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Ravi Prakash Gupta

Is Sharad Pawar behind move of resignations ?
Day 2 of political uncertainty in Maharashtra continued with Ajit Pawar making a statement that he has no rift with his uncle Sharad Pawar. Political observers read it as a sign that it is Sharad Pawar who is behind the move of Ajit resigning. The matter of embezzlement of irrigation funds could lead to a CBI enquiry and that is what Sharad Pawar wants to prevent. Sources in the state government say that the enquiry will come through and Ajit Pawar will be interrogated the matter has gone far. What needs to be seen is that how Sharad Pawar bargains with the Congress High Command in the center or if at all he can.

Has Congress made a tactical move on deputy CM's post ?
After Sharad Pawar having said that Deputy CM's post in the Maharashtra state government should be done away with Congress has make a strong statement that it will continue with the post and will instead put in its own ministers as Deputy CM.

Amidst speculations Rajasthan Congress may see substantial changes?
Amidst the speculations of reshuffle in Union Cabinet soon, Rajasthan is said be the one to see the substantial changes in the state leadership. If insiders are to be believed, if not the CM Ashok Gehlot, his close associate and PCC Chief Dr Chandrabhan may be replaced. In a bid to breathe life into the Pradesh Congress committee and strengthen the party in the state Sachin Pilot may be assigned with the responsibility of State Congress President.

BUREAUCRACY

R K Mathur to be Secretary, Defence Production
Secretary, MSME R K Mathur is all set to succeed Shekhar Agrawal as Secretary, Defence Production. He is a 1977 batch IAS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre.

K M Acharya to be Member, PESB
K M Acharya is being tipped to be new Member of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB). He is a 1974 retired IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre.

Tenure of Alok Perti extended
The tenure of Alok Perti as Adviser in the Ministry of Coal has been extended for a further period of two months with effect from October 1, 2012 on contract appointment basis. He is a retired 1977 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

R H Khwaja is also Secretary, Tourism
R H Khwaja, Secretary, Ministry of Mines, has been assigned additional charge of Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. He is a 1976 batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre.

Orders of R Bhattacharya issued
Orders of R Bhattacharya as Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, have been issued. He is a 1978 batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre.
(We said this on September 12, 2012)

Secretaries to meet Cabinet Secretary?
About 10 Secretaries, belonging to batches 1977 and 1978 are contemplating to meet the Cabinet Secretary against the summary transfer of Secretary, Mining Vishwapati Trivedi for no rhyme or reason. They are quite upset over the ill-treatment being meted out to senior bureaucrats these days.

Cadre of IAS officer, Ms Ranjana transferred
The cadre of Ms Ranjana has been transferred from Tamil Nadu to Uttarakhand cadre on the ground of marriage to Ram Chandra Rajguru (IFS:09). She is a 2010 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.

Fresh panel sought for DG, CRPF
A fresh panel has been sought from the Ministry of Home Affairs for the post of DG CRPF.

Andhra is short of 92 IAS officers
As against the authorized strength of 376 IAS officers in Andhra Pradesh, only 284 IAS officers are currently serving in the state.

Shourjo Chatterjee is Knowledge Manager, INTOSAI
Shourjo Chatterjee has been appointed as Knowledge Manager with INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI), Norway, on deputation basis for a period of two years. He is a 2001 batch IA&AS officer.

IPS officer gets UN assignment
Himanshu Mishra, DIG, SV&ACB, HP Police, Shimla, has been appointed as Security officer in UN- Assistant Mission of Afghanistan-Kabul (UNAMA).He is a 1998 batch IPS officer of HP cadre.

Reddy to be Vice-Principal, CDST
CVS Reddy, Commandant, 4NLP, second IR Battalion, Vikaspuri, New Delhi, is likely to be appointed as Vice-Principal, Central Detective School Training, Hyderabad, under BPR&D, MHA, Government of India. He is a 2007 batch IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

TV Ravichandra is now IB man
TV Ravichandra, Joint Director, Intelligence Bureau, Government of India has become a Hard-Core IB officer. He is a 1990 batch IPS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.
(We said this on April 18, 2012)

Exemption of IT to Prasar Bharti
At the budget meeting, the outgoing Finance Minister has acceded to I & B Minister's request and declared Prasar Bharati to be Income Tax exempt.

Haryana DGP to retire next month
Haryana, DGP Ranjiv Singh Dalal is retiring next month end. He is a 1974 batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre.

Orissa cadre IPS officer to join CBI?
Soorya Thankappan is likely to join the CBI as SP. He is a 2001 batch IPS officer of Orissa cadre.

Lalit Bohra to be Sr. GM, CONCOR
Lalit Bohra on central deputation has been posted as Jaipur based Senior General Manager (GM) with the Container Corporation(CONCOR).Presently, he is DGM and Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO),North Western Railway(NWR),Jaipur. He is an IRTS officer of 1998 batch.

Sahni returns to parent cadre
Joint Secretary, Indian Overseas Affairs Vinay Kumar Sahni has returned to the parent cadre.He is a 1981 batch IDAS officer.

23 applicants for the post of advisor to ED, World Bank
As against the vacancy for the post of Senior Advisor to Executive Director, World Bank as many as 23 applicants have applied for the slot.

Dutta moves to MEA Hqs
Second Secretary in Kuwait D N Dutta has been moved to the Ministry of External Affairs Headquarters.

6 posts vacant in Chhattisgarh High Court
As many as six posts of Judges have been lying vacant in Chhattisgarh High Court against approved strength of 18. The vacant posts include one posts of Permanent Judges against approved strength of seven and five of Additional Judges against 11 approved strength.

Uttarakhand DGP to retire
Vijay Raghav Pant DGP of Uttarakhand is retiring by this month end. He is a 1976 batch IPS officer.

One ACS post to be created in Chhattisgarh
The GoI has reportedly agreed for one new ACS post in Chhattisgarh.

IAS postings in Andhra Pradesh
Adhar Sinha has been appointed Secretary of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department. Lav Agarwal has been made Secretary (Youth Services and Sports) .

Srivastava couple bereaved
P S Bhatnagar Father of IAS officer Kalpana Srivastava and Father-In Law of IPS officer Shailendra Srivastava has passed away in Bhopal. He was 88.

Orders of R K Mathur issued (UPDATED)
The orders of Radha Krishna Mathur as Secretary, Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence have been issued. He is a 1977 batch IAS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre.
(We said this September 26, 2012)


Orders of Ms Rashmi Verma issued (UPDATED)
The orders of Ms Rashmi Verma as Additional Secretary, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance have been issued. She is a 1982 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre.
(We said this on September 25, 2012)


Ajay Narayan Jha is OSD, 14th Finance Commission (UPDATED)
Ajay Narayan Jha, Joint Secretary & Financial Adviser, Ministry of Human Resource Development, has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty in the Advance Cell of the 14th Finance Commission, in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary. He is a 1982 batch IAS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre.

Major reshuffle of IAS officers in Tamil Nadu (UPDATED)
A large number of junior and senior officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) have been transferred and posted at different places in Tamil Nadu. Accordingly, Vikram Kapur has been posted as Principal Secretary, Industries Department while Dr P Senthil Kumar will now be Special Secretary, Health & Family and Dr J Radhakrishnan is Secretary, Health & Family Welfre Department. Similarly, G Prakash has been posted as Director, Employment and Training; N Mathivanan as Joint Secretary, Industries Deprtment; Mahesan Kasirajan as Director, Sugar& MD, Tamil Nadu Sugar Corporation; B Jothi Nirmala as Secetary, Tamil nadu State Election Commission; V M Xavier Chrisso Nayagam as Director, Social Welfare; V Mohanraj as Deputy Secretary, Transport Department; Anil Meshram as Director, Agricultural Marketing & Agri Business; J chandrakumar as Director, Land Reforms; M Balaji as Member Secretary, State Planning Commission; Kumar Jayant as Project Director & Member Secretry, Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society; Dr A Chittaranjan Mohandoss as Secretary, Public & Rehabilitation Department; Mrs Girija Vaidyanathan as Principal Secretary/Chairperson & Managing Director, Power Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation; J Jeyakanthan as Collector, Chennai while Mrs Pooja Kulkarni as Collector, Krishnagiri and G Govindaraj as Collector, Tiruppur; M Mathivanan as Additional Director, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj; C Manoharan as Collector, Pudukkottal; Mrs V Kalaiarasi as Additional Registrar, Cooperative Socities; Mrs S Jayandhi as Collector, Karur; Dr C N Maheswaran as Deputy Commissioner, Health.

North-Eastern States equipped with potentials: Dr Bhalla (UPDATED)
Dr D Bhalla, Joint Secretary, Food & Public Distribution, has said that he is very much aware of Nagaland as far its cultural heritage and tourism potential are concerned. Bhalla further said that he traveled various parts of Nagaland as well as other North-Eastern States. He was speaking as chief guest on the occasion of World Tourism Day observed by College of Vocational Studies, University of Delhi on September 27, 2012. During the interaction with the students Dr Bhalla has also given his views on tourism. He said that there are various connotations of sustainability. To simply put, the sustainability of tourism means - a tourism which can last for a very long time without adversely affecting the habitat, society, environment or any other aspect of community life of that place. It is different from sustainable development but at the same time it is a small part of sustainable development. Tourism cannot develop at the cost of other sectors. Rather it needs the collaboration and development of many other sectors for it to grow. For example, good infrastructure, roads, drinking water supply, sanitation, environment, civic facilities, medical facilities, education & training facilities, banks, hotels and hospitality infrastructure etc. are all required for tourism to work, he added.

N K Verma selected as Director (Exploration), ONGC (UPDATED)
N K Verma, Director (Exp) (OVL), ONGC, has been selected for the post of Director (Exploration), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited at a Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) meeting held on September 27, 2012. As many as 12 persons were interviewed for the same.

Three IAS officers get addl charges in MP (UPDATED)
Three senior officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) have been given additional charges in Madhya Pradesh. Accordingly, Prabhanshu Kamal has been assigned additional charge of Revenue, Religious and Relief Commissioner while Ajay Nath gets additional charge of Commercial Taxes and R K Swai was given additional charge of Commissioner-cum-Registrar, Cooperative Societies and MD, MP State Co-Operative Oilseed Grower's Federation. Charges have been given to these officers as three IAS officers namely B P singh, A P Shrivastgava and Prem Chand Meena are undergoing training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Missouri, from October 1 to November 2.

DEBATE
Is FDI in retail in the interests of economic independence of India? Mail your views to Mehrotra.suresh@gmail.com or Suresh.mehrotra@yahoo. com.

CORPORATE

Madan appointed Nominee Director, Vaibhav Gems Ltd
Santosh Madan, Field General Manager of Punjab National Bank has been appointed as a Nominee Director on the Board of Vaibhav Gems Ltd.

Lakshmipathy elected Chairman, PTI
R Lakshmipathy has been elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Press Trust of India (PTI) .

Trehan quits Electrotherm (India) Ltd
Ravikumar Trehan has resigned as Director of Electrotherm (India) Ltd.

Lahiri appointed Head (Equity), L&T Mutual Fund
Soumendra Nath Lahiri has been appointed as Head (Equity), L&T Mutual Fund

Raju elected President, SIHRA
Syama Raju has been elected as President of South India Hotels & Restaurants Association (SIHRA)

Patel appointed Business Head, India, Credit bureau Equifax
Credit bureau Equifax has appointed Sanjay Patel as its Business Head in India

Mishra quits Turner International Asia Pacific
Anshuman Misra has resigned as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Networks and Content Distribution, Turner International Asia Pacific.

Bhat appointed Head (International Corporate Banking Vertical), UBS
UBS has appointed Rahul Bhat as Head (International Corporate Banking Vertical)

(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)

DEBATE

Is FDI in the Interest of Economic Independence of India ?

In addition to the many scams unearthed by the C&AG of late our contemporary history should be incomplete without mention of at least three more frauds. Two of these are the claims by the government that the civil nuclear deal with the US is in our national interest and that allowing FDI in retail shall give a much needed boost to our economy. For the third one we can't blame the government as the fraud has been perpetrated by the people upon themselves by persuading themselves to believe that the Prime Minister is a brilliant economist and a dead honest person.

Can FDI in retail favourably impact our economic independence? Let us first see what it means. In micro terms economic independence is adequacy of an individual's resources to fulfil his family's needs of food, shelter, clothing, health and education at least up to the barest minimum level. In macro terms it must mean the nation's (or the government's) ability to fulfil the social, developmental and security related needs and aspirations.

Now let us see the present scenario. The percentage of Indian population below poverty line (BPL) ranges from 37% as per Tendulkar committee to 77% as per Arjun Sen Gupta's report. If you choose to go by the World Bank data more than 32% of our population is below the international standard of poverty @ US $ 1.25 per capita per day and a whopping 68. % below US $ 2 level. The UNDP puts 37.2% of us in the BPL category and the Oxford Poverty and Human Indices report says that at least 8 Indian states are poorer than 26 poorest African countries combined. A UNICEF report points out that one out of every three malnourished children is an Indian child. This should give some idea about the current status of economic independence of an average Indian.

The picture is not very different at the macro level of the Indian state with the government's debt at 45%, gross taxation at 10% of the GDP coupled with miserable allocations ranging from 1.5 to 2% of the GDP for each of the social, developmental or even the security sector.

Such being the broad picture do you think that the lotus feet of a Walmart of US, a Tesco of UK or an IKEA of Sweden on the Indian soil will favourably impact our economic independence? In any case the purpose of their coming to India is to strengthen their own finances and not ours. There is one and only one way to ensure India's economic independence and that is to bring back the black money stashed by the corrupt (some of whom may be hidden in the ruling crowd for all you know) abroad. The amount is substantial. V Nanjappa says it is 1.4 trillion dollars, the Swiss Bankers Association says it is 2 billion and our very own CBI Director is on record having said in Feb this year that the amount could be 500 billion US dollars. Those who are pimping for FDI in retail may be simply discharging their commitments to some foreigners for favours they might have already received.

NN Ojha

FDI will curtail our economic independence !

The argument that FDI will curtail our economic independence is fallacious. No country is economically independent in this age of globalization. This interdependence has its negative facet too. Economic crisis in one part of the world causes jitters everywhere. For example the current crisis in Greece and other Euro-Zone countries have created panic and slowed down the growth of countries like China and India too. Globalization is therefore not so great for many economies of the World. That is why economists like Joseph Stiltz are not for it .But there seems to be no getting back to the days of insular and isolated economies. Interdependence has become the order of the day. Foreign Direct investment is therefore the need of the hour. I do not think it will adversely affect our retail kirana stores. Going to 'Walmart' or any big Departmental store requires time effort, parking hassles etc. The next door 'kirana' store enables one to pick up anything one needed at that hour. Our Kirana stores, I am sure will reinvent themselves so as to remain in business. Our fear and reaction to FDI in retail seems to be misplaced.

Aarti Khosla

FDI : give equal opportunity

Yes, I am not against FDI in India. But the main issue which has to be taken care of is to give equal opportunity to small and medium size farmers and the shops which are there to earn their livelihood.

R C Pant

Is opposition to Tobacco and Gutkha Jinxed ?

Ajit Pawar vehemently opposed Gutkha and Tobacco and lost his post. UPA is opposing tobacco and Gutkha, Mamta pulled support. CP Thakur tried to ban Gutkha lost his ministry, Ambumani Ramodass did same and lost. Chewing Tobacco and Gutkha are Jinxed and who so ever worked against them lost. It is clear from Gujarat Congress won Municipal election in Ahmedabad after Modi banned Gutkha. Will Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Prem Kumar Dhumal, Raman Singh, Nitish Kumar, Arjun Munda loose. Trouble started for Nitish in Court. JMM demand in CM post in Chattisgarh. Will Narendra Modi loose ?

Sanjay

IPS leadership has failed to provide promotions

The IPS leadership has failed to provide promotion to the Constables, SO,s and officers. Constable is given First promotion in 23 yrs, DPC is delayed by 2 yrs for officers, and they try to Spoil the ACR's of Cadre officers so that they do not claim Higher Posts, (One such letter was addressed to a DG CPO by a senior Cadre officer ). They do not think beyond State police functioning, Disregards the customs of CPO & promote Sychophancy. The experience say that the philosophy is Time pass at CPO, enjoy the privilege and just maintain status quo, Their should be a Grievance Redressal Committee at MHA level (without IPS officers),who should get the complaints and misdeeds of

IPS leadership enquired. The truth will come out.....

S R

No cheap tantrums

Which leadership you talk about where 76 men are butcherd in one incident. Why state police are highly inefficient do nothing but waiting the situation to become worse. Why don't they show their leadership traits in states Enough is enough. No cheap tantrums.

S K Muni

CPOs can't seek parity with IPS

CPOs cannot seek parity with the IPS. They are recruited through separate examination. Only some folk of the CISF used to be recruited through the CISF but not any longer. The IPS mans the top posts of the CPOs and should continue to do so.

Vijay Kumar

Why there is delay in vigilance clearance of Bank CMDs ?

Why there is so much delay in vigilance clearance of Bank CMDs ? If there is something against them then how they continue to be CMDs of some other banks? Does it mean that smaller banks can have top brasses who have vigilance cases against them? The entire process is muddled
with controversies.

Raju

IRCTC duping passengers !

Has some one noticed that though IRCTC Railway reservation site is non- functional for most of the times, and IRCTC has found another way to earn revenue through ticket sales to hide its in-competency & in-efficiency. IRCTC has levied charges on any Railway ticket being booked through travel portals like yatra.com etc. One has to bear the cost to pay wages to in-efficient organisation.

Bosidini

What's stopping the govt in introducing metered taxis ?

On the issue of non-existence of metered taxis in Delhi, I also wonder as to what is stopping the government in introduction of metered taxis like it is there in all the other metros. There is a great need for the same. I am also of the opinion that if metered taxis are easily available, you would certainly see the number of private cars coming down on the Delhi roads. It is high time this is done.

B K Bhitiani

RIT

Detail of the correspondence between PM and Chief Justice of India

The appellant sought the copies of records related to the correspondence between the Chief Justice of India and the Prime Minister regarding the proposed amendments to the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided some of the records like the copies of the letters exchanged between the Chief Justice of India and the Prime Minister. In respect of the related files, PIO observed that one of those files was under submission before higher authorities and the other file contained certain number of pages, presumably, implying that it could be disclosed only on payment of the usual photocopying charges without expressly stating so. Neither the appellant deposited the photocopying charges nor did the PIO provide the copies of that particular file. The Central Information Commission (CIC) noted that the appellant was not clearly told the amount to be deposited and after the lapse of such a long time, there is no question of amount to be charged from the appellant for providing the copies of the records. The Commission directed the PIO to send the photocopy of the related file after severing any information which is exempt as per the provisions of Section 8 of the RTI Act after passing a speaking order.

Comments

The demand for fee should be made categorically giving the mathematic calculation how the further fee has been calculated. Further, the name and address of the first appellate authority should be given where the applicant can file an appeal if he finds the fee prohibitive.

Citation: Shri Vinod Varshney v Department of Personnel & Training in File No.CIC/SM/A/2011/001029

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)