I found whispers in the corridors very informative and true assessor of happenings, excellent comments.. Thanks
Harpal Singh

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

Race between corrupt and less corrupt
Gone are the days when people used to talk about honesty and dishonesty. Today, there is a race between corrupt and less corrupt.

BUREAUCRACY

Kaun Banega new SBI Chairman (7) Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya
As the grapevine has it, Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya is one of the three contenders in insiders' category for the slot of new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the State Bank of India (SBI). Present incumbent O.P. Bhatt is due to superannuate on March 7, 2011.
Mazumdar to be new CBEC chief
Sumit Dutt Mazumdar is going to be next Chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
Tripathi is new R&AW Chief
Seniormost R&AW official Sanjeev Tripathi will be new R&AW Chief. Name of 1972 batch officer, Tripathi, was cleared on Friday evening. He was scheduled to retire on December 31.With this appointment Tripathi would get two years tenure.
( We said this on October 5 and again on November 18 )
R&AW chief to head NTRO
R&AW Chief K C Verma is moving as Chairman of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) . Name of 1971 batch IPS officer of Jharkhand cadre, Verma, has been cleared for the post .He was scheduled to retire on January 31.With this appointment he will get another three years.
( We said this on November 18 )
Ms. Bhandari is now PS to MoS Power
Ms Rakhi Gupta Bhandari will now be PS to Union Minister of State for power Bharatsinh Solanki.1997 batch IAS officer of Punjab cadre, Ms Bhandari, was earlier posted in the NIFT Delhi.
Kumar to be Director HEC
Vimal Kumar is being tipped to be Director (Personnel) of the Hindustan Engineering Corporation (HEC).
MHA gets names of eligible 1978 batch for ITBP
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has got names of eligible IPS officers from states belonging to the 1978 batch for the vacant post of ADG in ITBP.
Khanna is new GM of Samrat Hotel Delhi
Jayant Khanna, DGM in ITDC Headquarters, will now be new General Manager of the Hotel Samrat , New Delhi. He will succeed Rajinder Nigam on his superannuation. V P Bhatia will succeed Jayant Khanna
Transfers of IPS officers on the anvil in Rajasthan
Transfers of IPS officers of DIGs and above are going to take place soon in Rajasthan.
DPC for elevation in CRPF held
DPC has been held for elevation of CRPF cadre officers for ranks of IG and ADG .
Bagra gets extension as MD, BGML
B.L. Bagra, Director (Finance), NALCO who is holding the additional charge of MD, BGML Limited since 18.9.2010 will continue to hold it till Feb 28, 2012.
Mahajan appointed as EIL's Director Technical
P. Mahajan, ED in Engineer India Limited (EIL), has been appointed as its Director (Technical).
Vaidya gets additional charge as MD, MAPL
A.S. Vaidya, Director (Finance), HAL has got additional charge of MD, MAPL for a period of one year.
GOI issues advisory to curtail para military forces in J & K
While, accepting a proposal by the J&K Government, the Government of India (GOI) has issued an advisory to reduce para-military forces in the state.
Chiru is now OSD in Shipping Ministry
S Jatak Chiru has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Ministry of Shipping. 1999 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer, Chiru, was earlier Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Defence.
New post of Joint Secretary to be created
A new post of the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Non-Renewable Energy is likely to be created in the Government of India.
Ms. Gowda joins as PS to Minister MEA
Ms K. Dhanalakshmi Gowda has joined as private secretary (PS) to Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna. Earlier, she was District Magistrate (DM) of Farrookhabad. She is Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer of 2000 batch.
Vinod Kumar to be HC Tuvalu
Vinod Kumar, presently High Commissioner of India to Fiji, has been concurrently accredited as the High Commissioner of India to Tuvalu, with residence in Suva.
Police in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (NWFP) in arms procurement scandal
A committee headed by Sahibzada Saeed Ahmed, Finance Secretary of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (previously known as NWFP) has reported serious bungling in utilisation of Rs 9.23 billion allocated to the police department for procurement of 'Arms, Ammunitions and Protective gears'. Most of the items were procured, without due publicity, from sister concerns owned by a single family and were substandard. The committee's recommendation for thorough investigations and a special audit by the AG for fixing responsibility and handing over the case to the National Accountability Bureau seems to have been sabotaged by the CM who has instead constituted another committee headed by the Provincial Secretary (Services) with, curiously, the Social Welfare Secretary as its member to look into the matter. The police hierarchy too seems divided on the issue as the office of capital city police Peshawar has complained of poor quality stuff but the top brass of the police HQs term the allegations as baseless. Quite curiously the top brass also seems keen on passing the blame for substandard supplies to the army as the equipments were reportedly tested at the Inspectorate of Armaments, GHQ, Rawalpindi and 'found to be in order'.
Mishra is new CIC Orissa
Former Chief Secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra has taken over as new Chief Information Commissioner in Orissa. He is retired 1975 batch IAS officer.
( We said this on November 16 )
Post advertised for Member PESB
Post of Member in the PESB has been advertised. One post has fallen vacant following resignation of Sudhakar Rao.
RTI

Price List and Pricing mechanism
The Appellant had sought the copies of the price lists fixed by the Indian Rare Earths Limited for various minerals for the past several years along with copies of documents relating to the fixation of prices by the Board of Directors of the Company. He also asked for copies of the Invoices, Bill of Lading and form 'H', etc. The Commission held that the disclosure of the invoice and form 'H' would reveal several details about the third party customers of the company and may compromise their competitive position in the market place. Similarly, the disclosure of the Board Agenda and notes in respect of the pricing mechanism would affect the commercial interests of the company. Further, the Commission directed to disclose the year-wise price lists for various minerals raised and traded by the Company and also publish the rates at which it sold the minerals after the trading cycle is over.
Comments
The price list is not the same as the pricing mechanism. It is the end product of the pricing exercise and is revealed to anyone who wants to buy from the company. Therefore, to argue that the disclosure of the price lists of the previous years can have any adverse effect on the competitive position of the company and claim exemption under Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act do not seem plausible at all.
[D. Dhaya Devadas v. Indian Rare Earths Limited, Department of Atomic Energy in File No.CIC/SM/A/2010/001298 & 1436]

- 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
Reshuffle of portfolios in RBI likely
Reshuffle of portfolios of Deputy Governors and Executive Directors is likely to take place in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) soon.
Goyal, Director GAIL gets extension
R.K. Goyal, Director (Finance), GAIL has been granted an extension for three months.
Bose gets extension till year end
T.N. Bose, Director (TNFS), ONGC, has been granted extension up to year 2010.
SEBI Chief's interview on December 3
Interview for the post of new Chief of the SEBI will take place on December 3 in New Delhi.
Mathur moves from Pondicherry to Bhopal
Vishal Mathur has been moved from Hotel Ashok , Pondicherry, to Hotel Ashok Lakeview Bhopal as General Manager.
LG India Mobile Phone Business Head resigns

Sudhin Mathur, Head (Mobile Phone Business), LG India, has resigned after one-year stint with the company
Shastri re-appointed Addl. Director
Kemrock Industries And Exports Limited has re-appointed Venugopal Shastri as an Additional Director (Independent Director) of the Company effective November 19, 2010. He will hold such office only upto the date of the next Annual General Meeting of the Company.
Prakash resigns from Tide Water Oil Co.
The Board of Tide Water Oil Company (India) Limited has accepted the resignation of Ved Prakash with effect from October 29, 2010.
Raj appointed Addl. Director Tide Water Oil Co.
Dr. Gulshan Raj has been appointed as an Additional Director of Tide Water Oil Company (India) Ltd with effect from October 29, 2010.
Mitra promoted
Arnab Mitra, Director , Media Contacts India, has been promoted as Regional Director, looking after the agency's operations in South Asia. He will report to Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media, South Asia and Rajeev Bala, Managing Director, Media Contacts, South-East Asia and India.

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)

Administrative culture sent to dogs!
Unprecedented is what eminent jurists have termed the developments of the past 24 hours! But they forgot that the acts of omission & commission were also unprecedented! Knowingly, the government had never allowed corruption to have a free hand as under the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), which was only another name for commonwealth of the looters! What a give & take! Shameful? No, even shame is ashamed of such shameful acts. There were no voices to protest when the constitutional format of government was destroyed through the mechanism of the NAC. It restricted the Prime Minister's freedom of taking decisions independently. So 2-G/CWG/Adarsh/Merrut(latest scam of more than 300000 lakh crores ghotala of defence lands) were bound to crop up. To get round the problem the stratagem adopted has disrupted the administrative culture: it is governing outside the constitutional framework comprising committees and commissions, headed by retired & tired civil servants with a status of minister of state or near about. Old loyalists, who had served personal interests over public interests, were pulled out of the graves of oblivion and rehabilitated. Similarly loyal retiring civil servants are given extensions. All with a view to do the illegal acts of the establishment, be it the current scams or others that are bound to surface, for it too is unprecedented in the history of India that so many plunderers looted the country so much in so short a time. I am reminded of the expression Dilli Ki Loot, which I heard about 40 years ago but never understood its true meaning until now. This secondary form of government has destroyed the administrative culture for ever: you will not see any steel frame or iron frame of public services to serve the nation any more. The present culture is : serve only one person and rule the remaining 120 crore people of India! We have lost in less time what we gained in over 90 years of freedom struggle starting from 1857 !

M L Gupta

India shouldn't bargain with losers

America is a sinking ship ! By next year most of the EU too would be sinking and sinking fast. There is no reason for India to now hitch its wagon to a falling star. China , India, Brazil and Russia are natural allies in this new world order. India may not feel too comfortable in China's company but could offset this by making America and Russia quarrel with China. India's geo-political interests lie in a reunification of the sub-continent from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka. This is India's traditional sphere of influence. Obama's condescending lecture to our Parliament that Americas support for India's seat in the Security Council would be possible only if India became a US satellite, presupposes American ownership of the UN. America is now in the midst of the Second Great Depression. Unlike the first time there is no great world war to bail out the military industrial complex of the United States. Nor is there a Roosevelt with a New Deal. All we have is an American Negro widely suspected of being a Muslim who is as good as our own PM at giving pretty speeches which signify nothing. Why should we even join the Security Council when it has no teeth? It would be far better for India to remain aloof and not loose its dignity by bargaining with losers.

D Choudhury

Intervention of all required

A few days back there was a news item in prominent Odia news paper that officers are not carrying out orders of Chief Secretary. A few days back another news about a secretary not taking order of Minister for which the minister has sought the intervention of Chief Secretary. How a State is run? Is it not that Lord Jagannath is running Odisha? A poor State. It needs intervention of all. Please see deeply what is happening in your office. God has given you the power to serve people. Power and position will go one day. Let us not be blind with it. Let us self introspect what have we have done in return to the huge salary and perks we are getting. We must respect the superior and work for the people.

Kalpna

Perfectly all right

What Joshi is saying is perfectly allright. Honest and honesty is minus point for any one preferebly officers.

O P Pandey

Tail-piece

A school teacher retires at 62,
and
a secretary to Govt. of India at 60.

HA! HA! HA!

Contributed by=MANI