the future
coal demand from Underground Mines in a big way. This will require technology
transfer from foreign countries. At present, CIL is using the Continuous
Miner technology and Power Support Long Wall (PSLW) in some of its Mines.
Applying these technologies in general and PSLW in particular for large
scale coal production (2 to 5 MT) shall require the expertise available
in foreign countries. Besides, CIL has future plan to install coal washeries
with state-of-the-art technology which will ensure supplying good quality
of coal to its consumers. Will the chargesheeted CITs face trial? Will the 40 CITs reportedly charge sheeted by an outgoing CBDT member, before retirement, ever face trial or they will be allowed to go scot free? This is being widely discussed in the IT circles at present. Who will be Additional Secretary Petroleum ? Who will be new Additional Secretary Petroleum? Now three names of 1976 batch IAS officers Mssrs S Sundareshan, R Gopalan and Rajeev Sharma are doing the round in the Shastri Bhawan. Mridul and Gupta to be Judges of Delhi HC ! Supreme Court Collegium is believed to have cleared the names of Siddharth Mridul,End Law and A K Gupta for Delhi High Court as Judges. Dastigar to be Vice-Chairman Tribunal Member (Traffic ) in the Railway Board, S D Ghosh Dastigar, is all set to join as Vice -Chairman of the Railway Claims Tribunal. Details of Political mentors being collected Details are being collected about political mentors of such bureaucrats/official in the Indian Government who were posted as Joint Secretaries and above or those who became Director and above of 240 Delhi owned PSUs in last three years. Quattrochi in 5 star comforts Who says that high profile prisoners in India alone spend their time in hospitals, not in jails, during their arrest period? Even, Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, accused in the Bofors case, has been spending time in a hospital with 5 star facility at Buenos Aires from day one till now. Meanwhile the Argentinian Government that impounded Quattrocchi's passport, in a surprise move, has changed the Public Prosecutor. Amar Sinha is Ambassador to Tajikistan Amar Sinha was appointed as Ambassador to Tajikistan (Not Turkmenistan). BJP for 2nd term to Prez & VP The main Opposition and major constituent of the NDA, i.e.Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP), is understandably in favour of second term to Indian President Dr APJ Kalam and Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Sources say that an informal communication in this regards has been sent to the UPA led Congress. Srinivasan leaving NDTV! Srinivasan Jain is learnt to be contemplating to quit NDTV. Rajesh Badal has left BAG channel. Work in NHAI comes to a halt Smooth functioning in the NHAI has reportedly come to a halt because
of reported tug of war between Minister T R Balu and Chairman Pradeep
Kumar. Some officials have either left the organization or are leaving.
Pradeep Kumar is considered to be a straight forward officer. Naushad Alam goes back to Lok Sabha Secretariat Why did Naushad Alam returned to the parent Lok Sabha Secretariat within
one month of joining as OSD to Union Child and Women Welfare Minister
Ms Renuka Chaudhry ? Only Naushad Alam can give inside story. Will Sarangi go to Uttarakhand ? Will Prabhat Kumar Sarangi join the Uttarakhand Chief Minister's Secretariat?
Chances of 1986 batch Uttar Pradesh cadre officer, Sarangi's, going
on deputation to Uttarakhand are not ruled out. Sarangi was PS to new
Chief Minister B C Khanduri when the later was Surface Transport Minister
during the NDA Government. Vardhan is President of Board of Revenue in MP S C Vardhan is back to the parent Madhya Pradesh cadre from central
deputation.On return 1973 batch IAS officer Vardhan has been appointed
President of the Board of Revenue. Bhagirath Prasad is VC of Indore University Bhagirath Prasad who sought voluntary retirement has been appointed
Vice Chancellor of the Indore University. He is 1975 batch IAS officer. Three new Judges of Rajasthan High Court Mssrs Guman Singh,Bhamru Khan and Dev Narain Thanvi have been appointed
Judges of the Rajasthan High Court. Two appointments in Punjab Yogesh Goel will be new Chairman of the Punjab Pollution Control Board.Ajay
Kumar Mahajan has been appointed Additional PS to the Chief Minister. Tatasons eyeing on Star TV After their aggressive foray into tea & steel sector Tatasons are now looking for acquiring media companies.As the grapevine has it companies like Star Asia(& its subsidiary Star India) will be their first choice. FIPB rejects Peter Mukherjea's application Peter Mukherjea's application for Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) was reportedly turned down by Foreign Investment Promotion Board(FIPB) of India.He had applied to FIPB for launch of a news channel,but his application was turned down on technical grounds. Uday Shankar Director Uday Shankar may be the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Star channel,but his name also figures in the list of Directors that Peter Mukherjea has submitted for launch of his news channel. Aveek Sarkar to have TV news channels Media baron and owner of the Anand Bazar Patrika(ABP)group Aveek Sarkar
is nowadays busy in planning to launch six regional news channels.Sarkar
already is a major stake holder in the Star News.As the grapevine has
it he is aiming to launch these channels in next 15 months or so. FORUM (The views expressed in this column are necessarily of their respective contributors. We do not own any responsibility, whatsoever, about these contributions). Please think of the Common man The whole debate misses the point. Turf wars are the biggest drawback
of Indian administration. We must realise that we are in the 21st century
where we are in competition with countries such as America, Japan, China,
Korea, EU etc. The sooner we get our act together the better. Merit
is an in individual thing and time and space define it. Nobody is permanently
superior or inferior in a dynamic environment. Competition, whether
within the services or from outside, is the best antidote to complacency
and empire building. Let us think out of the box. Let the best man/woman
for the job, whatever be the service, win. Only then the bureaucracy
can honestly redeem itself. Otherwise, they will remain parasites who
cannot look beyond their narrow interest groups. Please think of the
common man. 2.To say that after recruitment, the job profile and diversity of the
IAS make it undoubtedly an unparalleled service is partly true. It is
a fact that the IPS, IFS, IRS and other services on deputation, go not
only to the central ministries but also to the state government. On
not going to the District administration, the obvious counter is that
the IAS does not go to the posts encadred in the IPS/IFS/IRS and so
also the IPS/IFS/IRS do not go to the posts encadred in the IAS. To
each his own! 3.To say that only negligible number of IRS/other such services are
posted at places like Purulia or Mahamaya Nagar does not pass muster.
It is merely an off the cuff generalisation. Nor is it a virtue to be
posted and pampered like kings in smaller places. It is a necessity
for the IAS and a job demand of theirs (an occupational hazard perhaps!).
However, wherever there is an IAS officer, we also have an IPS man.
So are other Services posted in so many places. Or is it that the solitary
IAS officer performs all functions of Government all over the country?
This is typically a product of the closed mindsets that some younger
IAS officers acquire in the Districts where they harbour notions of
having joined the ICS (and is ever so puerile, if I may add). It would
require supermen to do that! And the fact is that the IAS does lord
it over (or at least tries to) the people in general and all other Services
in particular by hook or by crook, be it the IPS, other departments
etc. That these feudal fiefdoms are slowly crumbling is not due to introspection
by the IAS but because of other factors slowly rendering the IAS irrelevant.
It is due to democracy, the process of panchayati raj, the advent of
elected representatives in the Zillahs, a vigilant press, an enlightened
citizenry and eductated public opinion and a powerful judiciary as envisaged
in the Constitution. It is also true that the IAS most of all rue the
day on which freedom dawned, and constantly engage in looking back to
the halcyon days of the ICS when the ICS wrote the ACRs of the IP and
thought of the Police officers as their personal peons. Instead of alluding
to judicial "tyranny" and feeling lost without the powers
they enjoyed prior to the separation of the executive and judiciary
in the 1973 Cr.P.C., by keeping the Police under their thumbs and ruing
the "political pressures", they should actually understand
that democratically elected representatives are not as evil as the IAS
makes them out to be (that too post retirement and when writing their
memoirs to an adulating and gullible middle class chatterati). On public
expectations, once again they are living in the past. Like the princely
order, the IAS should understand that the poor public does not have
too many expectations from them any more, it turns more and more to
the elected representative and the Courts for due justice. The ill concealed
contempt for the "judicial tyranny" and "media campaigns"
notwithstanding, it is a fact that the common man in India (with whom
the IAS professedly has to deal) rightly reposes far greater faith in
the media and judiciary today than the IAS. To say that the Service
is delivering is encomia nobody really believes in, the long suffering
public least of all. 4.On law and order, it is a known fact that the IAS resists and has
resisted tooth and claw any move to change over to the Police Commissionerate
system, howsoever justified the same may be and howsoever successful.
Salutary changes in the Police Act and the Police machinery have been
captive for the past five decades and more to the caprice and ambition
of the IAS who see the IPS as their mortal enemies. No Law Commission,
no Administrative Reforms Commission recommendations are worth even
the paper they are printed on, such is the resistance by the IAS. The
IAS dreams constantly about the heady days of the ICS when the IP was
selected through a different exam (as were the other Services), when
the ICS were graduates and not the IP and when the IP was subordinated
to the ICS magistrates. However, it may be worth their while to recall
that today, much water has flown down the River Jamuna since the Raj.
The Raj has gone, the exam now is the same, educational qualifications
are the same, since 1979, the number of papers is the same, there is
no difference at all, executive and judiciary have been separated by
amending the Cr.P.C.(so much that the Supreme Court recently made the
comment as to why District Magistrates are so called when actually the
magisterial powers are vested in judicial magistrates). Referring to
Acts drafted in the 1860s, stalling reform and quoting McCauley for
their own narrow ends is not going to turn the clock back, but not for
want of trying by the IAS! 5."Good postings" in the IAS are not limited to Noida, Delhi,
Mumbai etc alone. Exactly. So why the fulsome abuse and vituperation
at the IRS? Be happy and play at being the lordships of the Districts
with the huge palatial bungalows, orderlies, cars and beacon lights
provided to you at the exchequer's cost. The role of the IPS is such
that they require vehicles. But why are vehicles provided to all and
sundry IAS officers with beacon lights and drivers when they are posted
in the State secretariat? The Rajasthan government under Sh Gehlot realised
this and withdrew the sumptuous perks enjoyed by the IAS though their
jobs did not require it. Why is it that no other government has been
as progressive? 6.Impartial observers would suggest that the IAS does not work "hand in hand" with the political class, it functions "hand in glove" with them, being aware of the side on which their bread is buttered. Instances of such IAS officers abound but are rarely brought out. Post retirement, the same fellows become paragons of virtue, and berate others for betraying the cause of public service by being close to the political class. What is actually unrivalled by any service is the IAS capacity for hypocrisy. 7.On crore rupee assignments, the fact is that the IAS officer in the
BIMARU states, feudal lords whom the multitudes are born to serve, can
hardly get such assignments since they lack the exposure or expertise
or the capacity to work hard, though such handicaps have been known
to be overcome by the more "talented" element of the most
"talented" service in the country! On the other hand, consider
the number of IAS officers from Maharashtra and Gujarat who have joined
the private sector on huge packages and the correct picture will emerge.
Or consider the number of senior IAS officers who have the experience
of economic administration at the highest level and who are working
with the private sector post retirenment (maybe premature) and the number
of companies run by them and the figures will be clear. Finance Minister will not be changed Though, people may not be happy with the present FM, it is highly unlikely
that he would be replaced, given the backing of the Congress Chief and
the Prime Minister. Majupuria,s induction a welcome step Virender Singh Aaj Ki Aawaz Who says in UP jurum is kamm…… factually UP should come
on top, Bharat Kumar --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Will there be Civil war in 'Air' bodies ?
Will there be a Civil war in two 'Air' bodies in India which are on the verge of meger. Old timers recall the merger of PTI and UNI when the employees of both clashed over the question of supremacy and the government had to ultimately undo its act. (PTI, UNI, Samachar Bharati and Hindustan Samachar merged under pressure during emergency in 1976 to become 'Samachar'. Later in April 1978 they went back to their original units to restrart independent news operations). In the case of merger of Air India and Indian Airlines , IA workforce would naturally like to dominate because of their more numbers and that may not be acceptable to the employees of Air India. Second, swords are also likely to be taken out over the location of headquarters of the new entity to be formed. . Sunil Mittal to step down ! As a part of long-standing succession planning strategy, Sunil Mittal
will step down as CEO of Bharti Airtel from the begining of the next
financial year. NTPC to enter in Nuclear Power Sector The National Thermal Power Corporation(NTPC)of which Chairman cum Managing Director is T.Sankaralingam ,is going to make forays in Nuclear Power generation. NTPC is now planning to set up Nuclear Power Projects of about 2000MW by the year 2017.This is part of NTPC's target to turn into such an Indian multi national company(MNC) which has its. presence in many countries. The NTPC's Board has okayed a proposal for making necessary amendments in its object clause of the Memorandum of Association to undertake activities pertaining to Nuclear Power Generation.However,formal work in this direction would start,once it is endorsed by the shareholders,which is being considered a certainty.
It has been decided that in future no Banker will be appointed Member of the Securities Aappellate Tribunal (SAT). Interviews for ED's in INDIAN today Interviews are being held on Tuesday for the post of four Executive Directors of INDIAN. Chandra Shekhar succeeds Balakrishnan Regional Director South Chandra Shekhar has been moved to INDIAN headquarter's to succeed Functional Director (Finance) M Balakrishnan who retired last week. Rumblings in Media/Ad & PR world Suresh Balakrishnan, chief marketing officer "Daily News & Analysis"(DNA), has resigned. Renuka Jaypal, national business director on Hutchison Telecom at Ogilvy & Mather, has been appointed as the president of OgilvyOne India, O&M's direct marketing division. Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC) has appointed Saumya Chattopadhyay as director, strategic planning. Sumeet Pahwa who was so far Business Director for Madison has now been
appointed
Bobby Pawar is returning India after a stint as creative director at BBDO in the United States to join as head of Mudra's creative team.
National carrier Indian has introduced a novel scheme for corporate
travel on its domestic sectors. Under the new scheme called Corporate
Super Saver scheme, corporate houses can now buy ticket coupons from
Indian in bulk at special rates. The scheme will give the corporate
the freedom to issue a coupon to any employee, thus facilitating last
minute travel. The name of the passenger and sector can be decided even
at the last minute and filled in at the time of reservation/endorsement.
The employee using the coupon must carry the company issued ID card
while traveling. . |
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