What people say about us !

I am frequent visitor to 'Whispers in the Corridors'. It is the best website I have read and refer to my peers. I find both the news from the civil service and the corporate world from India to be fascinating.

Jose

Independents to dominate politics in future
As political pundits feel, those MPs & MLAs who have won as independents will dominate political scenario of India in future.

What is the mantra to succeed in politics?
What is the mantra to succeed in politics? A hot debate was held over the issue at a high profile party. Consensus opinion was, "one should remain an 'idiot' to succeed in politics."

BUREAUCRACY

R K Mathur poised to be Secretary, MSME
As the grapevine has it, that Radha Krishna Mathur is poised to be new Secretary MSME. At present he is posted as Special Secretary, Defence. He is an IAS officer of 1977 batch who belongs to the Manipur Tripura (MT) cadre.

V N Rai to be new Director, NPA, Hyderabad
V N Rai is reportedly going to take over as new Director of the National Police Academy Hyderabad after Diwali. He is a 1977 batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre.
(We said this on October 15)

Ashok Chawla has an uphill task as Chairman, CCI
Former Secretary, Finance, Ashok Chawla who has been sworn in as new Chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has an uphill task as far as bringing cohesiveness in working of the CCI was concerned. A 1973 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer, Chawla has succeeded 1968 batch Haryana cadre IAS officer Dhanendra Kumar. Chawla is a respectable civil servant in the country.

S K Srivastava selected as CMD, Oil India Limited
S K Srivastava, DG, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), has been selected for the post of Chairman and Managing Director, Oil India Limited at a PESB meeting on Thursday. Five persons were interviewed in this regard.

Amarendra Sinha gets additional charge
Amarendra Sinha, who on central deputation is Joint Secretary, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) in Government of India (GoI), has got additional charge of Development Commissioner (DC) of MSME. He is an IAS officer of the 1981 batch who belongs to the Uttarakhand cadre.

D.K. Mittal to be on Board of Exim Bank
As the grapevine has it, D K Mittal who is currently Secretary, Department of Financial Services i.e. Banking is poised to join as a Board member in the Exim Bank of India .He is an IAS officer of 1977 batch who belongs to the Uttar Pradesh (UP) cadre. He will be replacing Anurag Jain, Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services i.e. Banking. This will be for the first time that Secretary, Banking will join the Exim Bank 's board.

Rajneesh to be PS to Finance Minister
As the grapevine has it Rajneesh is poised to be new Private Secretary (PS) to Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. He is an IAS officer of 1997 batch who belongs to the Himachal Pradesh cadre.

CAT quashes Dr. T.C.A. Anant's appointment as CSI
In a recent landmark judgment a bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), principal bench, comprising of Mrs. Meera Chhiber, Member (Judicial) and A.K.Mishra, Member (Administration) has set aside the appointment of Dr. T.C.A. Anant as Chief Statistician of India (CSI) and Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Ms. Smitha Purushottam is new Ambassador of India to Venezuela
Ms. Smitha Purushottam, an Officer of Grade-II of IFS has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Venezuela.

Custodian office is in process of winding up by December 31, 2011 ?
There is a movement in Finance Ministry to wind up the 19 years old Custodian office by December 31, 2011. The Custodian office was created under Special Court Act, 1992 after Securities/ shares scam in 1992.

Bakshi is new Chairman of CEA
Arvinder Singh Bakshi has been appointed as the full time Chairperson of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

Forces active against S.Sridhar
It appears that there is an attempt by certain interested parties to scuttle the appointment of S.Sridhar ex-CMD, Central Bank of India as whole time Member, SEBI, by causing to delay vigilance clearance. Sridhar who had been selected by a panel chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, is widely acknowledged to be an upright and honest officer. A motivated campaign through pseudonymous complaints and using certain sections of the press has been in play. Irregularities have been alleged regarding the co-sponsorship of the Commonwealth Games by Central Bank of India during Sridhar's tenure, notwithstanding the fact that the Ministry of Finance has found no irregularity and the Shunglu committee, whose reports are all in the public,
domain has not made any adverse reference to the former bank of Sridhar.

IPoS Debtoru Chatterjee to be a Deputy Director, IB
Debtoru Chatterjee (IPoS-1994) on central deputation has been appointed as a Deputy Director in the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Presently, he is serving as Commandant, Army Postal Service.

Rakesh Saxena is MD, MRVC
Rakesh Saxena has assumed charge as Managing Director of the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC). Earlier, he was posted as Chief Operation Manager (COM), Eastern Railway (ER). He is an IRTS officer of the 1979 batch.
(We said this on June 2, 2011)

In violation of rules Dr. S S Mantha to be appointed AICTE chief
As the grapevine has it there is a move to appoint Dr. S S Mantha as full time Chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Dr.Mantha has been the AICTE's acting Chairman since August 2009.
.

Ms. Manju Kumar to be Joint Secretary, UPSC
Ms. Manju Kumar,( IPoS -1989 batch)on central deputation has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

Ms. Anita Shah to join BARC November 1, 2011
Ms. Anita Shah who on central deputation had been appointed as Internal Financial Advisor (IFA) in the newly formed Nuclear Recycle Group (NRG) under BARC, Department of Atomic Energy will be taking charge on November 1, 2011. Presently, she is posted as Senior Deputy Accountant General (SDAG) in the office of Principal Accountant General of Andhra Pradesh. Ms.Anita Shah is an officer of 1996 batch who belongs to Indian Audit & Accounts Service. She was earlier (from 2004-2009) Financial Advisor (FA) for Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam & had handled budget of 1500 crores.
(We said this on October 4, 2011)

Amal Pushp to be Director, Health & Family Welfare
Amal Pushp on central deputation is poised to be a Director, Health & Family Welfare. He is an IRS-IT officer of 1990 batch.

Work in Railway Ministry suffers
Normal working in Railway Ministry, specially in the field has been adversely hit. Thanks to a tardy progress regarding posting of Railway GMs, such a situation has arisen. While on one hand it is delaying decision making at the senior level, on the other the officers who are awaiting promotions are more keen about their elevation. This kind of a situation has arisen perhaps for the first time in the history of the Railway Ministry.

Who will be Chief Justice of Delhi High Court ?
Who will be new Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court ?. Picture is still not clear. Presently, Justice A K Sikri is Acting CJ of the Delhi High Court. In all probability justice Sikri will move as Chief Justice of some important state High Court.

Is there likely to be a exodus from HCC?
It is heard that there is likely to be a lot of churning in the Hindustan Construction company (HCC) reason being a clamp down on Lavasa project by the Ministry of Environment and Forest.

Ratnakar Barel's central deputation to be over
Ratnakar Barel who on central deputation is IG (Personnel) Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) will be completing his deputation on Nov 2, 2011. He is an IPS officer of 1982 batch who belongs to the Manipur Tripura (MT) cadre.

Lt Gen Bhatia to be DG, Infantory
Lt Gen Bhatia is going to be new DG, Infantory in the Indian Army.

CVC for fine on 20 officers of Railways
The Central Vigilance commission(CVC) has filed an application of request to impose fine on 20 officers of the Railways facing corruption charge.

One post of IG in ITBP next year
In April 2012, a new post of IG infrastructure will be created in ITBP.

A P Singh, Director, CBI to go to Morocco
A.P Singh, Director, CBI will be going to Morocco from October 24 to attend an official meeting. He is an IPS officer of 1974 batch who belongs to the Jharkhand cadre.

Puneet Kumar to hold additional charge as PS to MoS Tushar Chaudhary
Puneet Kumar who on central deputation is Director in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will be looking after the additional charge of Private Secretary (PS) to MoS for Road Transport and Highways, Tushar Chaudhary. He is an IAS officer of 1993 batch who belongs to the Kerala cadre.

Sikkim Government recommends names
Sikkim government has recommended names of four IPS officers to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the Government of India (GoI) for discharging election duties in five states where assembly polls are to be held in a few month's time. They are: Amrendra Kumar Singh (1990 batch), Akshay Sachdeva (1991 batch), N. Sridhar Rao (1994 batch) &Vinayak Vineet (1995 batch).

One dozen 1982 batch IAS officers in US
One dozen IAS officers belonging to 1982 batch are currently undergoing training course along with 1983 batch IAS officers in the US.

Pakistan : Army shows Parliamentary committee its place
Pankaj Jain IAS (1978 batch) Additional Secretary Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation Government of india is going to Dallas Fort Worth, Texas, USA from 22-25 Oct 2011 to attend "Project Management Institute USA Global Congress (North America) 2011" This is an annual event, where project
professionals from America and other continents gather to discuss how projects can be better implemented, risk management, international country experiences and practices, and is considered a prestigious event. He also attended the Global Congress 2010 and 2011 for Europe middle East and Africa, as he is a member of Project Management Institute USA.

Two posts of Technical Officers to fall vacant in WCO
Two posts of Technical Officers (Facilitation/Procedures) in the Compliance and Facilitation Directorate in the World Customs Organization (WCO) will be falling vacant soon. The WCO has invited applications for the same.

Kirpal is new CEO of Welcome -Heritage Hotels (UPDATED)
Sanjay Kirpal is the new Chief Executive Officer of Welcom-Heritage Group of Hotels.

Amita Sharma is PS Backward Class and Minority Welfare in MP (UPDATED)
On return from central deputation Ms Amita Sharma has been posted as Principal Secretary Backward Class and Minority Welfare in Madhya Pradesh. She is 1981 batch IAS officer.

IDAS officer is new Member-Secretary Tariff Commission (UPDATED)
Arunava Dutt has joined the Tariff Commission as Member-Secretary. He is 1978 batch IDAS officer.

Bhatt is new Deputy Secretary Defence (UPDATED)
Ramesh Chandra Bhatt has joined as Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Defence. He is 1995 batch ICAS officer.

Ranjan is Deputy Secretary Forests in GoI (UPDATED)
Shaily Ranjan has joined the Government of India as Deputy Secretary in the department of Forests and Environment.He is 2001 batch IFS officer of J & K cadre.

Hena Usman is Deputy Secretary Tourism (UPDATED)
1999 batch Indian Postal Service officer Ms Hena Usman has joined as Deputy Secretary in the Department of Tourism in the Government of India.

Bhargava to be Director (Finance) IREDA (UPDATED)
S K Bhargava is being tipped to be new Director (Finance) of the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA).

(DEBATE)
LOKPAL BILL AND BUREAUCRACY
The debate on Lokpal Bill and the subsequent anger and protests across the country led by veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare has instilled a fear of accountability among the bureaucracy. How should the bureaucrats react to the situation?
Mail your views to suresh.mehrotra@yahoo.com or mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com

CORPORATE

Anand Sundaresan MD, Schwing Stetter-India, holds road show for Excon 2011
From November 23 2011, the city of Bangalorewill play a host to South Asia's largest trade fair for construction equipment and technology. The prestigious five-day exhibition - organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and now in its sixth year - features more than 600 exhibitors that include 200 leading international companies.This was disclosed by Anand Sundaresan, leader, Excon 2011 task force on roadshows & Managing Director(MD), Schwing Stetter (India) Pvt Ltd in Bhopal recently.The Bangalore International Exhibition Centre will showcase, among other things, the world's finest construction equipment, host a 2-day Indian Earthmoving & Construction Industry Association Ltd (IECIAL) conference, a Builder's Association of India (BAI) member's meet, and over 400 product launches by participating companies, added Anand Sundaresan. With each passing edition, Excon has witnessed an immense growth both in quality and in numbers. So, while this will be the largest event on all counts including the number of domestic and overseas visitors, exhibition area and new project launches, the biggest difference will be the presence of enhanced foreign players. There will be country pavilions including leading economies like China, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Turkey & Finland.As part of its extensive pre- event promotion, CII has conducted over 20 roadshows across the country till end October 2011. Excon 2011 will go a long way in showcasing the best of equipment and technology available to aid India's accelerated plans for development of infrastructure. The event also promises to be the Government's knowledge partner, effective business platform, and demonstrate the technological advancement and
engineering skills of the Indian construction equipment industry,said Anand Sundaresan.

Ashraf resigns as Director, Cimmco Birla Ltd
Jamil Ashraf, Director of Cimmco Birla Ltd has resigned from the Board of Directors of the company w.e.f. October 17, 2011.

Spiegel re-appointed MD, KSB Pumps Ltd
KSB Pumps Limited has re-appointed W. Spiegel as Managing Director of the company for a further period of five years.

Colgan appointed Nominee Director, ESAB Holdings Ltd
Brendan Colgan has been appointed as a Non Executive, Non - Retiring Nominee, Director, of ESAB Holdings Limited in the place of James R. Deeley with effect from October 20, 2011.

Raman re-appointed CFO, Mount Everest Mineral Water Ltd
The Mount Everest Mineral Water Ltd has re-appointed S Y Raman as the Chief Financial Officer of the company w.e.f. October 19, 2011.

Bubna resigns as ED & Company Secy. Ludlow Jute and Specialities Ltd
Devendra Kumar Bubna has resigned as the Executive Director cum Company Secretary of Ludlow Jute and Specialities Ltd.

Shraff resigns as Whole-time Director, JJ Exporters Ltd
Arun Kumar Shraff, Whole-time Director, JJ Exporters Ltd has resigned from company.

Sinha nominated Part-time Director, Canara Bank
The Central Government has nominated Sutanu Sinha as Part-time Non-official Director on the Board of Directors of Canara Bank for a period of three years w.e.f October 17, 2011 .

Dudhawale appointed Company Secy. Balaji Amines Ltd
Ms. Arati S. Dudhawale, has been appointed as the Company Secretary of Balaji Amines Ltd with effect from October 15, 2011.

Mishra ceases to be Company Secy. BCC Finance Ltd
Ashok Mishra, has ceased to be Company Secretary of BCC Finance Ltd .

Bahri appointed Company Secy. BCC Finance Ltd
Samir Kumar Bahri, has been appointed as Company Secretary of BCC Finance Ltd w.e.f. October 17, 2011.

Narain resigns as Independent Director, Ashoka Builcon Ltd
Anant Deo Narain, Independent Director, Ashoka Buildcon Ltd has resigned due to personal reasons from the company w.e.f. October 19, 2011.

Lokpal Bill or no Bill

I agree with Upreti that Lokpal Bill or no Bill, rooting out corruption must be from within, an innate quality that every individual needs to develop. This, as rightly stated, comes from following a strict discipline by oneself. But at the same time, the Lokpal Bill, I must say, is a beginning and needs to be put in place as early as possible, similarly as the RTI Act has ushered in a certain self-imposed discipline on the part of bureaucrats in their notes on the file. On the flip side, the RTI Act has stymied the free thinking on issues.

K S Palachandran

Keep it up WIC and keep out dictatorial babus' demands

Shortly after the publication of some correct reports about a ministry babu sitting in Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan and holding three FA posts in addition to a DG post,a demand appeared in this column that this Forum should publish letters only from office emails. What this means is that all emails other than those sent by babus misusing their office email, should be censored out so that babus' planted self-promotional publicity will get unchallenged passage here and should not get exposed by knowledgeable people from outside. This is the typical Emergency-type dictatorial mindset of these megalomaniacal babus who wish to see their name appear here every other day even when there is no worthwhile story to project them.

Congrats to WIC for keeping out such authoritarian demands and keeping up a free and open Forum which is the pride of all readers.

K P Singh

"Informative letter on Kashmir."

Both N N Ojha and N Krishnan have over reacted to Prashant Bhushan's statement on plebiscite in Kashmir. Why should we give undue importance to him?

Tarun Vajpai

Limited vision of Indian history?

Why do some of the viewers have such a limited vision of Indian history? Kashmir, in its present mutilated form cannot alone be an integral part of India. The fact is that after Nehru accepted the Mountbatten plan to divide India along communal lines India lost its moral case not only in Kashmir but also in Junagadh as they were Muslim majority states. Nehru and the Congress cannot claim to be secular after this gross betrayal of the country's national interests. Nehru was so in the grip of Mountbatten and his nymphomaniac wife , Edwina, that he even accepted a mere dominion status for India in 1947, apart from accepting partition. Remember the partition took place after 15th August 1947 in order to cause maximum loss of life and create civil war conditions in India. Dominion status without partition was on the table from the British side as early as 1919 but a headstrong and idiotic young Nehru rejected it outright and demanded Poorna Swaraj or full independence. This angered the British and they turned vindictive and what did Nehru get after nearly 30 years? Only Dominion status on par with Australia and New Zealand and an India mutilated and bleeding to death after partition. In that holocaust fully 3 million Indians , both Hindus and Muslims lost their lives and nearly 5 million people became refugees over night. Not a single Englishman lost his life as Nehru and Gandhi, both British stooges and colonial collaborators had promised Mountbatten a safe passage to the English. To add insult to injury Mountbatten was retained by so called free India as its Governor-General instead of jailing him for colonial war crimes. It is Mountbatten who is responsible for the Kashmir mess. After the guierella invasion of the state by Pakistan, it was Mountbatten who saw to it that Kashmir was dragged into the United Nations when Britain to this day has not referred Northern Ireland to the UN for resolution. Taking it to the UN ensured that the West could interfere forever and see to it that the issue was never solved. Now that both the US and Britain are sinking in the Atlantic Ocean like the Titanic the nations of South Asia should take their destinies into their own hands and evolve a common strategy to face a common threat in China. SAARC was a good beginning. We must strengthen it and ensure a move towards a South Asian Confederation with a common defence and foreign policy. This would automatically solve the Kashmir issue. Pakistan under General Ayub Khan had offered Nehru a no-war pact but Nehru stupidly rejected it. It is now time to undo the mistakes of the past and move towards a South Asian Confederation.

D. Choudhury

Increasing interest rates for GPF

Regarding increasing the interest rates for GPF - I would like to support the views expressed in favour of increasing the rate of interest at par with EPF as both are open for investment ande while all other interest rates are increasing with the time, increasing of rate of interest of GPF also needs pondering by the Government and positive decision to be taken to avoid discrimination.

Mukesh Randev

Why our prosecution agencies are silent ?

It is really sad to see that while USA's SEC has investigated & prosecuted and levied penalties still our very own Government of India and its prosecution agencies are totally silent. Why ? Also , this advisory board has people of supposed eminence and stature. What motivated them to join this seemingly corrupt organisation, as the report suggests ? The composition is also very interesting, a pillar of banking establishment (Deepak Parekh), a member of the Rajya Sabha and member of PM's economic council (Dr Ashok Ganguly), a captain of Industry from a state where this company has no presence (Alagappan from Tamil Nadu) and an influential ex head of the civil service & ambassador to USA (Mr Naresh Chandra) .

All of them collaborating with a multinational to sell more liquor to Indians !!! Shining India !!!

One can imagine that for this act of nation building they must be contributing free - It will solve many issues when every one is drunk and happy and bankrupt :)

Qu..

UID is utter non-sense, waist of public money

The real motive of UID information is something else. I really just do not understand how many I-card one has to carry besides bundles of passwords. High technology has already made us mad. I-card includes ATM, debit and credit cards (min. 04) CGHS card, election card, ration card, bank cards, insurance card, hospital icards, office i-card or pensioners card, LPG, TV channels Tata sky etc card and God knows how many more beside host of passwords --and if you don't use these passwords than you have too struggle to get again, which is not so easy and besides now so called UID card. If UID replaces all other cards, it makes sense otherwise it is the mockery of the technology and the system. With the background of UID chief it was not expected from him to do the way UID has been planned, besides the number of professionals engaged for the routine and system of 1970 in 2010.Can any body question UID the way it is at present. I am sure this is another scam in the making?

RK

Welcome to U K Verma

Welcome to U K Verma in the Ministry of I&B and best wishes for the assignment.

Kuldeep Dhatwalia

TAIL-PIECE

Sonia Gandhi in Kaun Banega Karodpati

Amitabh: Soniaji, ab aakhri saval, 5 Crore ke liye.

Who is the chief minister of Gujarat?

And, your options are...

A) Laloo Prasad.

B) Vilasrao Deshmukh.

C) Arjun Singh.

D) Narendra Modi.

Soniaji : It's Narendra Modi.

Amitabh : Are you sure ? Lock kar doon?

Sonia : If you really lock him up, I will give you 100 Crores!

Contributed by=Satya Singal

File notings regarding reinstatement
The appellant sought information about reinstatement of her service including reasons for filing an appeal against the CAT decision before High Court, the names of officials involved in decision regarding the file an application before High Court along with the file notings, total expenses incurred during filing of the appeal, copy of the minutes of the Governing Body meeting etc. The desired file notings including the names of the officers were refused u/s 8(1)(g) claiming that it is likely to endanger the life or physical safety of such officers. The Commission observed that it is a very sad comment on the employees of an organization if an organization claims that a former employee who is a lady is capable of physically harming its officers. The Commission directed the PIO to severe the names of the officers as per Section 10 and give a typed copy of notings to the Appellant. The Commission directed to provide the total legal expenses incurred in
the matter and a copy of the minutes of the Governing Body meeting.

Comments

The PIO should not try to invoke section 8(1)(g) indiscriminately in every legal or vigilance case without looking into whether the physical safety of any official would be jeopardized.

Smt. Rajni Bajaj v. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in CIC/SG/A/2011/002273/15097

- 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)