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Debu Bhattacharya is now number two?
Debu Bhattacharya who used to be number one in the Aditya Birla Group is said to be now number two in the hierarchy.

What is behind the resignations of four ministers?
Insider and a confidante of Ms.Sonia Gandhi had given her the idea that an en-masse resignation of ministers is required to put pressure on Prime Minister to resign from his office. The idea was suggested three months back and is now taking shape, more resignations are awaited soon, says the source.

Is a Gujarat Industrialist in trouble?
It is heard that noted industrial tycoon in Gujarat is in trouble over certain foreign exchange transactions and that the government is soon going to start probing it.

Will crude oil prices rise further?
It is estimated that crude oil prices will flare up again, once the full sanctions (of 28 member EU embargo) on Iran start taking effect from July 1. India has already cut down supplies but will have to face the new challenge say analysts.

CBI rating for empanelment?
If insiders are to be believed, henceforth there will also be CBI rating for empanelment in the Government of India. Earlier there used to be only CVC rating.

Mishra to be Member CAT?
R C Mishra is likely to be appointed Member of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). He is a 1976 batch IAS officer of Orissa cadre.

Uday Bhaskar to be Special Director ED?
CVO in the Nuclear Power Corporation Uday Bhaskar is being tipped to be Special Director in the Enforcement Directorate. He is a IRS (C&CE) officer.

Sharavn Kumar to be CEO children's Film Society!
Shravan Kumar is being tipped to be new CEO of the Childeren's Film Society in Mumbai. He is a 1992 batch IRS (IT) officer.

Maharashtra Chief Secretary to get extension
Maharashtra Chief Secretary R Y Gaikwad is all set to get six months extension in service .1975 batch IAS officer Gaikwad is scheduled to retire on May 31. Now the Maharashtra Government has moved a proposal to the Government of India for six months extension to Gaikwad.

Who will be new Chairman Tariff Commission?
Who will be new Chairman Tariff Commission falling under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry in the Government of India (GoI)? This question is hot topic of discussion in corridors of power. It is so because an IAS officer of 1978 batch is set to head the Tariff Commission.

Acharya selected as Director (Corp. Planning), HUDCO
P R Acharya in the office of CAG has been selected for the post of Director (Corporate Planning), Housing & Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) at the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) meeting held on April 24, 2012. Presently, he is Chief Finance Officer (CFO) in the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Six names recommended for Delhi High Court
Grapevine has it that six names including Vibhu Bhakru,Sanjiv Sachdeva,Najmi Waziri and V K Rao have been recommended for Judges in the Delhi High Court.

Jain to be Joint Secretary Culture
P K Jain is being tipped to be new Joint Secretary Culture in the Government of India. He is a 1985 batch IAS officer of J & K cadre.

IA &AS officer is Director in Defence Ministry
Senior Deputy Accountant General, O/o Principal Accountant General (Audit), Haryana Ms Shanti Priya S has been appointed Director in the Defence Ministry. She is a 1996 batch IA&AS officer. SC Singla, Deputy Accountant General, who will hold additional charge of the post held by Priya.

Doordarshan Kendra Station Directors under scanner of CBI?
Grapevine has it that about half a dozen Station Directors of the Doordarshan Kendra in the country are under the scanner of the CBI.

Rajiv Mehrishi is now Special Secretary in GoI
Rajiv Mehrishi Additional Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture has been promoted in-situ as Special Secretary Government of India . He is a Rajasthan cadre IAS officer of 1978 batch.

Pankaj Jain gets promotion in GoI
Pankaj Jain Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has been promoted in-situ as Special Secretary Government of India . He is a Jammu & Kashmir cadre IAS officer of 1978 batch.

Sanjay Kothari is now Special Secretary
Sanjay Kothari, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, has been promoted in-situ as Special Secretary Government of India. He is a Haryana cadre IAS officer of 1978 batch.

Vivek Rae promoted in GoI
Vivek Rae, DG(Acquisition), Ministry of Defence, has been promoted in-situ as Special Secretary, Government of India. He is an AGMU cadre IAS officer of 1978 batch.

Who will be new CMD of SCCL in Andhra Pradesh?
Who will be new Chairman-cum-Managing-Director (CMD) of "Singareni Collieries Company Limited" (SCCL) of Andhra Pradesh? This post had fallen vacant in the wake of assuming charge as CMD of Coal India Ltd(CIL) by S Narsing Rao.

Bishwanath Sinha empanelled for Joint Secretary in GoI
Bishwanath Sinha who is presently Delhi based Additional Resident Commissioner with the Kerala Government has been empanelled for posting as a Joint Secretary in the Government of India (GoI). He is a Kerala cadre IAS officer of 1992 batch.

S Narsing Rao assumes charge as CMD, Coal India Limited (CIL)
S Narsing Rao has assumed charge as Chairman-cum-Managing-Director of Coal India Limited (CIL).He is an IAS officer of 1986 batch who belongs to the Andhra Pradesh cadre. Hitherto, he was CMD of the state controlled the "Singareni Collieries Company Limited" (SCCL) of Andhra Pradesh. There in SCCL he had been able to achieve a major turnaround. He had headed the SCCL since September 2006 till handing over his charge in April 2012.He is the maiden IAS officer to become CIL's CMD. He is an IAS officer of 1986 batch who belongs to the Andhra Pradesh cadre. As CMD SCCL he was able to do many innovations. Like, as against traditional compound Annua](CAGR) of two to three per cent, he was able to attain CAGR of 8.12In the CIL it is 4.9 per cent.
(We said this on Feb 16 and April 5, 2012)

Sumit Majumdar appointed Ombudsman
The ACC has cleared the appointment of Former CBEC Chairman Sumit Majumdar as Ombudsman at Delhi.
(We said this on September 1, 2011)

S K Gotru nominated as Liaison Officer, CBDT
Shravan Kumar Gotru, Director (A & PAC), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has been nominated as Liaison Officer for the Board.

Chaturvedi is chief engineer Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board
Col P K Chaturvedi , 1977 batch Army Engineer has been appointed Chief Engineer Delhi Govt. He is presently Chief Engineer Employees Provident Fund Office Delhi.

Neeraj Singhal is Director PSU in Fertiliser
Neeraj Singhal ITS 1994 has joined Ministry of Fertiliser as Director (PSUs). He has replaced H Abbas IA&AS 1997 who had completed his tenure.

Will Reddy return to Punjab?
Joint Secretary in the Ministry of I & B D P Reddy is likely to return to the parent Punjab cadre. The Punjab Government is reported to have sought the 1985 batch IAS officer Reddy's services.

IRS (C&CE ) promotion file to be re-submitted next week
The promotion file of Commissioners of Customs and Central has reportedly again reached the DoPT and likely to be resubmitted to the ACC next week

KSDB adopts cost effective fast track technology to construct multi storied DUs
Karnataka Slum Development Board (KSDB) has, for the first time in the State, initiated "Cost Effective Fast Track Technology" for Construction of 6000 multi storied Dwelling Units (DUs) with ground and ground plus three floors. According to Karnataka's Principal Secretary, Housing Development, M Laxmi Narayana, while light weight concrete - Foam Technology is being applied in construction of 1200 ground floor units, construction of 4800 ground plus three units is taken up by adopting Monolithic Shear Wall Design with imported shuttering materials. During this year 2100 DU's have been completed by using this technology.

Arvinder Singh to be inducted in IB?
Arvinder Singh (DD) is likely to be inducted Hard-Core Officer as Deputy Director in Intelligence Bureau, Government of India. He is a Manipur-Tripura cadre IPS officer of 1998 batch.

Is Rao joining Adanis?
Grapevine has it that the outgoing Chairman of the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) G Jagannath Rao is joining the Adanis. Rao has taken VRS.

Process for CGMs in SBI yet to start
Process for elevation of General Managers as Chief General Managers (CGMs) in State Bank of India (SBI) is yet to start.

Bharti gets pro-forma promotion
Chandrashekhar Bharti, Director, DIPP, Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Government of India has been given proforma promotion in Super Time Scale by Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi. He is an AGMU cadre IAS officer of 1996 batch.

Chitranjan Singh to be regular DGP in Gujarat
There are reports that Chitranjan Singh is being appointed regular DGP in Gujarat. He is a 1976 batch IPS officer.

Deputation tenure of Anurag extended in CBI
Deputation tenure of DIG in CBI Anurag has been extended till June,2013.He is a 1994 batch IPS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre.

GoI issues fresh guidelines for promotion of bank officers
The Financial Services Ministry of the Government of India (GoI) has issued fresh guidelines for promotion of officers in Public Sector banks.

Dinesh Patnaik to move Phonom Penh
DCM in Vienna Dinesh Patnaik has been moved to Phonom Penh as HOM.

Seven IAS officers of 1999 batch get selection grade in TN
As many as seven IAS officers of 1999 batch have been promoted to the selection grade with effect from January, 2012 in Tamil Nadu. The officers include: Brajendra Navnit, Ashish Chatterjee, Shunchonngam Jatak Chiru, Dev Raj Dev, N Mathivanan, Ms. R Vasuki, T K Ponnusamy.

15 IAS officers of 2003 batch get JAG in TN
As many as 15 IAS officers of 2003 batch have been promoted to the Junior Administrative Grade (JAG) with effect from January, 2012 in Tamil Nadu. The officers include: V Arun Roy, Ms. Anu George, Dr. R Anandakumar, Ms. V Shobana, C. Munianathan, M Vijayakumar,Mrs. A Suganthi, Mrs. S Madhumathi, T N Hariharan, M Vallalar, C Kamaraj, T Abraham, K Raghupathi, C Rajendran and P Muthuveerran.

Bissa gets addl. charge of Journalism & Comm. University, Jaipur
S S Bissa, Commissioner and Secretary, Information and Public Relations, has been assigned an additional charge of Journalism and Communication University, Jaipur. He is a 1996 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre.

Post of DOS vacant at DGA, Ahmedabad Zonal Unit
The Directorate General of Audit (DGA), Ahmedabad has invited nominations for a post of Deputy Office Superintendent (DOS) in Zonal Unit on deputation basis. The names of willing candidates can be sent to this office before May 10, 2012.

IAS officer ties the knot at mass wedding
2009 batch IAS officer in Gujarat Vijay Kharadi has tied the knot at a mass wedding ceremony.

Manu Shrivastava is MD, MP Power Management Company
Manu Shrivastava has been appointed as MD, MP Power Management Company. This company has been converted into holding company for the power distribution sector. He is a 1991 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh.

Who was the actual beneficiary of Bofors ? (UPDATED)

There was always a mystery shrouding the Bofors deal as to who was the actual beneficiary of the arms deal. What the deep throat from Sweden has revealed, is actually true that Gandhi' were not the actual beneficiaries. But the fact of the matter is that someone related to Gandhis' actually got a bribe of nearly Rs 230 crs, against Rs 67 crs as had been claimed by ex Prime Minister V.P. Singh. The person,an MP from UP was an important minister in Rajiv Gandhi government had been sidelined by the Congress (Rajiv Gandhi ) once the Bofors saga was out. He then defected to V.P. Singh and was an important man in Singh's Cabinet too. This Uttar Pradesh MP was the conduit in carrying out the Bofors deal and made sure that the deal took off after the visiting Swedish Prime Minister Olfo Palme came to India during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure. Presently, this UP politician though in political hibernation is trying to mediate creating a fourth front between various political parties of the north.

Jha is new Head Corporate Communications ONGC (UPDATED)
S K Jha has taken over as new Head of the Corporate Communications in ONGC Corporate office,Delhi.

H D Gujrati selected as Director (O& BD), DFCCIL (UPDATED)
H D Gujrati, IRTS, has been selected for the post of Director (O& BD), Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) at a Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) meeting held on April 25, 2012. As many as six persons were interviewed for the same.

Mahesh Kumar also looks after Central Railway (UPDATED)
Western Railway GM Mahesh Kumar has been assigned additional charge of GM Central Railway for a short period.


Asthana assigned addl. charge of Southern Railway (UPDATED)
South Central Railway GM G N Asthana has been assigned additional charge of GM, Southern Railway for a short period.


Major reshuffle in Railways (UPDATED)
Services of 22 officers have been affected in Railways. Accordingly, Arvind Kumar SG/IRTS, has been shifted from SECR to NER and posted in the cadre while Ajay Kumar SAG/IRSME is being appointed from DLMW to SWR and posted in the cadre and Mohamad Shamim JAG/IRSE was transferred from WR to ER. Similarly, Raju Solanki has been shifted from NWR to ER; Rajesh Kumar SG/IRSE from WR to ER; Sujeet Kumar JS/IRSE from NR to ER; Rohit Yadav Rao Thawre SS/IRSE from CR to ER; Sunil Mathur SAG/IRSEE from CR to WR; BK Sonwane SAG/IRSEE from WR to CR; V V Jituri SAG/IRTS from NWR to ER; UC Botham from ECOR to ER; Botham will continue to hold his lien seniority in ECOR; Arun Kumar SS/IRSE from NER to ER; Md. Ahsan Khan JAG/IRSE from NER to ER.

Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd earns revenue of Rs 40, 967 crore in this fiscal (UPDATED)
Sterlite Industries (India) Limited announced its audited consolidated results for the fourth quarter (Q4) and full year ended on March 31, 2012. The Company has earned a revenue of Rs 40, 967 crore which is 35 % up while EBITDA at Rs 10,169 crore with 26% up and PAT at Rs 7,761 crore, up 6% after exceptional items of Rs 473 crore. Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd Chairman Anil Agarwal informed that Sterlite Industries delivered strong operating and financial performance during the year, despite macroeconomic headwinds. "We continue to deliver on our growth projects, expanding and optimizing our assets to generate strong returns for our shareholders. The Board has approved a dividend of Rs 2/share for FY2012. Last quarter, we announced a merger of Sterlite with Sesa Goa, and simplification of the Vedanta Group structure. The merger process is well on track to create one of the world's largest natural resource majors, and deliver significant long term value for shareholders.

DEBATE

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked civil servants to take bold decisions, assuring them that there would be no witch-hunting in the name of fighting corruption. How far it is possible ?

Mail your views-mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com or Suresh. Mehrotra @yahoo.com

CORPORATE

Chaturvedi appointed on the Board of Reliance Infra
Former CMD of the Nuclear Power Corporation V K Chaturvedi has been appointed non-executive Director on the Board of the Reliance Infra.

Ravi Kumar to join Board of Reliance Infra
Former CMD of the BHEL Ravi Kumar is all set to join the Reliance Infra Board as an Independent Director.

Prof. G. Raghuram is Director in HPCL
Prof. G. Raghuram,Professor, IIM, Ahmedabad has been appointed part-time non-official Director in the HPCL.

Lalit Jalan is CEO, Reliance Infrastructure
Lalit Jalan has been re-designated as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Reliance Infrastructure.

Reddy is now MD CDSL
P. S. Reddy, Executive Director of the Central Depository Services (India) Ltd has been appointed as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of CDSL.

Chandra ceases to be Part-time Director, BHEL
Saurabh Chandra has ceased to be Part-Time Official Director on the Board of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) w.e.f. April 17, 2012.

Kapur appointed Addl. Director, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd
Kingfisher Airlines Limited has appointed Manmohan Singh Kapur as an Additional Director of the company w.e.f. April 24, 2012.

Nahar appointed Director (Institutional Sales), Religare Capital Markets
Religare Enterprises has appointed Pawan Nahar as Director (Institutional Sales) at Religare Capital Markets.

Two Alternate Directors re-appointed on Board of Berger Paints India Ltd
Ms. Rishma Kaur and Kanwardip Singh Dhingra have been re-appointed as Alternate Directors to Kuldip Singh Dhingra and Gurbachan Singli Dhingra on the Board of Berger Paints India Ltd w.e.f. April 16, 2012 and April 15, 2012 respectively.

Kshirsagar appointed Company Secy. Bedmutha Industries Ltd
Bedmutha Industries Limited has appointed Chandan N Kshirsagar as Company Secretary w.e.f. March 23, 2012

Gupta appointed Addl. Director, Marathwada Refractories Ltd
Marathwada Refractories Ltd has appointed H. S. Girish Gupta, as an Additional Director of the company w.e.f. April 23, 2012.

Kumar resigns as Director, Marathwara Refractories Ltd
A. Anil Kumar, Director, Marathwada Refractories Ltd has resigned from the company w.e.f. April 23, 2012.

Reddy appointed Company Secy. Farmax India Ltd
Ms. P. Shivaleela Reddy has been appointed as a Company Secretary of Farmax India Ltd.

Prakash appointed Company Secy. Magnum Ventures Ltd
Anant Prakash has been appointed as Company Secretary of Magnum Ventures Ltd in place of Ms. Vidhi Gupta w.e.f. April 23, 2012.

DEBATE

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked civil servants to take bold decisions, assuring them that there would be no witch-hunting in the name of fighting corruption. How far it is possible?

PM's exhortations to bureaucrats about "bold decision-making" without fear of "Witch-hunting" are fallacious. Sheer political rhetorics for babudom. Coincidentally, while the PM was lecturing the bureaucrats, Alex Paul , the IAS Collector in Chattisgarh was abducted by the Maoists. He is known for taking bold initiatives on villagers' empowerment to fight the maoists' menace.

The proverb: "Example is better than precept", fits well on PM. Had he been bold enough, serial scams like the 2G, CWG, Adarsh, ISRO -S band deal, illegal appointment of P J Thomas as CVC, Quattrocchi's escape, irregularities in procurement of arms and Tetra vehicles by MOD and so on ,would not have occurred.

The PM pleads inability to take bold decisions due to "Compulsions of Coalition Dharma". This is not even half-truth. The de jure PM has no freedom to decide on policy matters without the covert support of India's de facto CEO. Critical decisions are hurriedly rolled back at the behest of coalition partners. Mamata Didi is now blackmailing GoI to seek a three year moratorium on West Bengal, sorry, Paschim Bangal's interest burden .

The bureaucracy understands the utility of these sermons well enough. Not to lag behind, even retired bureaucrats are crying foul at the unfettered misuse of discretionary powers by the political Executive. In a curious turn of events, some retired senior civil servants (about 85 or so) including a former Cabinet Secretary, chose to move the Supreme Court against decline in administrative services. They sought depoliticisation of Administration in matters like transfers,
postings, inquiries, promotions, punishment, disciplinary actions against civil servants.

Against this background, does the PM have the moral right to give sermons to the permanent Executive? Decisions are taken in GOI by "browbeating" the pliable bureaucrats with the assurances of post-retirement rehabilitation and lucrative postings for the serving ones? Is the PM justified in blaming the civil service for dilution of their objectivity in public eye, in this era of mis-governance?

Boldness is a positive attribute. Taking decisions as per rules, is not boldness. It is a normal conduct. Bureaucratic non-compliance of illegal orders is "boldness". This is misconstrued by politicians as in-subordination resulting in officers' transfers to inconsequential positions. Several Senior bureaucrats have suffered for their "boldness" as part of "witch-hunting" by political masters. I know of several meritorious Secretaries who retired as unsung heroes. Their fault was opposing misuse of discretionary powers by ministers.

It is for the civil servants to introspect and ponder over PM's "pearls of wisdom" and set examples for their juniors.

A K Saxena (A retired civil servant)

Is this normal ?

What is your viewers' take on the news item "Chhatisgarh vs. PMO for an IAS officer'. The officer was on central deputation from his state cadre, was posted in PMO. After his tenure gets a posting in World Bank (again a deputation and could have been facilitated because of his proximity to PMO). Comes back and is posted in PMO again on
deputation without having reported to his state and presumably without their clearence. Is this normal. No deputation is allowed as per rules soon after one deputation. The mandatory period of 'cooling off' is so strictly followed that approval from DoPT is required even if it falls short of a few months and DOPT has been rejecting requests for waiver from cadre authorities. Why no cooling off in the case of this IAS officer who went on one deputation to another and then again
on deputation at the centre without any cooling off ? He has been away from his cadre as reported for 12 years. Naturally the state Government is objecting to it. Why should rules be broken in the case of those who are close to powers that be and if those who are supposed to uphold the rule of law break it what is the sanctity of having those rules. Any officer could have handled the job for which this officer is considered indispensable. This is what is wrong with our administration and no amount of sermonising on the Civil Services Day will convince anyone. Is that not so?

Aarti Khosla

Workable solution

This is a workable solution, because DD and AIR Programme cadre has got severely depleted due to retirements and no fresh appointments. Since IIS officers are familiar with media, they can head the Kendras.

Manish Desai

Posting of 1991 Batch IAS officer as Secretary Forests in UP

It is unfortunate that a junior officer (who might have just entered into the JS level in GoI) is posted as Secretary to a Department where Secretary level Departmental officers are working. The morale of the officers is naturally bound to go down. Is there such a scarcity of efficient senior officers in the State?

SN

Truly pathetic

The file of Members for CBEC/CBDT is also stuck at Secretary level. Had it been IAS postings/promotion, the file would have wings. The vacancies are arising on May 1 and no signs of any urgency in both the Boards.

Abhimanyu Prasad

Redundant "DGCA chief"

Some Delhi news reporters and daily newspapers are seen to be using the pompous and redundant term "DGCA chief" to refer to the official occupying that post in their news reports. We can have CRPF chief or ITBP chief or BSF chief because CRPF,ITBP,BSF etc are organization names, whereas DGCA itself means the post of Director General of Civil Aviation, without having to resort to the pompous redundancy of 'DGCA chief".

K P Singh

Should the apex offices of India (like PMO) provide information related to all the government departments?

The appellant filed the RTI application to the PMO seeking details of the various schemes being run by different ministries of the Government of India. The Public Information Officer (PIO) informed the appellant to seek the desired information from the respective nodal Ministry. The appellant argued that the PIO should have transferred the application to the respective nodal Ministry as per the provisions of section 6 (3) of the RTI Act, instead of advising him to approach those Ministries. The Central Information Commission (CIC) rejected the appeal observing that the implication of the provision of section 6(3) of the RTI Act is that an RTI application should be transferred to another public authority, in full or in part, only if the information seeker is unaware of where to seek information from and has, therefore, approached a particular PIO. As the appellant had himself listed the names of the Ministries in his RTI application which indicates that he was clearly aware of where the information was held, he should have approached those individual Ministries directly instead of going through the circuitous route of approaching the PMO. The Commission further stated that the appellant's expectation that the PMO should have transferred his application to half a dozen other Ministries is clearly misplaced and is nothing but misuse of his right to get information.

Comments

It is frequently seen that the head office of an organisation is forwarding the RTI application to its branch offices all over India just to aid the compilation of information for the benefit of the applicant which is not mandated under the RTI Act.

Citation: Shri Sanjeev Kumar Aggarwal v. Prime Minister's Office in File No. CIC/SM/A/2011/000893 & 2368

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