Babu Marriage: Know more about 10 young bureaucrat couples

DURING THE last many decades, marriages among bureaucrats have been taking place quite regularly, making babu marriage not a new trend at all. Officer trainees do meet at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussorie, go out for field visits and trekking together, get attracted to each other, and many of them end up tying the knots once their training gets over. Here are 10 babu marriages of the recent time:

Reviving Nostalgic Memories: DIPP secretary Amitabh Kant's journey to Tellicherry, his first posting

A bumper fish catch! Kant at Tellicherry’s fish market

WHEN DIPP secretary Amitabh Kant visited Tellicherry last week, he tweeted: “Reviving nostalgic memories of d past!”. No wonder, it was this town located on the Malabar coast of Kerala where Kant, now known to many as a brand guru in government, began his IAS career as a sub-collector. A key driver of some of India’s most popular sarkari campaigns -- God’s Own Country, Atithi Devo Bhava and Make in India – this 1980 batch IAS went to Tellicherry’s fish market on Friday and wrote:

Know Your Babu: 2 IAS, 2 IPS and 1 IFoS begin a 70-day-long expedition to Mt Everest

All India Services expedition team with PM

AFTER 2011 batch Sikkim cadre IAS Ravindra Kumar’s success in scaling the Mt Everest in 2013, as many as five civil servants including two IAS (Kumar included), two IPS and one Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officers have embarked on the first ever All India Services Expedition to Mt. Everest, the highest peak in the world. The team, led by Kumar, will soon begin a 70-day-long expedition from Nepal’s Lukla, which is the highest airport in the world. Know more about these five adventurous babus:

Secretary Alok Rawat pitches for online registration of FIR, self-defence training for women

Alok Rawat, 1977 batch Sikkim cadre IAS and secretary in the department of administrative reforms and public grievances, has suggested a slew of measures for the government including online lodging of FIR and self-defence training for women on a mission mode. Rawat, who is retiring in July this year, has made these suggestions under a government’s new initiative called Anubhav in which retiring employees submit online the commendable work done by them and also give ideas for the government. Here are Rawat’s suggestions for the government:

Govt wants “conducive frame of mind” for bureaucrats, organizes yoga camp, workshops on stress relief

Cover photo of Harry Cohen's "Demonics of bureaucracy"

COME Saturday, the Central government’s new initiative of stress relief-cum-rejuvenating programmes will formally begin in New Delhi. The department of personnel and training (DoPT) will first hold a two-day programme this weekend on stress management for officers of DoPT and the cabinet secretariat. It will be followed by yoga camps, workshops, sports, cultural events etc. for IAS and other government officers across the country. According to the official statement, this exercise will help bureaucrats maintain a “conducive frame of mind” and ensure…

Whispers in the Corridors: Railway services like IRTS, IRPS, IRAS could be merged into one

IF YOU go by the rumors in the Rail Bhawan, merging of various railway services such as Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS), Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) and Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) etc. is on the cards. In fact, the idea of discarding some of the services may be suggested by the…

Grammy winner Ricky Kej pays tribute to IAS DK Ravi; Court asks CID not to publish report

GRAMMY-award winner Ricky Kej who came into limelight for his album “Winds of Samsara” has paid a moving tribute to 2009 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer DK Ravi by dedicating a heart-touching Kannada song that in English means – Fill every heart with new colours. Kej’s tribute apart, it was an eventful Sunday as the Karnataka high court ordered the CID not to publish any interim report on its inquiry into the mysterious death of Ravi who was found hanging at his Bengaluru residence a week ago. The order is significant, as parts of the CID report were leaked to a section of media which published reports linking Ravi with a woman batch-mate of his belonging to the same cadre. It was reported that the woman IAS, who is married, told…

Civil Servants, Assets and Deadline: What all they have to declare under Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act

A civil servant to declare amount of precious stones one has

AS CIVIL servants need to furnish their movable and immovable assets by the end of the next month under section 44 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013, the DoPT on Tuesday issued an office memorandum giving details of the formats and deadlines. Though the civil servants had earlier too furnished immovable properties, this will be a bigger exercise, as they have to give minute details of what all they have including precious stones, antiques and paintings. Here are the disclosures a civil servant has to make by April 30:

If RTI information is denied, give a detailed reason: Panel

A GOVERNMENT-appointed panel, comprising representatives from DoPT, home ministry and Central Information Commission, has said, in case information requested through RTI is denied, "detailed reasons for denial quoting the relevant sections of the RTI Act" should be...

What bureaucrats have to say about DK Ravi, the officer who was found dead in Bengaluru

What Ravi wrote in Facebook when he left Kolar

"I'm at IAS Officer DK Ravi home. his body's kept for last respects. Thousands are here whose lives he touched. Officers like him make India”—That was a message posted in Twitter by 1994 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer Srivatsa Krishna. Ravi, 35, was found dead on Monday under mysterious circumstances at his residence in Bengaluru. A number of officers including IAS, IRS, and IPS posted their messages about the honest officer who courageously took on both the sand mafia and the builders manipulating taxes. Here are the comments of the bureaucrats including his friends, and “trekking and Bharat Dharshan mate”:

54 IAS of 1997 batch empanelled as joint secretary; 8 women officers in the list

THE following 54 IAS officers of 1997 batch have been empanelled as joint secretary or equivalent to Government of India. Out of them, five each are from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu cadre. Among the empanelled officers, there are eight women officers. Here is the full list:

Mysterious death of 2009 batch IAS DK Ravi: More about the officer

35-YEAR-old IAS officer DK Ravi on Monday was found dead under mysterious circumstances at his residence in Bengaluru. His body was found hanging from the ceiling at his apartment. At the time of filing this report, a special investigation team was formed under the supervision of a DCP ranked officer to probe into his death. Was it a suicide? Or was it a…

You have two choices: Watching Dhoni’s boys on TV or babus playing cricket in Delhi

 IF MS Dhoni’s men in blue can perform in the world cup cricket, why can’t the babus do? Civil servants serving across the nation will get together and participate in All India Civil Services Cricket Tournament, (being organized by Central Civil Services Culture and Sports Board) to be played in New Delhi between March 18 and 25, 2015. And like all sarkari rules such as civil services conduct rules, here are the cricket rules being minutely framed for the tournament purpose:

Meet Nirupama Rao, the poet; who are other bureaucrat-poets?

DID you know, India’s former foreign secretary and 1973 batch retired IFS Nirupama Rao has a private passion -- writing poems? The former diplomat on Thursday released two of her poems -- one on life in Jaffna (2005) and the other on women safety in Delhi (2011) in a social media site. Over a decade ago, Rao came out with a poetry book titled “Rain Rising Poems”. First, a part of a poem on city of Delhi written by Rao:

Govt mulls over extending LTC to government employees for visiting “some SAARC countries”

Paro International Airport, Bhutan

CAN you imagine an Indian bureaucrat disembarking at Paro airport and driving down to Thimpu, and then spending a week in Bhutan before coming back to New Delhi and getting the entire expenses reimbursed under Leave Travel Concession (LTC)? Maybe, this could be a reality sometime in future. In fact, a proposal to provide LTC to government employees to visit some SAARC countries has been at an initial stage of consideration, according to…

IAS officers demand “automatic admission” of their children in Sanskriti school; vehicles to all deputy secretaries

BoI has over the years carried a number of articles highlighting the concerns and at times anger of Group A service officers about what they call a discrimination against them by the IAS lobby. As they claim, IAS officers get promotions earlier than them; IAS corner plump posts and also are preferred in case of government scholarship for foreign universities. But, what about the problems being faced by IAS officers themselves? The issue cropped up when…

Late Night Reshuffle: 10 additional secretary-ranked officers appointed; full list

CONTINUING the trend of late night release of the list of major bureaucratic reshuffle, the government on Monday night announced key appointments including swapping of ministries for officers at the level of additional secretaries. The appointments included Jharkhand IAS Rajiv Kumar as Establishment Officer under DoPT, 1983 batch Odisha cadre IAS Injeti Srinivas as Director General of Sports Authority of India (SAI) and BK Tripathi as Member Secretary in NCR Planning Board. Also, the additional secretaries of the ministries of information and broadcasting and steel have been swapped. Here are the 10 new appointments:

Secretary Anup K Pujari calls up every employee of his ministry on the day of retirement; find out why

IN THE last two days of every month, this GoI secretary and 1980 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer does something unusual! Amid his busy schedule, he would pick up the phone and call each and every employee of his ministry retiring on that month (A government employee retires on the last day of the month even if she turns 60 years any day between the 2nd and the last day of the month). But, why does this bureaucrat call up the retiring lot? What does he ask them? Meet union secretary of mines Dr Anup K Pujari. Towards the end of the month, he first gets a…

Who will succeed Rohit Nandan as Air India CMD? More questions, but no answers

Rohit Nandan

AFTER interviewing three candidates and finding none as suitable to be the next CMD of state-run airlines, Air India, the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) issued this statement on Tuesday: “Board did not find any candidate suitable, and recommended that the Government may choose an appropriate course of further action for selection.” This probably paves the way to the appointment of yet another career bureaucrat, possibly an IAS officer, to be…

Deputy secretary or director ranked officer wanted as adviser in the Embassy of India, Brussels

Little Man Pee: Brussels Landmark

FOR deputy secretary or director ranked officials, here is a chance to serve in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium. The government is looking for suitable candidates to fill up the post of Adviser (Industry and Engineering) in the Embassy of India, Brussels under the department of commerce, for a period of three years. The mandatory qualifications include the following:

IRS officer Prabhat Kumar explains a unique modus operandi used by a woman employee to dupe Pawan Hans Ltd

IN TODAY’S world, a scam worth Rs 1.30 crore does not make headlines. But the kind of modus operandi used by a lady contractual employee to dupe India’s leading state-run helicopter company Pawan Hans Ltd (PHL) for a period of five years between 2008 and 2013, is worth writing. Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Prabhat Kumar, currently serving as chief vigilance officer (CVO) in Pawan Hans Ltd, has given a detailed account of the lady assistant’s modus operandi in...

On a clear day, can you see India from Manipur? Yes, IAS-turned entrepreneur C Balagopal has the answer

OVER three decades ago, C Balagopal was a young deputy commissioner in a district in the North-eastern state of Manipur. He left his high-profile job in 1983 to set up a company that ventured into manufacturing of medical devices. He then sold his shareholding to an MNC. Now, Balagopal plans to set up an incubator in Manipur’s capital city of Imphal to help young people setting up businesses. And his book on Manipur titled,