Saree, tie, pen, bangle, kettle, wrist watch, mobile phone– the gifs that bureaucrats receive; Full List

DIPLOMATS and bureaucrats including foreign secretary, home secretary and defence secretary received as many as 43 gifts including saree, tie, pen, mobile phone etc. which they had deposited in the ministry of external affairs’ Toshakhana department for valuation between January and March, 2015, according to data available with the MEA. After valuation, the gifts below the worth of Rs 5,000 are usually returned to the recipients. But the very fact that 43 out of 110 gifts deposited in the Toshakhana during the period were given to civil servants (as against ministers including PM) demonstrates the importance of the babus in the set-up. Here is the list of the officers, the gifts that they received, the valuation of the gifts and whether those were returned to the officers concerned.

MEA gets a new joint secretary to handle Sanskrit; more about officers with knowledge of Sanskrit

Rig Veda: A collection of hymns written in Sanskrit

IN A first-of-its kind experiment, a new post of joint secretary for Sanskrit language has been created in the ministry of external affairs (MEA). And the announcement was made by none other than external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj herself while addressing over 600 Sanskrit experts in a conference in Bangkok on Sunday. The minister said, the Sanskrit language is “modern and universal” and…

Job for JS level officer in Washington; applicant-officers asked to write 250 words on their suitability

Indian Embassy, Washington

IN WHAT could be termed as unusual in government's appointment process, the Centre has asked candidates to write 250 words indicating the candidate’s suitability while applying for the post of Minister (Economic) in the economic wing of Embassy of India in Washington. The post is at the level of...

Qualifications, current posts and date of retirement of 51 IAS of 1985 batch empanelled as GoI additional secretaries

ON TUESDAY, the Centre released a long list of 51 IAS officers of 1985 batch who wereN empanelled for appointment as additional secretary at the Centre. Among those who made it included officers with PhD degree from America’s Cincinnati University and University of Minnesota and UK’s Prescott University, and MBA from IIM-Ahmadabad and UK universities. Here is the full list with their qualifications, current posting and date of retirement:

36 IAS of 1982 batch empanelled as GoI secretary or secretary-equivalent; Air India’s Rohit Nandan & ITPO’s JS Deepak figure in list

THE Centre on Tuesday published the list of 36 IAS officers of 1982 batch who were empanelled as secretary or secretary-equivalent at the Centre. The names of Air India chief Rohit Nandan and commerce ministry’s JS Deepak who has additional charge as CMD of India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO), have figured in the list of 28 officers empanelled as GoI secretaries. NHAI member (PPP) Sudhir Kumar who had once served as Lalu Prasad’s OSD in the ministry of railways is among eight officers empanelled as secretary-equivalent. The full list officers below:

Photo of a swanky Bengaluru police station attracts crowd in social media; any clue on CBI glass building?

KARNATAKA cadre IPS officer Abhishek Goyal, someone who did B Tech in computer sciences from IIT-Delhi before joining the police service, is a regular in the world of Twitter. On Monday, he posted a few photos with this caption: “new Police Station building in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Wow! #betterThanMyOffice”, a post that left many people to…

Office on Sunday: How Indian bureaucrats across the globe had a busy Yoga Day

FS Jaishankar with Richard Verma

FROM Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, India’s high commissioner Vishnu Prakash released a photo of him and his wife doing Yoga at the high commission premise on the occasion of International Day of Yoga on Sunday. In New Delhi, the ministry of railways released a photo of Railway Board chairman and 1976 batch officer of Indian Railways Service of Stores (IRSS) AK Mital with the officials of the ministry of railways participating in a Yoga event. Here below are the instances of how bureaucrats and diplomats spent the Yoga Day:

IFS gets “hidden treasure” in Beno Zephine; 10 things to know about India’s first visually challenged diplomat

Beno Zephine being felicitated in DoPT

DURING the last few days senior ministers in the corridors felicitated a 25-year-old girl from Tamil Nadu. She is Beno Zephine. Literally, Beno means daughter of God and Zephine means hidden treasure. Yes, Indian Foreign Service gets a “hidden treasure” when Beno Zephine became the first 100 per cent visually challenged person to be inducted into the country's elite foreign service. Here are 10 things you may like to know about Beno Zephine.

IPS Archana Ramasundaram’s tenure in CBI curtailed; 10 developments of a classic appointment row

Ms Ramasundaram (File Photo)

1980-batch IPS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre Archana Ramasundaram has had no work to do as additional director in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for over a year because of judicial intervention from the apex court. Now, the Centre has prematurely curtailed her tenure in the CBI and appointed her as director in National Crime Records Bureau by temporarily upgrading the post. Yet, her new appointment would be subject to the outcome of the writ petition pending in the Supreme Court. Here are 10 developments of this unique appointment row:

Mera Naam Shyam Arjunrao Tagade: Now 1991 batch Maharashtra IAS changes his name

THE name change saga of IAS officers continues. The Central government in a notification dated June 16, 2015, permitted 1991 batch Maharashtra cadre IAS officer Shamrao Arjun Tagade to change his name to Shyam Arjunrao Tagade. “He will accordingly be recognized as Shri Shyam Arjunrao Tagade for all official purposes", said the notification. First, here are the new names of some IAS officers:

Why IAS officers of Delhi, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh are “concerned” and “frustrated”. Read IAS Association’s resolutions

IF THE resolutions of a meeting of the executive committee of IAS Association (Indian Civil and Administrative (Central) Association) held on May 25, 2015 in New Delhi are anything to go by, the IAS officers belonging to three states in particular -- NCT Delhi, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh – are getting more concerned and frustrated because of the recent trend of posting non-cadre officers to cadre posts, something what the association terms as a “blatant violation” of the IAS (cadre) Rules, 1954 and that it reduces efficiency of the administration. “IAS officers are specifically trained over their career-span to deal with jobs requiring specific background, experience and understanding. Posting of officers from indifferent backgrounds against…

Chemistry Works: Why Narendra Modi showers praise on Ajit K Seth for his "creative effort"

Cabinet Secretariat Corridors

AS Ajit K Seth ended his extended 4-year-term term as India’s cabinet secretary on Saturday, prime minister Narendra Modi posted three tweets to praise one of Seth's initiatives in cabinet secretariat called “Art in Steps” before wishing him for the “new phase in his life”. For the low-profile bureaucrat who studied chemistry in St Stephen’s college in early 1970s and served two prime ministers -- Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi -- as their cabinet secretary, it was mainly the art of good chemistry that worked in his favour. First, let’s read what Modi had to say for Seth on Saturday…

LATE ENTRY: 69 officers belonging to 1983 to 1989 batches empanelled as GoI joint secretaries

DURING the last seven days, the government announced empanelment of as many as 69 officers of services such as Indian Statistical Service (IIS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE), Indian Railways Store Service (IRSS) etc. belonging to batches ranging from 1983 to 1989. They include 30 officers of Indian Statistical Service (ISS) belonging to 1983, 1984 and 1985 batches, 16 IPS officers belonging to 1986, 1987 and 1988 batch, 7 officers of Indian Railway Store Service (IRSS) of 1984 batch, 10 Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE) officers of 1985 batch, 4 Indian Railways Store Service (IRSS) officers of 1985 batch and one officer each of Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS, 1986 batch) and Indian Forest Service (1989 batch). The question remains, will they be posted as JS, as many a joint secretary-empanelled officer ends up not getting the posts? Here is the full list of JS-empanelled officers:

Life at LBSNAA: What officer trainees like, act and play; and the photos, videos that they post

Young officers participating in a sanitation campaign in a Mussoorie village

“Lovely morning to realize that my name is after a yoga aasana!! #shashankaasana” – Shashanka Ala, a Madras IIT graduate-turned IAS of 2014 batch, posts this in a social media site. Ms Ala hails from Andhra and is now allotted Odisha cadre. Another IAS of 2014 batch Bhupesh Chaudhary, hailing from Haryana, posts a photo in Twitter with a caption saying: “One last sunrise from Dalai hill. Will miss you #Mussoorie #lbsnaa”, as the IAS officer trainees completed the phase I of their training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie. Chaudhary is allotted AGMUT cadre. As young officers who are undertaking training at LBSNAA are highly active in…

Govt proposes to give foreign degree incentives to IAS to make them participate in inter-services workshops

IN AN attempt to break the silos between different services, particularly between the IAS and others, the government has proposed to give foreign degree incentives to IAS officers if they attend inter-services workshop programme, according to a draft policy paper on cadre training plan for IAS officers released by the DoPT on Monday in which the department wanted IAS and other stakeholders to give their comments. "The IAS officers with 12-14 years of seniority are eligible to attend this workshop (inter services workshop programme of ARPG). The participants who attend this workshop will be given weightage…

CVC, DRDO, CIC chiefs appointed, but NHAI turns headless; road transport secretary is temporary boss of NHAI

WITH the appointment of former IRS KV Chowdary as Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and former IAS Vijai Sharma as Chief Information Commissioner, two of the key government agencies -- CVC and CIC -- that remained headless for months, have got their anchors in place. Also, less than a fortnight ago, another key organization -- Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) which remained headless for almost four months after its high-profile DG Avinash Chander was sacked, got a new director general—S Christopher. But now, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), a statutory body that plays a key role in building highways across India, turned headless after…

What provokes IAS officers to oppose lateral entry of specialists and claim they are specialists in governance?

A NEWSPAPER article arguing that prime minister Narendra Modi should have started his innings by ending the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), has provoked a number of IAS officers to resort to social media to strongly defend their contribution to the nation and oppose lateral entry of specialists. Though the article published in a business daily was against “un-fire-able, unaccountable civil service” as a whole, it mainly targeted the IAS with “imperial-era privileges”. Former chief secretary of Delhi Shailaja Chandra, who calls herself an “independent policy analyst” and “Once IAS” argues that the alternative to…

Know Your Babu: New DPE secretary Ameising Luikham belongs to a family of civil servants

Ameising Luikham, a 1981 batch IAS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre, is the new secretary of the department of public enterprises (DPE), a department that makes policy for Central public sector enterprises which in turn employ as many as 13.5 lakh employees across India. Luikhram, who was serving as the secretary in North Eastern Council under DONER ministry, will succeed Kapil Dev Tripathi, who was till now holding…

Know Your Babu: New mines secretary Balvinder Kumar is learning more about "mind and consciousness"

BALVINDER Kumar has been appointed as the secretary, ministry of mines. Earlier he was serving as Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) vice-chairman.

Kumar, a 1981-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, was the chairman of Noida Authority before his stint at DDA. He will succeed...

Govt effects secretary level reshuffle; new commerce, power and civil aviation secretaries appointed

Chanakya

IN A major administrative reshuffle involving secretaries of the Government of India, new appointments of the top bureaucrats were made for key ministries such as commerce, power and civil aviation. It was quite an overhaul as a number of secretaries were also laterally transferred from one ministry to another. Here are the key appointments and later shifts:

IAS Loses Out? Ex-IRS officer Kosaraju Veeraiah Chowdary tipped to be the next CVC

THE PM-headed panel that includes Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge selected the next Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), a post that has been lying vacant since September last year when the then CVC Pradeep Kumar had retired. And a former IRS officer Kosaraju Veeraiah Chowdary, the Income-Tax sleuth who played a critical role in probes like 2G spectrum allocation and the HSBC Geneva taxpayers list, is tipped to be the next CVC, according to…

Yoga sessions to begin at CGO complex today; Central government employees to participate

A photo exhibition on Yoga in Geneva

FROM today evening, Central government employees and their dependents will get Yoga lessons daily at CGO complex, one of many sarkari hubs in Delhi. Yoga training sessions that will be conducted in two batches are being organized by the department of personnel and training (DoPT) in association with an institute called Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) whose tagline is: Health, Harmony and Happiness for all through Yoga. This is in continuation of the government’s plan to organize Yoga training in as many as...