Know Your Babu: New mines secretary Anup K Pujari drives a scooter on weekends

SOUNDS odd, but you can safely address India’s new mines secretary and 1980 batch Karnataka cadre IAS, as Professor Pujari. Yes, teaching economics is close to Dr Anup K Pujari’s heart, but what actually earns him the prefix is the fact that he took a number of short sabbaticals from IAS to…

Kiran Aggarwal panel recommends inputs on media dealing, yoga in IAS training; suggests reduction of training duration

A GOVERNMENT-appointed panel headed by 1964-batch retired IAS Kiran Aggarwal has recommended the inclusion of inputs to deal with media in the teaching curriculum of IAS probationers, apart from adding yoga and meditation in their physical training. “Specific inputs on dealing with the media and exposure to…

CISF head Arvind Ranjan wants more men to guard its ever-increasing list of VIPs

Ranjan with Vice-president Ansari at a CISF reception

FOR Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which had a modest beginning way back in 1969 mainly to provide security cover to Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), the VIP security has relatively been a new feature added to it. But the force currently headed by 1977 batch Kerala cadre IPS officer, Arvind Ranjan, lack of adequate manpower is turning out to be a constraint in providing VIP security. The VIPs who get security coverage from CISF include…

India’s deputy chief of mission in Saudi Arabia Sibi George gets 3rd SK Singh Award

Sibi George, 1993 batch IFS and deputy chief of mission of Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia, received the 3rd S.K. Singh Award for Excellence in Indian Foreign Service presented in New Delhi on Thursday. But unlike the previous years of this award function, neither the Congress president Sonia Gandhi nor vice-president Rahul Gandhi was present on the occasion, understandably due to…

Corridor’s Tridev on This Poll Season: Meet election commissioners Sampath, Brahma and Zaidi

Brahma (left), Sampath and Zaidi (right)

FOR the next one and half months, these three former bureaucrats -- Veeravalli Sundaram Sampath, Harishankar Brahma and Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi will be India’s most powerful babus, as the country is witnessing a 9-phase-long general election beginning April 7 in which as many as 9,30,000 polling stations have been arranged for whopping 814 million voters. All these three election commissioners, Sampath being the chief election commissioner, are former IAS and ex-secretaries to the…

Know Your Babu: New Hupa secretary Anita Agnihotri is a noted Bengali writer, poet

“Those Who Had Known Love”—is an English translation of Bengali lyrical novel Jara Bhalobesechhilo written by an IAS officer of 1980 batch, Anita Agnihotri. As Agnihotri of Odisha cadre has recently taken over as secretary of the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (Hupa), BoI here presents some of the highlights of Agnihotri’s career as a writer, and also as an…

Former IPS and AAP candidate against Shashi Tharoor: More about Ajit Joy

FOMER IPS officer and Supreme Court lawyer Ajit Joy has been nominated by Aam Aadmi Party as its candidate from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, a constituency currently held by union minister of state for HRD Shashi Tharoor. Son of an Air Force officer and 1992 batch IPS officer who quit the service to become a lawyer, Joy had earlier…

Railway Board chairman Arunendra Kumar drives 100 years old Fire Engine on a Delhi road

THIS is an unusual photo taken on a Delhi street on Friday by an unknown sarkari photographer. It’s the 100-year-old John Morris Fire Engine, one of the priceless possessions of Indian Railways. And the man driving the machine is none other than Railway Board chairman and 1976 batch Indian Railways Service of Mechanical Engineers officer Arunendra Kumar. On Sunday, this Fire Engine, which was once owned by…

In a first, IAS officers now allowed to write their appraisal online

Launch of online appraisal at the PMO

WHAT could be described as a major step forward in correct appraisal of India’s top officers, the government on Thursday introduced online filing of Performance Appraisal Report (PAR), for IAS officers from the current assessment year, 2013-14. As the software developed by government-owned National Informatics Centre (NIC) was formally launched in New Delhi by minister of state in PMO V Narayanasamy in New Delhi, it heralded a…

Govt to appoint more information commissioners; last date of application is March 25

THE government has proposed to appoint more number of information commissioners in the Central Information Commission which currently has chief information commissioner Sushma Singh and eight other information commissioners. According to a DoPT circular dated February 25, 2014, the government proposed to appoint more information commissioners, and…