More about private secretaries of 3 ministers -- Amit Shah, Smriti Irani and Jitendra Singh

THE Central government last week appointed private secretaries of three prominent ministers — home minister, Amit Shah, textiles minister, Smriti Irani and DoPT and DoNER minister, Jitendra Singh. Here below are the details:

PMO’s Shrikar Keshav Pardeshi elevated as JS; IAS Dinesh Arora is new Dy CEO of National Health Agency

Dr Shrikar Keshav Pardeshi, 2001 batch Maharashtra cadre IAS and present director in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has been elevated as the joint secretary in the PMO. Pardeshi will be in the PMO till April 9, 2020, according to a DoPT order issued on August 1. Originally belonging to Maharashtra, he did his masters in preventive and social medicine before cracking IAS in 2001. He was allotted the home cadre. He has been in the PMO since...

Know Your IAS: Dr Rohit Yadav of Chhattisgarh cadre is PS to civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu

Dr Rohit Yadav, 2002 batch Chhattisgarh cadre IAS officer, has been appointed as private secretary to civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu. Yadav will get the rank of a Government of India director. An MBBS in clinical pathology before getting into IAS, Yadav originally belongs to…

Debjani Chakrabarti’s appointment in CVC cancelled; she will now be ED in Rural Electrification Corporation

THE Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) last week first cancelled 2002 batch Odisha cadre IAS Debjani Chakrabarti’s appointment as director in the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on a lateral shift basis, and then appointed her as the executive director in Rural Electrification Corporation (REC). She has been in the Central deputation since...

IAS Archana Patnaik gets nod for inter-cadre deputation to Odisha; 2 new appointments in National High Speed Rail Corporation

Alignment of India's 1st high speed rail corridor

THE government last week gave its nod to inter-cadre deputation of 2002 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS Archana Patnaik from Tamil Nadu cadre to Odisha cadre for a period of three years on “personal grounds”. The order issued on November 16 said:

2 premature repatriations including one of home minister’s PS; also 1 extension, 1 additional charge

A DAY before the Diwali, the Central government issued a number of orders including two premature repatriations, one extension of Central deputation tenure and bestowing of additional charge of the post of a Union secretary. The one of the repatriations was that of the private secretary of union home minister Rajnath Singh. Here below are the details of the 4 orders:

Govt appoints 3 new directors in defence ministry, 4 in CVC; also hires Vietnam-based consultant for tax research

THE government on Monday appointed three new directors in the defence ministry — one from IAS and two from Indian Ordnance Factory Service, while transferring four officers from various departments to Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) as directors. C Sudharsan Reddy, 2002 batch Telangana cadre IAS, presently on “compulsory wait” in the labour ministry, was appointed as director in the defence ministry. Also…

CBI promotes 12 of its IPS officers to the rank of DIG; 2 promotions conditional; Full List

LAST week, India’s premier investigating agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), promoted 12 of its officers -- five belonging to 2002 batch IPS and remaining seven of 2003 batch, to the rank of deputy inspector general (DIG) of police. For two officers, however, the promotion is conditional. Here’s the list of officers promoted to DIG rank:

More about Aparna Kumar, first woman IPS to scale Mt Everest; home minister calls it a “proud moment"

2002 BATCH UP cadre IPS officer Ms Aparna Kumar has become India’s first woman police officer to scale the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest. The DIG-ranked officer who had earlier conquered the highest peak in the Antarctica too, on Saturday morning scaled the Everest and hoisted the Indian Tricolour. “A proud moment for our police forces as Ms Aparna Kumar becomes the first female IPS officer to scale Mount Everest”, commented Union home minister Rajnath Singh in social media site Twitter. In January this year, Aparna Kumar became the country's first civil servant to...

Abhishek Jain: IAS officer and world champion in typewriting; “Typewriter is an extension of my body”

“And talking of typing contests, these days the name of a certain 13-year-old boy (Abhishek Jain) keeps popping up”, ---Blitz, August 17, 1991
“While most of the world was preparing for Atlanta (Olympics), Abhishek Jain was going for the gold in Germany – as the fastest typist in the world” --`TIME’ magazine, USA, August 26, 1996
This Abhishek Jain is a 2002 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre IAS and is currently working as collector in Una district. But for most of his friends and colleagues, he is more a three-time world typing champion than an administrator. His typing speed? 135 words per minute! Jain hails from…

Govt finds good reason for 2002 batch IAS Pratima Satish Kumar Verma's deputation, but unsure – for how long?

THE government has found a unique glitch while considering the proposal of an inter-cadre deputation of 2002 batch Bihar cadre IAS Ms Pratima Satish Kumar Verma from Bihar to Karnataka cadre. The government of Bihar has already issued its formal consent, but a panel headed by DoPT secretary Sanjay Kothari in a meeting held on December 16, found…

Batchmates Are Back: Know about Rajnath Singh’s OSD Nitesh Jha and oil minister’s PS Binay Srikanta Pradhan

THE Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by prime minister has approved the proposal of appointing 2002 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS Nitesh Kumar Jha as Officer on Special Duty to union home minister Rajnath Singh days after putting on hold the appointment of an IPS officer, Alok Singh, as his private secretary. Meanwhile, minister of state (independent charge) handling petroleum and natural gas ministry Dharmendra Pradhan gets a diplomat…

Know Your Babu: Sameer Verma, PS to Uma Bharti and BVRC Purushottam, PS to Venkaiah Naidu

Sameer Verma, IAS

THE government on Tuesday appointed two IAS officers, Sameer Verma and BVRC Purushottam as private secretaries of union ministers Ms Uma Bharti and M Venkaiah Naidu respectively. Verma is a lawyer-turned IAS whereas Purushottam was a veterinary doctor before getting selected as an IAS. BoI here gives snapshot of the career graph of these two officers:

A Tale of Two Disasters: Bureaucrats hailed for Phailin evacuation, suspended for MP stampede

Rescue, Relief in Odisha

Dr Krishan Kumar, an MBBS-turned IAS of Odisha cadre and collector of the state’s southern district of Ganjam, front-paged a national daily on Monday as he worked without sleep for about 100 hours to save lives of ordinary people who would have become preys of Cyclone Phailin that hit coastlines of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh on Saturday night. In another Indian state, Madhya Pradesh, the shaken chief minister took special permission of Election Commission of India to suspend IAS and IPS including…

Will Nilekani make Ram Sewak Sharma a secretary at the rank of additional secretary?

WILL 1978 batch IAS officer from Jharkhand and former IITian Ram Sewak Sharma don a formal designation of the CEO of Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) which would create a database of identity details of every Indian citizen? Whereas department of personnel and training (DoPT) in its recent appointment notice said that Mr Sharma had been appointed as Director General & Mission Director of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI), in the rank and pay of additional secretary, Mr Nilekani while taking charge as the chairman of the Authority (See picture above) on Thursday said Mr Sharma would join as “secretary and CEO” of the organization. Friends of babu blogger said that the corporate honcho, who was the co-chairman of Indian IT company Infosys Technologies, might have got confused with the sarkari ranks and dubbed a 1978 batch IAS a “secretary” whereas officers two years senior to him were yet to get the rank of a secretary. Though that could be a technical mistake of mixing up the posts of “secretary” and “additional secretary”, but it remains to be seen whether Mr Sharma is actually given a corporate title, “CEO” in the rank and pay of an additional secretary rather than continuing with the sarkari title, Director General or Mission Director as per DoPT’s earlier release. CVC prosecutes against 10 officers; 6 from I-T department The Central Vigilance Commission launched prosecution against 10 officers including six from Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), two from Department of Telecommunications and one each from Central Board of excise and Customs (CBEC) and ministry of home affairs (MHA). The commission disposed of 485 cases during June 2009 and advised initiations of major penalty proceedings against 134 officers. Of these, 46 were from public sector banks, 25 from MCD, 13 from ministry of railways, 7 from Khadi & Village Industries Commission etc. Action & Appointments a) Lok Ranjan, a 1989 batch IAS from Manipur Tripura cadre, presently working as director in the department of revenue has been appointed as joint secretary in the same department, in the pay band of Rs 37400-67000/- (PB-4) plus grade pay of Rs 10000. b) The proposal of the ministry of home affairs for inter-cadre transfer of Bharat Rahul Manhardan, IPS (AP, 2007) from Andhra Pradesh to Rajasthan on the ground of his marriage to Ms Mamta Bishnoi, IPS (RJ, 2007) has been approved. c) The proposal for inter cadre transfer of Nitish Kumar Jha, IAS (Manipur-Tripura, 2002) and Ms Radhika Jha, IAS (Sikkim, 2002) from their respective parent cadres to Uttarakhand cadre has been approved. d) Vijay Anand, IRS (C&CE, 1980) has been appointed as joint secretary in the department of space, in the pay band of Rs 37400-67000/- (PB-4) plus grade pay of Rs 10000, for a period of five years or until further orders.