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Your website is very very informative.
Kala Iyer
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Justice Shah to be CJ of Delhi High Court ?
Latest buzz is that Justice A P Shah Chief Justice of the Madras High Court is moving to the Delhi High Court in the same capacity.
D P Singh to be new VC of BHU
Vice Chancellor of the Sagar University D P Singh is being appointed new Vice Chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
Kalsi is Joint Secretary Home
N S Kalsi has joined the Government of India as Joint Secretary Home. He is 1984 batch IAS officer of Punjab cadre.
( We said this on March 17)
Dharampal empanelled in GOI
Dharampal has been empanelled in the Government of India (GOI).He is an IAS officer of the 1988 batch & belongs to the UT cadre.
Ajit M Saran in race for Jt Secretary,Co.Affairs
Ajit M Saran, an IAS of the Haryana cadre, is in the race for the post of Joint Secretary Company Affairs in Government of India (GOI).He belongs to the 1979 batch & at present he is Secretary Technical Education, Haryana.
Chhatar Singh in race for Jt Secretary, Co.Affairs
Chhatar Singh, an IAS of the Haryana cadre, is also in the race for the post of Joint Secretary Company Affairs in Government of India (GOI). He belongs to the 1980 batch & at present he is Additional Principal Secretary to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Huda.
Resistance in the Intelligence Bureau !
There is a resistance in the Intelligence Bureau for taking back Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan back in the IB.1973 batch IPS officer Vishwa Ranjan has been an old IB man.
A Joint Secretary in GOI likely to quit
An IAS officer belonging to the 1983 batch may quit. The officer in question is one of the Joint Secretaries in Government of India (GOI).
IRS (IT) transfers unlikely this month
Transfer of IRS (Income-Tax) officers are unlikely to take place this month.
Rajiv Mahrishi appointed RC in Delhi
Rajiv Mahrishi has been appointed new Resident Commissioner of Rajasthan in Delhi.He is 1978 batch IAS officer.
( We said this only yesterday)
Who will succeed Sushil Kumar Shinde as Power Minister?
In case Indian Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is shifted to Maharashtra then who will succeed him as the Power Minister? This question is being hotly debated in corridors of power.
International tour of ISS officers ?
Two senior officers of ISS retiring this year are found to be engaged in international touring spree. While one is cooling his heels after a weeklong jaunt in Geneva, the other is in Dacca this week immediately after attending a three day session in Bangkok. Insiders are not sure how it will help the system when they are ready to pack off and say good bye.
A strict "no,no" to lobbying by the PM
If one goes by developments vis a vis appointments to key positions in Government of India (GOI) then it indicates a lot. It shows that Indian Prime Minister Dr.Man Mohan Singh dislikes lobbying.
Dhal is Director in HRD Ministry
IA & AS officer S R Dhar has joined as Director (Finance) School Education and Literacy in the Ministry of HRD.
Haryana Govt. sends fresh panel for HS,Chandigarh
Haryana Government being headed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Huda has sent a fresh panel for the slot of Home Secretary (HS), Chandigarh Administration. This has been necessitated in the wake of scrapping of earlier panel by Indian Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh. He was irked over hectic lobbying by two of the three bureaucrats whose name figured in the scrapped panel.
IPS reshuffle in Andhra Pradesh
There is major IPS reshuffle in Andhra Pradesh. New postings are :-Mssrs A K Mohanty Chairman AP Road Safety Authority, K R Nandan Chairman State Housing Corporation, P G Kumar DG Special Police Battallions,Umesh Kumar Addl. DG, Welfare, A. Sivasankar DG, Special Protection Force, Hyderabad,M. Bhaskar Commissioner of Printing, Stationery & Stores Purchase Department, Lokendra Sharma DG & IG, Prisons and Director, Correctional Services,Shriram Tiwari IGP (Organisation), S. Venkataramana Murthy Addl. DG, Coordination, Vinay Ranjan Ray IGP, Hyderabad, T. Krishna Prasad Director, Police Communications. Gautam Damodar Sawang on return from GOI IGP (L&O) Hyderabad. Satyanarayan IG Visakhapatnam, B.L. Meena Director-Vigilance, APSRTC,A.R. Anuradha IG (Task Force), M. Punna Rao IG, Crime Investigation Department, A. B. Venkateswara Rao, promoted and posted as IG (Recruitment), Umesh Shroff promoted and posted as Additional DG AP Police academy, K.R.M. Kishore Kumar, DIG, Kurnool, promoted and posted, IG, Home Guards.Ch. D. Tirumala Rao, DIG, SIB, promoted and posted IG, OCTOPUS, K. Narasimha Reddy, DIG APSP, promoted and posted as Additional Commissioner (Crimes) Hyderabad and R. Eswar Reddy, promoted and posted as Director (Investigation), AP Lok Ayukta and Upa Lok Ayukta.N. Jayarami Reddy DIG Guntur, K. Satyanarayana Rao DIG (CID), Jitender Joint Director, AP Police Academy, Sandeep Shandilya, DIG, Visakhapatnam, K. Srinivas Reddy, Joint Director DIG, Hyderabad, A. Ravishankar promoted and posted as Additional Director, ACB, N. Balasubramanyam promoted and posted as DIG, V&E, GAD, Kripanand Tripathi Ujela, promoted and posted as Joint CP (Security & Coordination) Hyderabad, B. Shivdhar Reddy promoted and posted DIG (SIB), B. L. Sujatha Rao promoted and posted as DIG, Anantapur, Soumya Mishra promoted and posted as DIG, APSP, Battalions,N. Madhusudan Reddy SP, Kurnool.
RR Jowel in panel for HS, Chandigarh
Haryana Government being headed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Huda sent a fresh panel for the slot of Home Secretary (HS), Chandigarh Administration in which name of RR Jowel figures. This has been necessitated in the wake of scrapping of earlier panel by Indian Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh. He was irked over hectic lobbying by two of the three bureaucrats whose name figured in the scrapped panel. Jowel is an IAS officer of the 1986 batch who belongs to the Haryana cadre.
Ram Pal Chandra in panel for HS,Chandigarh
Haryana Government being headed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Huda has sent a fresh panel for the slot of Home Secretary (HS), Chandigarh Administration, in which name of Ram Pal Chandra figures. This has been necessitated in the wake of scrapping of earlier panel by Indian Prime Minister Dr.Man Mohan Singh. He was irked over hectic lobbying by two of the three bureaucrats whose name figured in the scrapped panel. Ram Pal Chandra is an IAS officer of the 1984 batch who belongs to the Haryana cadre.
Ms.Sukriti Likhi to go abroad
Sukriti Likhi Director Banking will be going abroad.She is an IAS officer of the 1993 batch who belongs to the Haryana cadre. She is Director(IF&CP), Department of Financial Services in Government of India(GOI).
Abhilaksh Likhi to go abroad
Abhilaksh S Likhi PS to Rao Inderjit Singh Indian Minister of State for Defence will be going abroad. He is an IAS officer of the 1991 batch who belongs to the Haryana cadre.
Who will replace Ravi Mathur in HRD Ministry ?
Who will replace Ravi Mathur as Joint Secretary HRD in the Government of India. A fresh panel is reportedly been prepared.
Retired IAS officer joins Congress in Orissa
Narendra Kumar Mishra a retired IAS officer has started his political career by joining Congress (INC) on April 16, 2008. Mishra was an Orissa cadre IAS officer who belonged to 1985 batch .He was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Orissa Culturre University after his retirement..
Rajkumar to move to Arunachal Pradesh
Newly promoted 1996 batch IIS officer Rajkumar is moving to Arunachal Pradesh to look after Field Publicity.
IAS shake-up in Rajasthan
There is IAS shake-up in Rajasthan. New postings are :-Mssrs
Asha Singh DG Jawahar Kala Kendra,L P Kothari PS Dairy Development and Animal Husbandary, B B Mohanty Commissioner Department of Enquiry one,Pankaj Commissioner Department of Enquiry two,Ashok Shekhar PS Revenue,Chandra Mohan Meena PS Cooperation,Gurjot Kaur Janjati Kshtriya Vikas,Damodar Sharma PS Science and Technology,Shrimat Pandey Secretary Energy,Rajiv Swarup CMD Akshya Urja Nigam,Sudarshan Sethi Commissioner Employment Guarantee Scheme,Yadvendra Mathur Secretary Planning,Vinod Kapoor Secretary PHED,Jagdish Prasad Chandelia DG Indira Gandhi Panchayati Raj Institute,V Srinivas Secretary Family Welfare and Dr Krishkant Pandey Director Middle and Elementray Education.
1983 batch IAS promoted in Rajasthan
1983 batch IAS officers in Rajasthan have been promoted to the rank of Principal Secretary. They are Mssrs:- Subhash Chandra Garg PS Finance,Dr Ashok Sanghvi PS Mines and Petroleum,Purshottam Agrawal Chairman Pollution Control Board,D B Gupta Commissioner Jaipur Development Authority,Umesh Kumar Commissioner Investments and NRI, Om Prakash Saini PS Irrigation,Ajit Kumar Singh promoted as Commissioner Industries,Tapesh Panwar PS GAD and Chief of Protocol,Manohar Kant Kalohiya CEO Jaipur Municipal Corporation and P K Anand Resident Commissioner two in Delhi.
8 Addl Judges to Bombay HC,appointed
As many as Eight incumbents were appointed as Additional judges to the Bombay High Court for a period of two years. They are: Ashok Pitamber Bhangale, Anand Vasant Nirgude, Rajiv Yadunath Ganoo & Nandkishor Digambar Deshpande, Ms. Rekha Prakash SondurBaldota, Kailaschand Uttamchand Chandiwal, Santosh Champalal Bora & Ashutosh Arvind Kumbhakoni.
RB Mishra transferred from Guwahati HC to HP
Justice Ram Bhawan Misra a Judge of the Guwahati High Court has been transferred to the Himachal Pradesh High Court. He has been asked to join on or before April 30, 2008.
Majmudar transferred from Rajasthan HC to Bombay
Justice Pradeepkumar Bhadrayulal Majmudar, a Judge of the Rajasthan High Court, has been transferred to the Bombay High Court. He has been asked to join on or before April 30, 2008.
( We said this on April 9)
Meenakshi Sundaram Sathyanarayanan to be an Addl Judge,Madras HC
Meenakshi Sundaram Sathyanarayanan has been appointed as an Additional Judge of the Madras High Court. His appointment has been done for a period of two years with effect from the date he assumes charge.
Ms.Mavulli Cholakkode Hari Rani to be an Addl Judge,Kerala HC
Ms.Mavulli Cholakkode Hari Rani has been appointed as an Additional Judge of the Kerala High Court. Her appointment has been done for a period of two years with effect from the date he assumes charge.
Ansuli Arya is back to Bihar
Ansuli Arya is back to the parent Bihar cadre after completion of central deputation tenure. On return 1989 batch IAS officer Ansuli Arya has been appointed Additional Secretary Home.
IAS changes in West Bengal
Satish Tewary has been appointed Land Reforms Commissioner. P K Agrawal Will now be Secretary Consumer Affairs. Kashi Nath Behera will be Secretary Refugee Rehabilitation.Arun Kumar Bal has been given additional charge of Technical Education.
IPS postings in Madhya Pradesh
Vijay Yadav has been appointed IG Narcotics. Dr R K Garg will now be IG Administration. T K Ghosh has been moved to Planning as IG. Sanjay Mane will be IG Special Branch.
IPS officer dies in Punjab
1989 batch Punjab cadre IPS officer Hardish Singh Randhawa has passed away in Chandigarh.
SP and Collector of Kolar shifted (UPDATED)
SP and Collector of Kolar in Karnataka have been shifted.
Khosa is DG of NPB in Pakistan (UPDATED)
Tariq Khosa has been appointed DG of the National Police Bureau in Pakistan.


FORUM

Do they expect Maoists to look after their interests ?
In this debate on the Pay Commission Report nobody has paid any attention to the fact that Class Four civil employees and Army Jawans have got precious little and their respective bosses are lest bothered. Do they expect the Maoists to look after their interests and plead their case with guns? How self- centered and selfish our Class 1 Officers have become! How callous they are! I am shocked to see that even Army officers now days don't care a fig for their men. How disgustingly bourgeois can one get? And you call this progress, keeping up with America ,when in fact our country is little better than Africa? Even in Africa indebted farmers are not driven to suicide in their hundreds of thousands. But we have Harvard returned Ministers and other great economists from Cambridge and former employees of the World Bank and the IMF at the helm of affairs in India, so what is there to worry? Even if they lose their current jobs they can always get re-employed as cyber coolies servicing whites the way their ancestors did under the East India Company in Writers Building in Calcutta. Their ancestors sported fake British accents to impress the whites and these cyber coolies sport fake American accents to impress whites they cant even see. How pathetic!
D Choudhury
There is a pertinent question
In the intense debate surrounding the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission, especially the slight edge to the IAS vis-a-vis the other All-India Services and the Group 'A' Central Services, the distinction between 'recruitment' and 'appointment' may be pertinent to consider.
The recruitment process merely recommends an individual for recruitment as an Officer/Official in the relevant 'Service' of the permanent executive. [On the other hand, the election process qualifies a citizen to become the people's representative in the Government.]
However, all appointments in the Government are essentially against a 'post'. Accordingly, the powers, perks and privileges attach to the post and these are determined irrespective of the manner of recruitment/election of the incumbent. Therefore, there is no distinction, de-jure, in the powers, perks and privileges to which the incumbent of the post, whether a direct recruit from the relevant All-India Service, Central Service, or promoted from the respective Subordinate/State Service or appointed on deputation or contract through lateral entry, is entitled to. Similarly, the Minister may belong to any political party and s/he may be elected from any constituency. However, this does not alter the entitlements of the incumbent.
Of course, the objective conditions of service [hardships!] differ for which appropriate compensation is built into the structure of the service. The likelihood of death while serving in the defence forces is relatively more than that in the civil services. Thus, it follows that the family of the armed forces personnel, who are supposedly busy in combat in harsh conditions, is entitled to the so called goodies-free rations, CSD facilities, concessional travel etc. However, it is a moot point whether a person joins the armed forces for the love of the goodies or for the love of the country.
The grievance of the other All-India Services, Central Services and State Services pertain to the denial of equal opportunity. The demand for providing equal opportunity to aspire for and hold the post for which an officer is otherwise qualified is eminently justified. It requires consideration in the right perspective so that the artificial barriers to the growth of individuals and the nation are dismantled.
S.K.Tewari
Is this forum only for IAS bashing?
I have been noticing that slowly this forum is degenerating into a forum where service members other than those belonging to the IAS habitually let out there self inflicted frustrations by routine IAS bashing. It is time we accept certain realities of life and look at the bright side of life ( and there are many) instead of burning ourselves with jealousy.
Another thing, I find that some of us are now making personal attack on each other through this forum. Let us use this forum to express our opinions on issues, not to cast aspersions on each other.
Partha Sarthi Sen Sharma

Think of other services also
An anonymous person "An IAS officer" has written today that there is no bias for IAS or against other services. The person should be told that there is difference of Rs.20000/- per month between the salaries of JS and Senior most Director level grade. He made argue that it is the case for all directors to whatever service they belong. The reply is that most of the director level officers have been promoted to JS two months before pay commission award by bringing a new notification providing for super-time scale in 14 years against earlier 16 years.
So my dear you are beating other services financially and promotion-wise. What you want other services should start begging on the roads.
Shantanu Ghosh
Dear IAS officer.
it seems you want an edge not on any logical issue but canteen and orderly facility only over the uniformed services. please take all this and try to become a humble govt. servant and not act like the stooge of British empire.
An IPS officer
P S Singh said

The Biggest Group A Service IRS is un-represented in this, while the smallest organisations are well represented
Sorry, Dear Singh. The largest cadre, as per DoPT is Indian Telecommunication Service, which 6th CPC has sought to wind up, without any analysis.
Ram Kumar
Thanks to Sikkim Government for appointing IFS officer
Congrats. Your posting will inspire many IFS officers in other states. Thanks to Sikkim government which has shown confidence in IFS officer for posting as Secretary Tourism. Being hilly state and having a forest officer at helm of tourism in the state which endowed with forest wildlife ,hills and beautiful valleys.
A K Singh

Please go through constitution
Aggarwalji, I humbly request you to please go through the constitution of our nation.... The constitutionally assigned work of the cabinet secretary is not only reporting ,, but much more..... he holds many charges ex officio........
Vikas


Aaj Ki Aawaz
Seems the Gang of Four who alls PM dreams were short-circuited by Manmohan Singh,
Karr rahi hai Rahul for PM tune sing!!!!
A bitter Pranab Da and a senior Member of this gang has joined in,
His line is fight election projecting Rahul as PM and Congress will win!!!
What was the reason that 10 Janpath summoned Arjun Singh????
Was it to tell him to stop singing or the Rahul tune for PM louder he should sing???
Rumours say Arjun got a knuckle rap!!!!
And was told to put an end to his sycophantic crap!!!
After okaying Rahul for PM they say Pawar had a good guffaw,
Seems the irony and humour in this he saw!!!
Someone who has refused to become a Minister is being projected as a PM!!!!
Pawar okayed when it was AM and had a good laugh when it became PM!!!!
Rahul should ensure that he's not made a laughing stock!!!
Recently too many times he's landed himself in the dock!!!!
With Mummy dear he needs to take stock!!!!
And if he's not ready for PM's post himself then all Rahul for PM talk he should block!!!
Fact is if not the next time but in the future when Congress gets the mandate,
If Rahul wants to become PM he will and if he wants he'll wait!!!
Inflation cannot be tackled till Government looks at the supply side!!!
And recognizes why in production there's been a slide!!!
SEZs and urbanization have taken out thousands of acres from the agri land bank,
And because of over utilization of agri bank land the ground water level further sank!!!
And then the multinationals and speculation that have taken a toll!!!
In prices spurting both have a dubious role!!!
PC they say means Pleasing Corporates and this is what he's done!!!!
That's why by the agri sector he's been booed and accolades from Corporates he's won!!
When the stocks fall he's always come out with a confidence boosting statement,
When Farmers committed suicides not even a measily condolence message from FM was sent!
Speaking of initial codes……. Pranab Da says in a way he's already PM,
His initials are PM …... Pranab Mukherjee or PM!!!
Sharad Pawar's initials are SP,
Seeking Power could be the other meaning of SP!!!
Laloo's code cannot be only initials ka gulaam,
CL or Chaloo Laloo sounds appropriate and is based partly on his name and partly on his kaam!!!
In Punjab Bhattal and Amrinder are involved in a slanging match!!!
Each other's insults they match!!!
What Punjab Congress needs is at its helm a new face!!!
And there are quite a few in this race!!!
Bhattal has a very poor image and Amrinder has surpassed previous record on ghoos!!
Both have proved to be khoon choos (blood suckers)!!!
Very soon if you buy an IPL ticket it will be like buying lottery ticket!!!!!
To boost ticket sales which are sluggish and owners are on a sticky wicket!!!
Ticket sales are disappointing and so they'll use some ploy to boost sales!!!
Be prepared to be bombarded with enticing ticket sale emails!!!
They say a worried Sharukh already stays up at night,
From notional now the expenses are mounting and facts are in black and white!!!
And to raise money he can dance at marriages and do shows,
But he still will not be able to cover the shortfall as money like water flows!!!
Confucius says….. Only BCCI will be laughing to the bank!!!!
In a year's time you'll hear ' so and so IPL Team owner financially sank'!!!!!
Bharat Kumar
aaj_ki_aawaz@yahoo.com

CORPORATE
Bora to be CMD of Oil India ?
It is widely believed in the Oil sector that N M Bora, Director Operations of the Oil India, will be new CMD of the Oil India .
Where is the file of Bank CMDs
File of the appointment of five new CMDs of the Nationalised Banks has been lying with the ACC for the last two months. Pulls and pressures have reportedly delayed the clearance of the appointments.
Kharbanda moves to Sharjah
Air India has moved A K Kharbanda from Delhi to Sharjah.
Srivastava is GM NTPC
Radha Krishna Srivastava has taken over as the General Manager of NTPC Limited's Talcher Thermal Power Station.
POWERGRID once again excels in all areas(UPDATED)
POWERGRID, the Central Transmission Utility (CTU) of the country, is engaged in Construction and Operation & Maintenance of inter-State transmission system and operation of National & Regional Power Grids. Over a period of 16 years, POWERGRID has emerged as one of the largest and best managed transmission utilities in the world and is playing a strategic role in Indian Power Sector.During FY 2007-08, Company has once again excelled in all areas of its operation, with achievements exceeding the targets set under Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Ministry of Power (MoP),said its Chairman cum Managing Director(CMD)R.P.Singh at a press conference in Delhi on Thursday. It is a matter of pride that POWERGRID has been chosen for the prestigious "MoU Excellence Award" for year 2006-07 by the Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises for being amongst the top ten Public Sector Enterprises and only organisation in power sector. It is worth mentioning here that POWERGRID have received this prestigious award in the past also for 6 years.

Three projects of POWERGRID have bagged the prestigious "National Awards for Meritorious Performance" instituted by the Government of India for the year 2006-07. POWERGRID's 132 kV Transmission System in North-Eastern region received the Gold award while Silver awards were conferred on the 220 kV and 400 kV Transmission System in Western Region and the 400 kV D/C Kahalgaon-Patna-Balia Transmission Line. Sushilkumar Shinde, Indian Minister of Power gave away the awards to CMD, POWERGRID on March 20, 2008.
Wipro and Microsoft to expand their alliance (UPDATED)
Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) have announced on April 17,2008 about the expansion of their strategic alliance and the opening of two Wipro Centers of Excellence to showcase Microsoft technologies at Wipro's facilities in Bangalore and Mysore. The state-of-the-art centers will provide customers with an informative and interactive experience where they can envision and evaluate specific business and industry-based scenario solutions. Stephen Elop, president, Microsoft Business Division and Jeff Raikes, president at Microsoft (former president of Microsoft Business Division) took part in the symbolic tree planting ceremony with Suresh Vaswani, president, Global IT Service Lines, Wipro Technologies and Girish Paranjape, president, Finance Solutions, Wipro Technologies to mark the formal launch of the centers during their visit to Bangalore on Thursday.The companies have made a multi-million dollar investment for customer engagement in sales, marketing and service resources. The Wipro centers of excellence will focus on solutions and services on Windows Vista and Microsoft Unified Communications.
Major strides by Steel Ministry PSUs on CSR(UPDATED)
The renewed thrust given by the Indian Ministry of Steel on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by its PSUs since a year back was reviewed on April 16,2008 by R.S. Pandey, Secretary (Steel), MoS in a meeting with the CMDs of all the 11 PSUs under the Ministry. The highlights of the CSR activities were:-

· Last year the Ministry had advised its PSUs to spend not less than 2% of their profits on CSR. In a unique initiative, CSR targets were also made part of MOUs signed by the Ministry with its PSUs.

· A budget of around Rs. 230 crores, amounting to over 2% of the net profits of the PSUs, had been allocated for 2007-08 by the 11 PSUs; (SAIL Rs.100 crore; NMDC Rs. 89 crore; RINL Rs. 34 crore; MOIL Rs. 3 crore; MSTC Rs. 1.18 crore; KIOCL Rs. 2 crore; BRL Rs. 13 lakh; FSNL Rs. 6 lakh; MECON Rs. 20.90 lakh; SIIL Rs. 5 lakh). 8 PSUs could spend their entire allocated funds fully. During 2007-08, SAIL incurred an expenditure of around Rs. 112 crore on CSR as against Rs. 20 crores in 2006-07.

· In respect of the rest three PSUs- RINL, MSTC & NMDC, the funds budgeted for, have been earmarked for spending and related works are in various stages of progress. Moreover, mechanisms have been put in place to avoid lapse of earmarked funds.

· 126 Steel Villages were identified for adoption by the PSUs and these are to be developed in a phased manner by the PSUs- SAIL(79), NMDC(40), RINL(5) and MOIL(2) in a three year time frame. The steel villages are spread over states mostly near the location of PSUs. Major activities including development of infrastructure, construction of roads, culverts, water tanks, drains along the roads; electrification mainly by solar lights; improvement of environment through tree plantation and promotion of agri-livelihood through sustainable income generation schemes such as teak plantation, poultry farming, water harvesting, vermiculture etc. have been taken up. 13 villages were developed by SAIL during the year 2007-08 and 46 identified for development in 2008-09; 5 villages were taken up by MOIL for adoption as model villages.

· Against a target of organizing about 150 medical/health camps in which health check ups, pathological lab treatment, medicines, post operative check-ups, immunization, etc. were provided by the PSUs; SAIL alone could organize more than 400 medical camps in 12 States (Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh) benefiting about 5 lakh persons. The other PSUs - KIOCL, SIIL, MOIL, NMDC, MECON and RINL also organized similar medical camps benefiting a large number of people in the peripheral areas of their mines/plants.

· In view of the calamity brought in by the floods in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam, SAIL, NMDC and RINL organized immediate relief measures in these affected states and contributed Rs. 5 crore, Rs. 4 crore and Rs. 2 crore respectively towards the flood relief measures.

· The PSUs also contributed by way of scholarships to deserving SC/ST undergraduate engineering students, adoption of tribal children to provide free education, construction/renovation of school buildings, free uniforms and textbooks.

· Some of the innovative projects taken up under the CSR umbrella include - a project Jaladhara was taken up by SAIL in Visakhapatnam Dist. whereby drinking water was provided to the villages through pipeline, by which the trekking distance of nearly 2.5 kms. for collecting water was reduced; Grameen Prusti Yojana of NMDC for distribution of fortified food to tribal children, adolescent girls and women in the entire Dantewara Dist. from all the 1214 Anganwadi Centres.

· An ITI set up by SAIL at Gua mines was inaugurated on 13/09/2007 by Hon'ble Chief Minister of Jharkhand in September'07. Classes in two streams have started from December'07.

· In order to provide impetus to sports, Archery Academy has been set up at Kiriburu Mines, Jharkhand by SAIL for tribal students.

· Special School started exclusively for poor, underprivileged children at five integrated steel plant locations - Bhilai, Durgapur, Rourkela, Bokaro and Burnpur. The facilities provided include free education, mid-day meals, uniform including shoes, text books, stationary items, school bag, water bottles and transportation in some cases.

· The PSUs have taken the help of reputed organizations and NGOs and have also worked in close contact with the District Administration while carrying out CSR activities.

During the review meeting, which led to mutual sharing of experiences; the Steel Ministry PSUs also stated that they would consolidate the experiences gained and lessons learned; maintain the budgetary allocations for CSR for 2008-09 at not less than 2% of the net profit. The Ministry advised the PSUs to undertake a benefit analysis and impact of the CSR programmes conducted during the year 2007-08 for better focus in the ensuing year 2008-09. During the meeting, the PSUs also mentioned that they have finalized road maps for carrying the way forward for 2008-09 and maintaining the momentum on CSR activities. It was decided that to enhance the experience sharing amongst the PSUs, a compendium on the CSR activities undertaken by the PSUs is to be brought out shortly.

Dr Suresh Mehrotra has his lips sealed, if you have any whispers then send it to us
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