What people say about us!

Sir, I am regularly reading your news which very correct, the reputed astrologer will feel shameless.

R Dongare

Does Obama victory mean dollar upswing?
Barrack Obama's re-election has assured a rally for the gold bulls. Some in the international market are already talking of $3500 per ounce by 2013 end. The usual overspend by the US Presidents in the second term, destroying the dollar by devaluing it is the strategy which the Democrats adopt spikes the gold prices, easy money policy by the Federal Reserve as is pursued by Ben Bernanke (who is set to get the second term) are cited as some of the reasons by the bulls for a gold rally.

Raam Naam Satya Hai for Rupee?
Obama election will lead to commodity crash and more USCENTRIC policies. Also, Indian companies are going to be hit because of outsourcing problems. Obama has nothing to lose in the next 4 years and will tighten screws on tax benefits for US companies outsourcing. Exports are going to be under pressure. Rupee will go up for a couple of days but once software companies start seeing darker days RAAM NAAM SATYA HAI FOR RUPEE.
FOOT IN THE MOUTH!!!! But JOOTE KHAANE KA MAZAA KUCHH AUR HI HAI.

Is this Gadkari's `Jinnah' moment?
Nitin Gadkari this time has hit the core of the ideological family that he represents, the Sangh Parivar and the party that he heads as its president, the BJP. A number of BJP leaders are privately debating whether this would the "Jinnah moment" for Gadkari.

BUREAUCRACY

26 IAS officers of 1979 batch empanelled
Altogether 26 IAS officers belonging to 1979 batch are believed to have been empanelled to the rank of Secretary in the Government of India.

Will BSF, DG get extension?
There is a buzz in the MHA that DG BSF U K Bansal is getting three months extension.A1974 batch UP cadre IPS officer Bansal is scheduled to retire by this month end.

Rumors - panel of CBI, Chief being scrapped!
Interested parties have spread rumours that the panel prepared for the CBI , Director is being scrapped.

Shekhar Agrawal to be Member, CAT
Former Secretary Defence Production Shekhar Agrawal is being appointed Member of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). He is a1977 batch retired IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.

Now IAS officer rejoins IPS
Everybody was surprised when a Madhya Pradesh cadre IPS officer quit the service to join the IRS. And now another interesting and amazing case has come to the notice. Saurav Tolumbia had joined as IPS officer (2007 batch, Gujarat cadre) to join the IAS. And now he is reported to have quit the IAS to join again the IPS (2011 batch Nagaland cadre)

Alok Mishra to be Member, SBI
Former CMD of the Bank of India Alok Mishra is all set to join as Member of the market regulator SEBI.

Nutan Guha Biswas to be Principal Secretary to Delhi LG
Ms Nutan Guha Biswas is being appointed new Principal Secretary to the Delhi Lt Governor. She is a 1983 batch IAS officer of the UT cadre.

Rakesh Behari to be PS , PWD in Delhi Government
Principal Secretary to the Delhi Lt Governor, Rakesh Behari is being moved as Principal Secretary , PWD in the Delhi Government. He is a 1977 batch IAS officer of UT cadre.

Rajiv Mehta faces debarment?
If acting DGP of Meghalaya does not join the GoI as Chief of the Narcotics Control Bureau within a couple of days, he may be debarred for central deputation. He is a 1981 batch IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

Will Kezo join as DGP, Meghalaya ?
Will a 1978 batch IPS officer B Kezo join as Director General of Police (DGP) in Meghalaya ? Picture is not clear since the Chief Secretary of Nagaland has written a DO letter that Kezo cannot be spared.

K V Rao selected as Director (Fin), HPCL

K V Rao, ED, HPCL, has been selected for the post of Director (Finance), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) at a Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) meeting held on November 7, 2012. As many as 11 persons were interviewed for the same.

Joining of Harish Gujarati delayed
The joining of Harish Gujarati as Director, (Operations and Business), Development in Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCIL), has delayed as he is still waiting for relieving orders from Railway Board. Presently, he is posted in Railway Board. The present incumbent P N Shukla has vacated the post with the retirement in October.

27 vacancies in IB
There are 27 vacancies of Deputy Director (DD/DIG) level in Intelligence Bureau Government of India.

Raja Murugan to return to Tripura
Raja Murugan, Director, Cabinet Secretariat, R&AW is likely to return to his parent cadre Tripura. He is a 1996 batch IPS officer of Manipur Tripura cadre.

Angaraj Mohan joins as CPO, Admn in Railways
Angaraj Mohan has joined as Chief Personnel Officer, Administration in Railways. Earlier, he was Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Sonpur. He is a 1986 batch IRPS officer.

Iyer to be CMD till May 31, 2015
Newly appointed CMD of the Bank of India Vijayalakshmi Iyer will serve till May 31, 2015.

Dinesh Reddy is new President , IHF
Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police V Dinesh Reddy has been elected the new President of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF). He is a1977 batch IPS officer.

1995 batch IPS to get IG rank in J & K
A1995 batch IPS officers in J & K are being promoted to the rank of IG. A1987 batch IPS officers will get ADG rank.

Joy Ooomen honoured by President
President Pranab Mukherjee who inaugurated the new Mantralaya of Chhattisgarh in the newly developed capital Naya Raipur on 6th November was all praise for the efforts which went in to the planning of this greenfield city spread over 20,000 acres of land. The new Mantralaya will be the most modern and functional of its kind in the country. P Joy Oommen, former Chief Secretary and Chairman of Naya Raipur Development Authority was honored by the State Government on this occasion and Mukherjee handed over an award to him for his outstanding contribution.

Will 1999 batch IPS get DIG rank in J & K?
A 1999 batch IPS officers in J & K are expected to be promoted to the rank of DIG soon.

Canara Bank is headless
After the retirement of S Raman in September the post of Chairman of the Canara Bank is currently lying vacant.

CMD of BoB to retire this month end
MD Mallya, Chairman and Managing Director of Bank of Baroda is retiring by this month end.

Shambu Singh is also Nodal officer
Shambu Singh, Joint Secretary (NE), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has been also been additional charge of Nodal officer for implementation of the various programme/schemes undertaken by MHA in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura & Nagaland State. He is a 1986 batch IAS officer of Manipura-Tripura cadre.

1981 batch IPS officer gets DG rank in Assam
Gunottam Bhuyan, IPS (RR-1981) Assam-Meghalaya Joint Cadre, has been promoted to the DG rank and posted as DG(TAP),Assam.

3 posts of Superintendents vacant at DG, C&EC, Delhi

Three posts of Superintendents are lying vacant in Directorate General of Systems & Data Management of Customs & Central Excise, Delhi. Those willing to apply can send their applications to this Directorate General at the earliest.

3 posts of Superintendents vacant at DG, C&EC, Chennai
Three posts of Superintendents/Appraiser are lying vacant in Directorate General of Systems & Data Management of Customs & Central Excise, Chennai. Those willing to apply can send their applications to this Directorate General at the earliest.

Three IAS shifted in TN

Three officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) have been given fresh postings in Tamil Nadu. Accordingly, Dr R Christodas Gandhi has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Social Reforms Department while Dr Shanthini Kapoor will now be Principal Secretary, Special Programme Implementation and R Rajagopal is assigned full additional charge of Development Commissioner, Planning and Development.

Two IPS officers transferred in MP

Two officers of Indian Police Service (IPS) have been transferred in Madhya Pradesh. Accordingly, Naval Singh Raghuvanshi has been appointed as AIG, PHQ, Bhopal while D Kalyan Chakravorty will now be CSP, Indore.

Two IPS officers get Senior Pay-scale in MP
Two officers of Indian Police Service (IPS), namely Shiyas A and S Satish Bino have been accorded senior pay scale in Madhya Pradesh.

DIG CBI passes away
DIG CBI Suresh Kumar Palsania has passed away in Delhi. A1996 batch Orissa cadre IPS officer Palsania was 44.

IGP is no more
Rajasthan cadre 1992 batch IPS officer Madhu Sudan Singh has passed away in Jaipur. He was 57.

Two Judges appointed to AP HC (UPDATED)
Justice Gurijala Krishna Mohan Reddy and Justice Kolla Surya Appa Rao have been appointed Judges of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.

R. Swaminathan appointed Ambassador to Montenegro (UPDATED)
R. Swaminathan, presently Ambassador of India to Austria has been concurrently accredited as the Ambassador of India to Montenegro, with residence in Vienna

No candidate appears for sick PSU (UPDATED)
No candidate turned up for the interview held to select Director (Finance), Scooters India Limited (SIL) on November 8, 2012. Interestingly, Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) had advertised the post on July 13, 2011 and short-listed four candidates for the same but no one of them appeared for the interview as this PSU is reeling under financial crisis. The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) may fill the post through deputation.

Lalrokhuma Pachuau gets full charge of DG & IG, Karnataka (UPDATED)
Lalrokhuma Pachuau has been given confirmed charge of Director General & Inspector General of Police, Karnataka. Earlier, he was holding concurrently these charges with that of Director General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Now, he will hold an additional charge of CID apart from confirmed posts. He is a 1977 batch IPS officer of Karnataka cadre.
(We said this on May 2, 2012)

CORPORATE

Mistry appointed Deputy Chairman of Tata Motors
Cyrus Mistry has been appointed as Deputy Chairman of Tata Motors Ltd.

Two addl. Directors appointed on Board of Boston Bio Systems Ltd
Boston Bio Systems Ltd has appointed Amit Ashwinbhai Pandya and Ramesh Gourishanker Dave as additional Directors of the company

Mohan quits Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd
Dr Rakesh Mohan has resigned as Director of Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd.

Chhabra quits JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Ltd
Tarun Chhabra has resigned as Company Secretary of JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Ltd .

Sethia appointed Company Secy., JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Ltd
Ms Sandhya Sethia has been appointed as Company Secretary of JHS Svendgaard Laboratories Ltd.

Atal appointed Addl. Director, Rama Newsprint & Papers Ltd
Rama Newsprint & Papers Ltd has appointed Narayan Atal as an Additional Director of the company .

Doreswamy quits Rama Newsprint & Papers Ltd
S Doreswamy has resigned as Director of Rama Newsprint & Papers Ltd.

Ranglani appointed Company Secy., Runeecha Textiles Ltd
Runeecha Textiles Ltd has appointed Ms Jaya Ranglani as Company secretary of the company.

Chatterjee re-appointed MD, Speciality Restaurants Ltd

Speciality Restaurants Ltd has re-appointed Anjan Chatterjee, as Managing Director of the company w.e.f. December 27, 2012

Two Directors cease to be on Board of Artech Power Products Ltd
Vijayan I V and Ms Repsy Vijayan have resigned as Directors of Artech Power Products Ltd.

Chakravorti quits Kitply Industries Ltd
Sujit Chakravorti, Non-Executive Independent Director of Kitplay Industries Ltd has resigned from the company.

Agarwala appointed Addl. Director, Kitply Industries Ltd
Subhas Chandra Agarwala has been as an Additional Director on the Board of Directors of Kitply Industries Ltd.

(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)

Economic situation and austerity measures

Aping the London Police example and selling the Delhi Police Headquarters building, as has been suggested in WIC (07.11.2012), may be cosmetic and offer comic relief. Austerity measures in UK are all encompassing and expected to continue into the next decade. In a liberalizing India, which is also socialist, secular and democratic, unless the three organs of the State along with the fourth estate, voluntary organizations and the corporate bureaucracy shed their warped mindset of staking claim to various perks and privileges, unrelated to and irrespective of the public purpose involved, and in the process often also expropriating more than their legitimate share of entitlement, not much purpose would be served by resorting to austerity measures on selective basis. If efficiency, autonomy, professional expertise and public welfare were to become watchwords in our public policy, there may be endless stretches of land, buildings and other structures in New Delhi, which would warrant evacuation to generate financial resources in sufficient measure to contain the mounting fiscal deficit. Will such option be considered and recommended by the 14th Central Finance Commission and implemented equitably?

SK Tewari

Group Insurance Scheme

Government of Introduced a scheme called Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme (CGEGIS) some time in early 80s with the objective of providing insurance cover to Central Government Employees, with a nominal contribution from employees. Different amounts were fixed for all the four categories of Officers viz. Group A, B, C and D. For the highest category i.e. Group A, the insurance cover was for Rs.1.25 lakhs which was quite a substantial sum those days. In the last 30 years or so lot of water has flown through the Ganges with three pay commissions 1986, 1996 and 2006; inflation rising at a rate of 6-7 % on an average per annum but the amount of insurance cover remains the same. It has not occurred to babus in DoPT of MOF to raise this amount, of-course with higher contribution from employees. Going by the present situation, the amount of cover should be raised to Rs. 1 Crore for Group A Officers and similar good amount for other group officers. Will someone in DOPT or MOF look into this?

Surendra

Consumption pattern of LPG cylinders

Our brethren from NSSO seem to have been rather touchy in their reaction to my post about NSSO survey of consumption pattern of LPG cylinders in the rural area. While fully conceding to their right to react to public criticism of their organisation's activities I still hold my view that a survey revealing that the consumption pattern (yes consumption pattern and not 'requirement' or 'preference') of rural India is just 1.5 cylinders in a whole year may need a fresh look as prima facie it appears too low to be true. One way of cross checking the validity of the survey result could be to compare the findings with the data of numbers of LPG cylinders issued by the companies to the rural consumers for the period coinciding with the period of the survey, see if there is a mismatch and analyse whether the error is inherent in your sampling or in the data base of the oil companies. Such exercise will boost the claims of a scientific methodology having been adopted for the survey and will in turn enhance the credibility of the survey results. My science teacher in the junior school had taught three basic requirements for a thesis or a finding to be called scientific. First, go wherever evidence leads you; second, work hard to prove your finding but even harder to explore if there is anything whereby your finding could be disproved and third, even after you have convincingly proved yourself, keep an open mind for any revision at any stage. You can call your critics devoid of 'any knowledge or clarity' but that won't make your methods scientific unless you have a genuinely scientific temper, i.e. an open mind to examine the critics' point of view and willingness to give your findings a fresh look at least when they appear prima facie out of sync with ground realities. Having spent nearly four decades in government service and already earned a decent pension I have every reason to consider myself as a friend of the bureaucratic fraternity including our brethren in the NSSO. Being perceived as an adversary or a competitor is the last thing I could wish.

NN Ojha

LPG Mess

Restricting cylinders to 6 in one year is very problematic and hasty decision on govt's part. I am sorry to say people formulating such polices have no idea how common man suffers by such follies. Government must raise limit to 12 cylinders for one year. Policy makers, please go and see for yourself how public is suffering at gas agencies. People who have been using cylinders for decades have been rendered cylinder less in just one stroke. Majority of people, who got gas connections, say 30 years back, have misplaced their original Gas connection papers. Gas agencies are taking fake affidavits from them and legalizing their connections. Policy makers please check at home whether you have your gas cylinder papers intact. If not, Just think without cylinders what would be your position. Can you think of cooking on cow dung cakes and that too from where you would manage it in big cities like Delhi.

P K Sharma