Heartiest congratulations. The site is not only informative about what is happening in bureaucracy, it is also educative in what more can be done to improve governance. I am sure your dedication will make the site more popular. If senior retired bureaucrats can contribute their experiences of dealing with difficult and ticklish problems while dealing with law and order, management and politicians, it will be quite helpful to the younger generation. Please keep it up and wish you all the best
S P Singal
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Contact-suresh.mehrotra@yahoo.com> & <mehrotra.suresh@gmail.co

UGC to repatriate Raju Sharma
UGC Members have succeeded in getting repatriated Secretary Raju Sharma to the parent Uttar Pradesh cadre. All the Members barring the Chairman had ganged up against 1982 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.Finally at a meeting of the full Commission it was decided to repatriate Raju Sharma.Only two months ago Raju Sharma had joined the UGC as Secretary.
Naveen Prakash joins GoI
Naveen Prakash has joined the Government of India as Joint Secretary Food and Public Distribution. He is 1987 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre.
( We said this on February 13 )
Vipul joins MEA
Vipual (IFS 1998) has joined as Deputy Secretary in the Disarmament Division in place of Jayant Khobragade (IFS 1995) who is going on transfer to Madrid.
Das is new Director in PMO
S C L Das has joined the PMO as Director. He is 1992 batch IAS officer of UT cadre.
Mahalingam appointed Member of NSAB
Member (Distribution), Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board, Sudha Mahalingam has been appointed Member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB).
CBDT puts AP in East Zone
CBDT is reported to have put the Andhra Pradesh in East Zone for transfer purposes.
BSP has no dearth of candidates !
Bahujan Samaj Party has no dearth of candidates. This change is being observed after its spectacular victory in Uttar Pradesh.
Hotels are owned by retired DGP'S
About half a dozen retired DGPs now reportedly own hotels in Chandigarh .What a hobby of retired IPS officers ?.
New VC of Women's University in TamilNadu
Prof. Aruna Sivakami Ananthakrishnan has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Mother Teresa Women's University in Kodaikanal.
IPS changes in Andhra Pradesh
A Alagar has been appointed ADG Railways.A Sivasankar has been made DG SPF.Shikha Goel on promotion has been posted as DIG Kurnool.On promotion K R M Kishore has been made IG Home Guards.
Sekhon is OSD to Punjab CM
Sukhmander Singh Sekhon has been appointed officer on special duty (OSD) to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
IPS reshuffle in Uttar Pradesh
There is major IPS reshuffle in Uttar Pradesh. New postings are :-Mssrs Gurdarshan Singh IG Meerut Zone,V K Gupta IG PAC Lucknow,Gurbachan Lal IG Agra Zone,Mohammad Jawed Akhtar IG Barelley,Ram Singh DIG Aligarh,P C Meena DIG Meerut,Vijay Kumar CBCID Lucknow,P V Ramashashtri DIG Allahabad,K K Tripathi DIG Basti,S N Sabat DIG Varanasi,D C Vashistha DIG PTS Meerut,Chandra Deo DIG Mirzapur,Prakash Tripathi PAC Barabanki,Neera Rawat SP GRP Lucknow,Deepak Sharma SP Faruqabad,R P Singh SP Mahoba,Lov Kumar SP Kanshi Ram Nagar,Sugriv Giri SP Sant Kabeer Nagar and Aparna H R PTS Gorakhpur.
SP and Collector of Kolar shifted
SP and Collector of Kolar in Karnataka have been shifted.
Khosa is DG of NPB in Pakistan
Tariq Khosa has been appointed DG of the National Police Bureau in Pakistan.
IFS Changes in Orissa (UPDATED)
There has been a reshuffle of IFS officers in Orissa. New postings are- Ananda Kumar Pravakar - DFO Deogarah,Manas Ranjan Bhatta - Deputy Project Director office of Project Director OFSDP, Bhubaneswar &
P.K.Mallick-DFO Ghumsar North Forest Division.
Manish Rastogi is Collector Bhopal (UPDATED)
Manish Rastogi will be new Collector Bhopal.Hitherto he was Collector Satna.Rastogi who is an MP cadre IAS officer of the 1994 batch will succeed R.K.Mathur who is going for two months mid career training.
IPS officers reshuffled in Orissa (UPDATED)
There has been a reshuffle of IPS officers in Orissa. Those who were transferred on April 18, 2008, are Amitabh Thakur AIG Police HQ Cuttack,Himansu Kumar Lal, DCP(HQ) Bhubaneswar,S.K.Priyadarshi S.P.Keonjhar, Praveen Kumar DCP,Cuttack,P.Shyni SP Bolangir,Rajesh Kumar DCP (HQ}Bhubaneswar, Yatindra Koyal SP Nayagarah & Narasingha Bhol SP Sundergarah.
Book of Orissa Chief Secretary translated in to Japanese (UPDATED)
A book of Ajit Kumar Tripathy titled "The Real Birth Place of The Budhha" -Yesterday's Kapilavastu Today's Kapileswar has been translated into Japanese language by Kiyoshi Sugimoto, a renowned Japanese scholar .Tripathy ,an IAS officer of Orissa cadre who belongs to 1973 Batch ,is presently the Chief Secretary of the state. Tripathy,who has wide range of studies in Orissan history, culture, archaeology, and language, has written two other books titled-"Goutam Buddha and Kalinga" , "Sri Jayadeva and Sri Chaitanya" a compilation of research articles on the two saints and the periods they belonged to. Besides, he is the co-author of a book along with Prafulla Tripathy titled -: The Gita Govinda of Sri Jayadev" published by Publication Division, Governmenet of India.

Yes, IAS deserve better deal
The pay-commission report has led to the normal IAS bashing which is expected. But looking at facts, in civil services exams 96.2% opt for IAS/IFS as their 1st preference, 2.2% opt for IPS and 1.6% opt for IAAS/IRS. Those who opt and do not get IAS/IFS but other services often appear again in the exams. No other services till date has been the 1st option for aspirants. Hence the services preferred by an overwhelming majority must be deserving a slightly better deal. About the rationale that one exam should not determine the fate of an officer throughout his career, it remains a fact that the difference of a split second makes an athlete a medal winner and the other as also ran. Have P.T. Usha or Late Milkha Singh claimed medals till date?
Sudripta Roy, Dhaka
It shows the mind-set !
It appears as a joke when shameless IAS bashing in the garb of pay commission anomalies goes on in one hand and the vain IAS lobby try to call it jealousy of others. It clearly shows the mind-set of the government servants of India . In fact right from top IAS officers to the lowest functionary be it a constable, patwari, postman, forest-guard or peon, everyone is either lazy, incompetent or corrupt. You guys have got much more from the pay commission than you deserve. So don't crib and try to do your job properly. Had it not been for a vibrant private sector Indian would have been a sub-Saharan economy thanks to this huge un-productive work-force.
An NRI
It's time for us to be realistic
Please refer to comment by: Allegation against IAS not correct by an IAS Officer
Agreed IAS had an edge since 1st pay Commission and envy for the paltry Free Rations and Canteen facilities being so presumed to be perks of Armed Forces!!
Has any one thought of times before the 1st pay commission?
At time of Independence then Army Chief had voluntarily offered a cut down of salaries of Armed forces by 1/4th since country's economy was in bad shape. Has any commission thereafter thought of making it double.
The rations allowance that is entitled is Rs. 35.39 per day. Where do on earth you get two square meals for that amount?
The Canteen facilities why was it created? Because the administration had then failed and now also fails to provide basic necessities to troops posted in far flung areas. What most of us see and envy the Armed forces life in peace stations where Armed forces personnel do not get to spend even a 1/3 of their total service. These are the Cantonments which at some time have been outside the city limits but over a period cities have grown beyond them and hence become the prime localities.
We have problems with the orderlies of IPS as well but do not wish to discuss or consider the entourage linked to IAS appointments be it a chowkidar, team of maalies, gate attendant, telephone attendant, khansamas, drivers, fan boys and waitors because they are not authorised to IAS but are simply the staff to the bungalow occupied by the IAS officials.
No am not trying to do mud slinging, it's time for us to be realistic and take a holistic approach of the service conditions. - if any one listening!!!
Ravi Kothari
No hope for other services
The Sixth Central Pay Commission's recommendations are a conspiracy by the coterie of the IAS spurred by their overweening ambition to continue untrammeled their game of self aggrandizement. They may not have sat together in a smoke filled room to hatch it. But there it is, the recommendations are the most credible circumstantial and substantial evidence.
This is obvious from the way the commission has belittled the police and the Jawans as also the IPS and the Commissioned Officers of middle ranks.
More than a year ago, in their elaborately designed Questionnaire the Pay Commission elicited views on constituting a Unified Civil Service instead of the present hierarchy led by the IAS. . Over 70 percent responded with a thumping Yes , with 30 percent opting for a single stream and 40 percent for a two stream structure. Yet there are no discussions in the commissions" report as to why this all important issue is not explored. Instead the 'onerous" nature of the duties of the young IAS in the field are described with great empathy as if all else, particularly the IPS, have a cushy time. This commission's recommendations are biased in favour of the bureaucrats who sit in air conditioned offices while their counterparts have been ignored.
Anyone who has watched the career graphs of bureaucrats would have observed that an average direct recruit IAS officer spends not more than three years in duty posts at the districts and difficult stations are almost always manned by State PCS officers. An IAS officer goes on deputation to all sorts of PSEs and enjoys perquisites of the CEO right from the age of 28 or so and he or she ensures that his comfort level is never diminished by pulling strings to get Foreign postings ,Harvard / British Council Scholarships, repeated stints at Delhi where pushing files is more important than delivering on commitments. That the Commission should have concentrated on a fair compensation for these 5000 odd guys (and girls) while the hard work of all the others from DGP to traffic policeman and from Major General to a Jawan is brushed aside under some sweeping generalizations.
For instance, even while recommending decadering for opening up the government service to others, the Pay Commission does not care to examine the way the strength of the All India Services is fixed. The Commission thinks that by giving an unconscionably disproportionate skewed salary to the Secretary and Cabinet Secretary or even COAS it will help attract talent to civil service. In fact the number of IAS and IFS officers who have retired below the rank of secretary can be counted on ones fingers. Almost all the Secretary level posts are filled by them and since they have rules so framed ( for instance the two year difference between the IAS and other services in seniority to reach Director Level , reiterated by the Commission with weak arguments) to ensure that they only will go up to the room at the top the commissions' bounty will only benefit this class.
No one in his senses will join civil or military service on the basis of the pay and perks of the top most. I don't think people are queuing up to join Pepsicola because Indira Nooyi gets $14 millions annually. A candidate values future potential for growth of the organisation and therefore of himself. VI CPC has belied the expectations of aspiring candidates to the services by downgrading them too far below the IAS. Recruitments for both streams are done by open competitions. Relatively speaking, the IAS has been steadily chipping away at the warrant of precedence to diminish the importance of the services. Recent instance of attempt to frisk and body search the top military officers at the airports is a case in point.
As far as Indian administration is concerned unless the hegemony of the IAS is done away there is no hope in the hell for a honourable career for others either on the military or civil wings.
R Sundaram
Each service needs reorganisation
Let us look at solutions also instead of highlighting our anger and anguish. It is a fact that IAS is at the top of pyramid in the UPSC exams. Is that be only reason that it should be given such big leap in its career. All successful candidates in the civil services examination deserve more or less same level of treatment in their career. They are serious students in their life and have similar legitimate aspirations of a career.
The government jobs of any service are becoming less and lesser attractive in comparison to professional careers or entrepreneurships. We are lucky to be in this booming phase of India. Why should we try to compete for a thing which has lost its charm? The bureaucracy in India should be an election manifesto and all political parties must make definite agenda before public about their vision of Indian bureaucracy. If good governance is an issue, it should clearly mention the role of civil servants. The bureaucracy in India is single handedly the biggest anti growth factor as well root cause of failure of all poverty alleviation or planned projects. Let there should be referendum again whether our country should continue this model of IAS dominated permanent bureaucracy or should we have contractual bureaucracy which is exclusively organized on the basis of task/project and not on the basis of career of an officer.
The public money is not meant for making a flourishing career of some civil servants but for public interest only. If someone wants to make his career, he should go to private sector and show his metal there to have a glorious career. In private sector no one can grow in his career only on the basis that he has passed a big exam. If his performance does not contribute, his career growth will be accordingly. Unlike the government of India, where an IAS officer is more or less assured about his career even if, he is normal or average in his performance The time has come when these issues must be made election agenda and people of India must be given historic choice to decide the model of bureaucracy which is Indian and servile to the poorest of poor.
Each and every service needs reorganization and introspection not only by officers themselves but also by our political leaders.
M N Tiwari
Good decision of Sikkim Government
It is good that the Sikkim government has recognised the potential of Indian Forest service by posting Bhadauria as Secretary Tourism department. Thanks to Sikkim Government and congratulations to Bhadauria. It is hoped that other states will also follow the example of Sikkim Government in posting IFS officers in different departments and organisations.
Ravi Kesar

CORPORATE
Maru to join Edelweiss Capitak
Former State Bank of India man Shilendra Maru is reportedly joining Edelweiss Capital.
POWERGRID once again excels in all areas
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
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
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.