Rash Decision? Govt gives extension to space secretary K Radhakrishnan beyond August 29

THE government has extended the tenure of Dr K Radhakrishnan, secretary of the department of space, beyond August 29, 2014, a move that some may argue should ideally be taken by the next government. The appointments committee of the cabinet (ACC) in an order dated April 22, said Radhakrishnan’s tenure would now continue till…

45 IAS of 1984 batch empanelled as additional secretary or equivalent. Full List

THE government on Monday released the list containing names of 41 IAS officers who were empanelled as additional secretaries and another four as additional secretary-equivalent to government of India. All belong to 1984 batch IAS.
Among the officers, five are from Madhya Pradesh cadre, four each from Tamil Nadu and Assam cadre, three each from Kerala, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh and UP cadre each. Full list below:

When one Delhi locality houses 50,000 aspirants chasing civil services dream

“The IAS-Wallahs”. Amid the high-voltage general elections when apolitical news have virtually disappeared from newspapers, both national and regional, there was a highly readable piece on Sunday in HT’s popular magazine called Brunch about young men and women spending their best years chasing the civil services dream. Putting together many anecdotes and live examples, it also narrates lives of what it calls IAS coaching ghettos of Delhi viz.

India Show in Hong Kong: Commerce secretary Rajeev Kher to lead India delegation

AWAY from the heat and dust of elections in India, there will be an “India Show” in Hong Kong between April 27 and 30. And senior bureaucrat of 1980 batch and Union commerce secretary Rajeev Kher will lead a delegation to this city state, known to be a bridgehead to do business with China. It is expected that Indian exporters will get an opportunity to forge…

YSR Congress nominates Gujarat IAS Devarapalli Kishore Rao from Bapatla in Seemandhra

Jagan Reddy in a rally

A GUJARAT cadre IAS officer Devarapalli Kishore Rao will be YSR Congress party nominee for Bapatla (SC) Lok Sabha seat that falls in Seemandhra region of Andhra Pradesh, according to latest reports. Rao, an officer of 1980 batch who resigned in December last year and had served mandatory 3-month-long notice period, considers himself retired though the government of Gujarat has not actually…

Pulok Chatterji has leftist leanings, never too enthusiastic about PM’s US focus, claims Baru book

Pulok Chatterji (right) with Manmohan Singh

IF Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s former media adviser Sanjaya Baru is to be believed, “affable, pipe-smoking and understated” Pulok Chatterji has leftist leanings. That’s not all. Baru’s new book, “The Accidental Prime Minister” also claims that Chatterji, thanks to his leftist leanings, was never too enthusiastic about Dr Singh’s focus on improving relations with US, a serious charge hurled against one of the top bureaucrats of UPA’s rule for the last 10 years. In UPA-I, Chatterji was a powerful…

Suitable Indian officials asked to apply for public policy programmes in South Korea’s KDI

SOUTH Korea’s KDI School has invited applications for master of public policy and master of development policy, the programmes which will begin from September 15, 2014. DoPT’s training division has invited applications from suitable officers who need to…

Corridors of Inequality: How non-IAS officers belonging to 36 services get discriminated

THE empanelment for posts at the level of joint secretary and joint secretary equivalent is “a thesis on inequality, unfairness, hegemony, greed and injustice”, says Hyderabad-based Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Satya Prasant P in a blog post. His argument? Non-IAS officers are simply “trampled by the IAS lobby when it comes to appointments under the Central Staffing Scheme through the highly skewed process of empanelment.” In a well-researched piece, Satya Prasant talks about some “deliberate manmade procedural bottlenecks” which actually hamper…

What Sanjaya Baru’s book says about TKA Nair and Pulok Chatterji; PMO reacts

SANJAYA Baru, former media adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called PM’s adviser TKA Nair “a bureaucratic lightweight” who except for a stint in the IK Gujral’s PMO, had neither held the rank of secretary in “any of the powerful ministries on Raisina Hill-home, finance and defence-nor in any key economic ministry”. Baru’s 301-page book titled “The Accidental Prime Minister--The Making and Unmaking Of Manmohan Singh”, published by Penguin, has not even spared current principal secretary Pulok Chatterji, who “like Nair, suffered from…

P Chidambaram opposes bureaucrats’ second innings in politics, but why?

No Politics Please, We Are Babus!

AT A time when more and more retired IAS and IPS offers are contesting the current Lok Sabha elections, senior Congress leader and Union finance minister P Chidambaram has aired his views against such a trend, arguing that it may set a dangerous precedence. The seasoned lawyer-turned politician who has opted out of the fray in favour of his son Karti Chidambaram this time, said that the Constitution…