Cabinet secretariat auctions two old white ambassadors. Interested?

DO YOU have any fascination for white ambassador cars? Cabinet secretariat is auctioning two such cars which are currently being displayed at its campus inside the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The description of the nine year old cars, as written in the bid documents, says both are…

IPS officer's poem lands herself in a row; senior asks who gave permission

SENIOR IPS officer from Kerala B Sandhya has landed up in a controversy not because of any of her file noting, but for writing a poem which depicts politicians, media and bureaucracy in poor light. The 50-year-old officer, currently an Additional Director General of Police, was asked to give an…

Have a good RTI story to tell? Govt to pay you for your writing skill

ARE you ready to write a 5,000 word piece on a Right to Information (RTI) best practice? You may end up receiving a cool Rs 25,000. In what could be a part of the government’s new publicity drive in this election year, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) has proposed to publish a compendium of best practices on RTI Act, being practised by…

Cabinet secretary Ajit K Seth gets 1 year extension; what worked in his favour

Seth at a textile function (File Photo)

THERE was no surprise element or wow factor when appointments committee of the cabinet (ACC) has decided to give one-year-extension to cabinet secretary and 1974 batch UP cadre IAS Ajit Kumar Seth. The low-profile bureaucrat, who studied chemistry in St Stephen’s college in early 1970s, has maintained an excellent rapport with Pulok Chatterji, the man who matters in the corridors. Understandably, the Prime Minister is averse to…

Will CMDs of public sector companies be given a fixed 3-year-tenure?

A FEW top bureaucrats’ posts such as cabinet secretary, home or defence secretary, has a fixed tenure of two years. Their retirement age does not matter as long as the concerned officer is appointed before he attains 60. Now, the government is planning to have a fixed tenure of three years to CMDs and directors of…

Does CBI compulsorily need Centre's nod to probe a JS? Madras HC says "no"

WHAT we all know is that if an official at the rank of a joint secretary and above is to be investigated, prior permission from the Centre is required. The sheer number of pending requests of investigating agencies mainly of the CBI will also tell you how difficult it is to get such an approval. But a Madras High Court judgement pronounced on April 29, 2013 by a bench comprising Justice R Banumathi and Justice K Ravichandrabaabu said investigating agencies don’t need to wait for permission as the provision in Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, is only “directory, not mandatory, in nature”. Here are excerpts of the judgement:

Training calendar for IAS, others includes anti-corruption strategy, ethics

A painting depicting corruption

HOW to fight corruption has figured prominently in this year’s in-service training programmes designed for IAS and other officers working under Central Staffing Scheme. The training calendar for 2013-14 shows that…

Govt to send senior bureaucrats to Harvard to acquire leadership skills

A part of Harvard Campus

THE government is inviting applications from senior bureaucrats to do a leadership course at the Harvard University. The officers at the rank of additional secretary and joint secretary will be funded under the Domestic Funding of Foreign Training, or DFFT scheme for any of the four short-term programmes which were recently added to the list of…

Why a post of a secretary is not up for sale as yet: An Analysis

THE recovery of Rs 90 lakh from railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew in Chandigarh last Friday has done little damage to the Congress. At least if one compares it with the kind of dent it has made to the clean image that secretary-level appointments have commanded so far. But BoI terms the episode a one-off, and here it’s why…