A deserving site:
Whispers in the corridors is no more a whispering site. It has gone beyond that and now is a forum where honest and bold citizens find a place to see them expressed as they want. Slowly but steadily, even IAS officers have now started understanding the importance of this site and are joining this forum. The way Dr. Misra has expressed his anguish at the plight of civil servants, deserves to be praised, at the same to be pondered about.

I feel it is time too for the Civil Servants (IAS) to form an Association/Federation of their own and protect themselves from the greedy politicians. The Federation could also lay down rules for their own members and boycott those dishonest socially.
C. Singh

Contact-suresh.mehrotra@yahoo.com> & <mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com>

Empanelment of 1977 batch IPS officers in January
Empanelment of 1977 batch IPS officers to the rank of DG is expected to take place in early next month.

Prasad to be new Indian Ambassador to Nepal ?
J N Prasad is likely to succeed Rakesh Sood as Indian Ambassador in Nepal. He is 1976 batch IFS officer.

Interviews for SEBI chief on December 13, 2010
Interviews for selection of new incumbent for the post of Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) are now scheduled take place from 2.30 pm onwards on December 13, 2010.Had there been any move to give extension to present SEBI Chief C B Bhave interviews would have been cancelled.

Kandaswamy to be JD EOW Mumbai ?
P. Kandaswamy, Joint Director, Central Bureau of Investigation, Mumbai, is likely to be given charge of newly created post of Joint Director, Economic Offence Wing, at Mumbai. He is an IPS officer of the 1989 batch who belongs to the Tamil Nadu cadre.

Who will be NABARD CMD ?
Who will be new NABARD Chief ? Though there are 16 contenders, tie is said to be between 1982 batch Bihar cadre IAS officer Amitabh Verma and an insider S K Mitra. Outgoing NABARD Chief U C Sarangi has taken over as ACS Home in Maharashtra.

K.S Jangpangi to join GoI
Name of K.S Jangpangi has been retained in the offer list of Government of India for deputation for the post of ADG rank officer. He is an IPS officer of the 1978 batch who belongs to the Kerala cadre.

Panel of two dozen names for DRM to be ready in January
A Panel of about two dozen names is being prepared in the Rail Bhawan for DRM. Panel will be ready by next month.

Anil Madhav Lal in race for new CS, J & K
As the grapevine has it, Pervez Dewan is one of the four IAS officers of Jammu & Kashmir cadre are in race for the post of Chief Secretary as S.S. Kapur Chief Secretary of Jammu & Kashmir will retire on January 31,2011. Anil Madhav Lal is an IAS officer of the 1977 batch who belongs to Jammu & Kashmir cadre.

Interview for SBI's CGMs on December 18 & 19
Interview of General Managers (GMs) for promotion as Chief General Managers (CGMs) is going to take place on December 18 and 19, 2010. Altogther 38 GMs are in the run.

Sarangi is now ACS Home in Maharashtra
Outgoing CMD of NABARD U C Sarangi is back to the parent Maharastra cadre. On return 1977 batch IAS officer Sarangi has been appointed ACS Home.

Will Subodh Kumar return to Maharashtra ?
Will Additional Secretary Telecom Subodh Kumar return to the parent Maharashtra cadre as Commissioner of prestigious Mumbai Municipal Corporation ? Recent meeting between Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan and 1977 batch IAS officer Subodh Kumar in Delhi has fuelled speculations to this effect. Name of Gautam Chatterjee is also in circulation for the post.

Changes in DD likely
Station Director of the DD Kendra Bhopal D Prasada Rao is being moved to Hyderabad to succeed Madhusudan Rao who is retiring this month end. Prabhu Jhingran is likely to be made Station Director D D Kendra Bhopal.

Is the rumour true ?
There is rumour that Prime Minister has cleared file for taking Disciplinary action against one Joint Secretary for harassing a lady Officer.

DMRC MD gets one year extension
Managing Director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) E Sreedharan has been given a year's extension as the Managing Director.

38 SBI officials promoted to the rank of CGM
As many as 38 senior officials in the State Bank of India have been promnoted to the grade of Chief General Manager. They are Uday Shankar Sohoni, Sushil Kumar Mishra, S Sridharan, Sharad Sharma, Sanjay Wamanrao Tanksale, Shriram Bhaskar Bejahwar, B.S.R Prasad, Ronji Suchet Chaudhuri, Samir Kant Saran, Asim Kumar Banerjee, Rammohan Rao Belle, Ranjit Goswami, Mrs. Sasikala Varadachari, Mrs. Jyotsana Madhu Jamkhaildi, Surender Kumar Gagroo, Mrinal Shankar Devaprasad Mozumder, Vishvesh Ramamoorthy, Narender Kumar Gupta, Mrs. Anuradha Gupra, D. Chandrasekhara Rao, Supriyo Kumar Chaudhuri, Nihal Sudhir Kujur, Rajeev Krishnan, V. Murali, Bhaskar Niyogi, Vellurgopal Raghavan Kannan, Krishnamoorthy Venkataraman, Raman Chinnaiyan, N. Jambunathan, Deepak Kumar Chatterjee, Mrs. Sudha Malhotra, Rajeev Kumar Seth, Ashwini Mehra, Mrs. Usha R. Nair, Rakesh Sharma, Jeevandas Narayan and B Sriram.

17 IRS officers promoted as Jt Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise
As many as 17 IRS (C&CE) officers in the grade of Deputy Commissioner (Grade-V) have been promoted to the grade of Joint Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise (Grade-IV) . They are K. Virendra Kumar Suman, D. Anil, V.R. Eliza, Ms. Kapil Choudhary, Praduymn Kumar Tripathi, Shobhit Jain, Prashant Kumar, Imamuddin Ahmad, Atul Handa, Ms. Vrindaba Laxman Singh Gohil, Harish Kumar, Kunduru S.V.V. Prasad, Vinish Choudhry, Dinesh K. Chakravarthy, Satyendra Mathuria, Anil Ramteke and Talla V. Ravi.

SBI official Menon transferred

Chakkedath Ravindranathan Menon, Assistant General Manager, Region-IV, Administrative Office, Mumbai, has been posted as Deputy General
Manager, Overseas Branch, Mid Corporate Group, Bangalore.

26 IRTS officers promoted to SAG grade
The Railways has promoted 26 IRTS officers of the 1989 batch to SAG grade.

IRTS officer Ravinesh Kumar promoted
Ravinesh Kumar CVO, NBCC (GoI) has been promoted to SAG. He is an IRTS officer of 1989 batch.

IRTS officer Sreekumar promoted, transferred to SWR
IRTS officer N. Sreekumar (1989 batch) has been promoted from Southern Railways to South Western Railways.

IRTS officer V. Shankar promoted, transferred to NCR
IRTS officer V. Shankar of 1989 batch has been promoted to SAG and transferred from North Western Railways to North Central Railways, (IRPMU).

IRTS officer Manoj Singh promoted
IRTS officer Manoj Singh (1989 batch) posted with the South Eastern Railways has been promoted to SAG and posted in SER.

IRTS officer N. Sriniwas promoted, transferred to SWR
IRTS officer, N. Sriniwas of the 1989 batch) posted in South Central Railways has been promoted to SAG and transferred to South Western Railways.

IRTS officer S. Majumdar promoted, transferred to SWR
IRTS officer, S. Majumdar of the 1989 batch posted in South Eastern Railways has been promoted to SAG and transferred to East Central Railways ADRM/Brka.

IRTS officer Naik promoted, transferred to SER
IRTS officer, D.Y. Naik of the 1989 batch presently posted with the South Eastern Railways has been promoted to SAG and posted in SER.

IRTS officer Vivek Srivastava promoted
Vivek Srivastava IRTS officer of the 1989 batch posted in Northern Railways has been promoted to SAG and posted with NR.

IRTS officer C. Swain promoted
C. Swain IRTS officer of the 1989 batch posted in South East Central Railways has been promoted to SAG and posted with SECR.

IRTS officer Sanjay Bajpai promoted, transferred to ECOR
Sanjay Bajpai IRTS officer of the 1989 batch posted in Railway Board has been promoted to SAG and posted with ECOR.

IRTS officer Prabhat Ranjan promoted
Prabhat Ranjan IRTS officer of the 1989 batch posted in Central Railways has been promoted to SAG and posted with CR.

IRTS officer Alok Sharma promoted, transferred to NFR
Alok Sharma IRTS officer of the 1989 batch posted with the Northern Railways has been promoted to SAG and posted with NFR.

IRTS officer R.K. Kashyap promoted, transferred to NER
R.K. Kashyap IRTS officer of the 1989 batch posted with the Railway Board has been promoted to SAG and posted with NER.

IRTS officer Mohd. Owais promoted, transferred ECR
Mohd Owais IRTS officer of the 1989 batch posted in East Central Railways has been promoted to SAG and posted with ECR.

IRTS officer Sanjay Mishra promoted, posted to ER
Sanjay Mishra IRTS officer of the 1989 batch posted in North Railways has been promoted to SAG and posted with ER.

IRTS officer J.S. Meena promoted
J.S. Meena IRTS officer of the 1989 batch posted in North Western Railways has been promoted to SAG and posted with NWR.

IRTS officer G. Vishwanathan promoted
G. Vishwanathan IRTS officer of the 1989 batch posted in Southern Railways has been promoted to SAG and posted with SR.

WAPCOS conferred with Mini Ratna-I status (UPDATED)
WAPCOS has been awarded the status of a Mini Ratna -1 Public Sector Undertaking by the Ministry of Water Resources following its performance during the year. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs & Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal presented the Mini Ratna Category-I Certificate to R.K. Gupta, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, WAPCOS Limited at a function organized in the Ministry of Water Resources New Delhi. Minister of State (Water Resources) Vincent H. Pala, D.V. Singh, Secretary (Water Resources); G. Mohan Kumar, Addl. Secretary (Water Resources) and other senior officers from Ministry of Water Resources and WAPCOS were present on the occasion. During the year, the turnover of the Company has increased by 47.3%, Profit before Tax by 109.4%, New Business by 25%.

Sayan Chatterjee tipped to be Secretary NACO (UPDATED)
Latest grapevine has it that DG Sports Authority of India, Sayan Chatterjee is poised to be new Secretary NACO. He is an IAS officer of the 1976 batch who belongs to the Kerala cadre.

Empanelment of three batches of IRS (UPDATED)
Empanelment of 1982,1983 and 1984 batch IRS officers to the rank of Joint Secretary in the Government of India is expected to take place soon.Three day meeting for empanelment will commence from Saturday.

Dr Sharmila is now Dy Secretary PMO (UPDATED)
Dr Sharmila Mary Joseph K has been appointed Deputy Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office. She is 1997 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre.

Railways transfers and postings (UPDATED)
Gitika Pandey of SG/IRAS has been on return from deputation transferred to CR in the cadre, Sanjeet of JAG/IRAS has been on return from deputation ransferred to NR against an existing vacancy, Ms. Radhika Bhir of SG/IRAS has been transferred from WR to NR and posted against an existing vacancy, TR Bhatt of SAG/IRTS has been transferred from NCR as CTM/IRPMU to NR and posted in the cadre, Subrato Mukherjee of SAG/IRTS has been transferred from ER to NFR and posted in the cadre, R. Manjhi of SAG/IRTS has been transferred from CR, as ADRM/BRKA to ER and posted in the cadre, G. Laxminarayan of SAG/IRTS has been transferred from CR to SCR and posted in the cadre, Dinesh Jain of JAG/IRSEE has been transferred from SR to WR against an existng vacancy, GS Tiwari of HAG/IRSE has been transferred from CR, as PCE and posted as CAO/C(South) on ECR itself, Manoj Kumar of HAG/IRSE has been transferred from NER to ECR and posted as CAO/C(South), GG Phupagar of SAG/IRTS has been transferred from SCR to SECR and appointed in HAG as CCM and Rampyare of SAG/IRTS has been transferred from NR and appointed in HAG with efect from Dec 31, 2008.

RTI

Preferential allottment of shares of RIL

A copy of the action taken by SEBI from the time of the filing of the
complaint by S. Gurumurthy regarding the preferential allotment of
shares to the promoters of RIL through 34 Ambani companies along with
the file notings, a copy of the findings of SEBI, Justice Srikrishna
report etc. was sought. The CPIO informed that the information could
not be disclosed as, though the investigation was completed, the
process of prosecution might be impeded by parting of information at
this stage. Holding the claim that its disclosure would impede the
process of investigation as untenable, the CIC directed to disclose
the information.

Comments

The Delhi High Court judgement in the Bhagat Singh case which
delineated the application of Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act has made
it clear that mere pendency of prosecution cannot be a basis for
denial of information. For the share market to mature, information
about the scams - whether the Harshad Mehta scam or others, must be
put in the public domain.

Arun Kumar Agrawal v. SEBI in F.No.CIC/AT/A/2010/000694

- Weekly article by Dr. (Mrs.) Anuradha Verma
(dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in), RTI Consultant to IIM, Indore and
Co-author of the book: RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE by
Taxmann. (The views are Personal)

CORPORATE
Indian Oil on top among Fortune 500 companies
The first-ever list of Fortune 500 companies in India has ranked state-owned Indian Oil at No. 1 in terms of revenue, followed by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd and State Bank of India. Of the top 10, five are state-owned. Tata Steel Ltd, Tata Motors Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd also rank among the top 10 in the survey conducted by Fortune India, a Time Inc. magazine published in India by ABP Pvt. Ltd.

Menon is Additional Director Axix Bank
Prasad R Menon has been nominated as Additional Director of the Axix Bank.

Bank of Baroda bags Banker of the Year 2010 (for India)
Bank of Baroda has been awarded with the Banker of the Year 2010 (for India) Award by The Banker Magazine, UK. The award was received by K.D. Lamba, Chief Executive (European Operations) in an award ceremony held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Park Lane, London. The award function was attended by the representatives from various Banks across the world from about 125 countries.

Charles Cadell to join McCann Worldgroup as regional MD
Cadell is all set to join as Regional Managing Director - Southeast Asia and Australia at McCann Worldgroup. He will take charge from the second week of January, 2011.

Vipul Mathur appointed Sales Head, Manhattan Communications
Vipul Mathur has been appointed as Sales Head of Integrated advertising agency Manhattan Communications. He has a versatile experience in media sales, as he has worked with Zee Entertainment and Zee International, Radio City.

PerceptH appoints Dasgupta as COO for West region
PerceptH has appointed Joydeep Dasgupta as its new COO for the West region. He was with Mudra, Chennai, as head Chennai office. Dasgupta will be based out of Mumbai and will be reporting to Prabhakar Mundkur, CEO, PerceptH.

Rajan Mittal resigns from TV Today Board
Rajan Bharti Mittal acting as an Independent Director of TV Today Network Ltd has resigned from the Board of Directors with effect from November 8, 2010.

Unilever proposes name of Mittal for its Board
Unilever has proposed the name of Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal a Non-executive member on its global board.

Jain joins PTC India Board
Ved Kumar Jain has been appointed as Independent Director of PTC India Ltd w.e.f. December 07, 2010. He is Chartered Accountant and ex- President of ICAI;

Panjiar joins PTC India Board
Umesh Narayan Panjiar, IAS (Retd.) has been appointed as Independent Director of PTC India Ltd w.e.f. December 07, 2010. He is former Secretary to the Government of India.

LG Electronics to have new CEO
LG Electronics will soon have a new CEO--Soon Kwon as its third Korean chief in 14 years.

Suresh promoted as MD
J.Suresh, the CEO of Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd & Arvind Retail Ltd has been romoted to the Managing Director.

Dasgupta is COO (West), PerceptH
PerceptH has appointed Joydeep Dasgupta as its new Chief Operating Officer (West). Dasgupta moves from Mudra, Chennai, where he was heading its Chennai office.

Jayaram appointed Ad Sales Head, Dish TV
DishTV has apointed Dilip Jayaram as National Ad Sales Head. In his new role, Jayaram will report to Salil Kapoor, COO, Dish TV.

Vala appointed Company Secy. ESS Dee Aluminium
ESS Dee Aluminium Limited has appointed Haresh Vala as the Company Secretary and Compliance Officer of the Company w.e.f. from 9th December, 2010.

BNP Paribas appoints Head (Asia-Pacific)
BNP Paribas has appointed Eric Raynaud as Head of Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Chief Executive Officer ( Corporate and Investment Banking APAC).

FORUM
(The views expressed in this column are of the contributors. We do not owe any responsibility, whatsoever, of the views of our surfers as they are their personal opinion. However, we would also request our contributors not to be personal, directly or indirectly, in presenting their views. Instead of countering the views which ‘X’ has already expressed, our contributors are advised to present their own views. Also be brief, say about 200 words at the most since any views longer than that if eliminated at our end would carry the risk of the contrbutor’s item losing its original essence)


Ratan Tata victim of infighting

Ratan Tata is not a political animaajeevl. He has fallen a victim to fight between 10 Janpat and 7 RCR. He thinks Rajeev Chandrashekhar wrote the letter at the behest of opposition. Rajeev is known for his closeness to a close aid of 10 Janpath and Haryana Chief Minister and letter was drafted and sent out after the close aid asked him. Congress is trying to discredit Tata for his open support to Narendra Modi. I am using this forum (WIC) to write to you because I am aware you read this regularly.

Smita Pandey

SBI to go under bureaucratic control

R. K. Talwar, the then Chairman of SBI, was the first banker to become the Chairman. Prior to him all were ICS Officers. Now with the appointment of another IAS as MD, (who is the administrative head and the chairman comes into picture normally on policy planning matters,) it seems that again the Bank is going to be under the bureaucratic control. It will be a good sign if he take care of the administration and operations more efficiently as now the service of all the nationalised banks are very poor.

T. N. M. Nambiar

It'll be a retrogade step

Appointing a person from a non banking or non financial sector as the head of a bank and particularly of the SBI will be a retrograde step and will set an unhealthy precedent. It will also send shock waves among the bankers. The government is already battling with many scams and controversies. It should avoid adding to its woes.

Satya Singal

Paradise lost & paradise regained

If PJ Thomas is innocent then for what he needs immunity? He should have the boldness of an innocent & honest Officer & resign & face the Court & prove his innocence. An honest officer does not need to stick on to chair of CVC & claim immunity from prosecution by force. Let him forsake this privilege, his boldness of action & willingness to be openly tried will close all wagging tongues. JAI HO.

Ritu Sharma.

Whole thing has misfired

One is amused by the arguments put forward by the admirers of P.J Thomas in his defence. At the same time the endless discussion as to why Thomas was made the CVC is all very naive. The whole exercise is so 'transparent'. All the irregularities which took place in the allotment of 2G Spectrum-the policy change, the change in the date of receiving the offers, the questioning of the authority of CAG to raise doubts on policy etc. need to be defended and taken care of and who could do it better than the one who was a party to the whole exercise. The government has also to get over the CWG Spoils. They needed to have their man at this crucial post. There can be no other reason for the other two members of the selection committee to insist on his name in the panel even in the face of opposition from the leader of the opposition. This is another matter that the whole thing has misfired and the PILs in the Supreme court have embarrassed the Government. The Apex Court has been kind to give him a chance to explain personally his side of defence in the old Palmolein import case. Let us see how far they stretch this kindness of theirs.

Aarti Khosla

Paid news

There are conduct rules to take action against government servants. Even the CVC and union ministers are not spared. What about fourth estate magnates like Barkha dutt, Vir Singhvi ? Can they go scot-free ? The Hindu newspaper campaign against regional newspapers being pumped with taxpayers money for political purposes is not even acknowledged. Some I&PR departments are creating projects with crores of rupees for TV media just to live telecast government functions e.g Dhatri communication in AP. Why should sovereign wealth be distributed for government news? Some channels are selling air time to political leaders for covering their private events. What we see as breaking news is nothing but paid news. why not the government take action under IPC/CrPC for misleading public by the media? Is the business advertisement revenue not sufficient for media? If people stop subscribing to such media what will be the fate of truth?

P Naresh

Honesty of PM encashed by UPA !

The honesty of our Prime Minister has been badly en-cashed by the UPA and reduced to honesty of form only leaving no substance in it. This does not auger well for the country.

Rajendra

Our system of politics is source of corruption

Without interrogation of Kani Mozhi 2G probe is not complete. If it is done DMK will withdraw support and alliance will break. How precarious is UPA and the constitution is in their shaky hands. Further my view is that you should not advise postings at AGM and DGM levels of SBI. Do only GM levels and above. Also SBI top brass who allowed so much credit to 2GScam companies despite CVC enquiry and CBI charge sheet should be probed and charge sheeted. At the higher echelons only Harshad Metha operated. Like this Radia would have operated or others. Government should find out says SC. Will they do? I wonder why after so much experience such seniors of our cadre become victims for other reasons? Retired judges were corruption soused as is evident from papers. They are employed for commission of enquiry. How far it is correct? Also why nobody finds out what Dr. Swamy says is correct or not? Our system of politics is the source of such corruption. No judge observes "splendid isolation"

Venkat

Your column "Date with RTI" is a good initiative.

However, it is enough if the article is given once a week. There is no point in repeating the same article for seven days. Most of your readers visit your site every day and it is rather distratcing to see the same article for days.

Thanks

M ASHAR, Mumbai