Prez Pratibha Devisingh Patil to inaugurate UPSC's lecture series on governance today

THE issues regarding contemporary relevance to governance and public administration will crop up for discussion in UPSC's foundation day lecture series today. The inaugural lecture will be delivered by President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil on ‘Governance and Public Service’. Minister of state for personnel, public grievances & pensions Prithiraj Chavan will preside over the function to be held in New Delhi, a government release said. In fact, UPSC may now aggressively position itself as the central player in the field of governance issues, and anchoring this lecture series on governance is one of the key demonstrations towards that direction. It is felt that administrative systems have to keep pace with aspirations of young Indian population for which there is an acknowledged need for modernizing the administrative mechanism. The lecture series is also expected to address the pressing matters of administrative reform, and it may give timely input to the process of reforms. The UPSC has the responsibility of recruiting talents for manning civil services in the country in addition to advising the government on related matters of service which cover personnel policy and human resource management. Envoys of Panama, Paraguay, Serbia, Germany & Iceland present credentials to Prez of India Five envoys presented their credentials to the President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday. The envoys were Julio De La Guardia Arrocha, the Ambassador of Panama, Genaro Vicente Pappalardo Ayala, the Ambassador of Paraguay, Jovan Mirilovic, the Ambassador of Serbia, Thomas Matussek, the Ambassador of Germany (See picture above) and Gudmundur Eiriksson, the Ambassador of Iceland. The credential presentation ceremony was attended by senior members of the missions, senior officials of the ministry of external affairs (MHA) and Rashtrapati Bhavan. Action & Appointments a) There has been a cancellation of the approval of the ACC for the appointment of Taradatt, a 1983 batch Orissa cadre IAS as joint secretary in the ministry of minority affairs in place of Sujit Datta, CSS, and it was decided to appoint R Karikal Valaven, a 1989 batch AP cadre IAS in the said vacancy for a period of five years from the date of assumption of charge of the post or untill further orders. b) R Bandyopadhyay, a 1974 batch West Bengal cadre IAS and secretary in the ministry of corporate affairs will hold additional charge of the post of secretary in the ministry of minority affairs during the period of absence on leave of Vivek Mehrotra, a 1974 batch Haryana cadre IAS up to 11th December, 2009. c) S P Seth, a 1975 batch Bihar cadre IAS, presently special secretary in the ministry of coal has been appointed as Principal Adviser, Planning Commission in the rank and pay of secretary in the vacancy of Amitabha Bhattacharya, a 1975 batch AP cadre IAS. d) Rohit Nandan, a 1982 batch UP cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary in the ministry of civil aviation for a period of five years.

I-T officials instructed to address ex-Jharkhand CM as "Koda Sir"

INCOME tax officials dealing with former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda regarding a case of an alleged involvement in illegal transactions worth over Rs 2,000 crore, are given special instruction by the North Block to be extremely polite and clam while conducting searches and asking questions to the politician. Also, tax officials have been asked to address Mr Koda, now an independent MP from Jharkhand, as "Koda sir" all the time. In fact, it's mandatory for bureaucrats to call political leaders as "sir" though it's not practised all the time. (Picture: Koda with model and actress Koena Mitra who was Jharkhand's brand ambassador) In fact, over 400 I-T officials were deployed in the biggest ever search operation in a politician's premises, and it was done at the stewardship of Sudhir Chandra, Member (Investigation) of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Despite handling sensitive issues in CBDT, Mr Chandra always keeps the green light outside his cabin on, and hardly refuses anyone from meeting him.

Read: North Block’s top taxman keeps his door-light on a green mode (July 23, 2009). Also, I-T officials around the country are now being encouraged to be brave, and discharge duties fearlessly and without any political pressure. On October 9, the ED first lodged a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Mr Koda and three former ministers Kamlesh Singh, Bhanu Pratap Shahi and Bandhu Tirkey and his associates Sinha and Chaudhary. Action & Appointments a) B S Parsheera, a 1974 batch AP cadre IAS, presently specical secretary in the ministry of environment and forests, as secretary, department of official language in the ministry of home affairs in place of Pradeep Kumar, a 1973 batch UP cadre IAS on his retirement on 31st October, 2009. b) Ms Anshu Vaish a 1975 batch MP cadre IAS, presently secretary in the department of school education and literacy in the ministry of human resource development will hold additional charge of the post of secretary, department of higher education in the ministry of human resource development for a period of three months with effect from 1st November 2009 or untill further orders. BoI extraa...What's in a confidential circular? Link of a confidential DoPT circular placed in the official website

Atul Chaturvedi, 1974 batch UP cadre IAS, is new steel secretary

ATUL Chaturvedi, a 1974 batch UP cadre IAS and presently secretary in department of fertilizers has been appointed as secretary in the ministry of steel in place of PK Rastogi, a 1974 batch AP cadre IAS on his retirement on October 31, 2009. Biodata of Atul Chaturvedi, IAS Cadre: Uttar Pradesh Batch: 1974 Date of Birth: August 16, 1950 Date of Retirement: August 31, 2010 Sex: Male Place of Domicile: Uttar Pradesh Mother Tongue: Hindi Educational Qualifications Masters in Physics First Div

Important Postings a) Assistant Collector, (From July 1, 1976 to July 1, 1977) b) Director, Planning & Prog Implementation, (August 1, 1978 to October1, 1979) c) District Magistrate, Bulandshahr, (From May1, 1983 to June 1, 1984) d) Transport Commissioner (From February1, 1986 to October1, 1986) e) Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi (From October1, 1986 to June1, 1988) f) Director, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi (From July1, 1988 to November1, 1989) g) Counsellor, (Director Equiv Centre) - Foreign Assignment h) Joint Secretary (Ministry of Textiles, New Delhi) (From February 23, 2000 to February 22, 2005) i) Additional Secretary & FA Ministry of Rural Development, New Delhi (From February 21, 2006 to January 2, 2008) j) Special Secretary Ministry of Rural Development, New Delhi From January 2, 2008 to July 28, 2008) k) Secretary, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers (From July 28, 2008 to October 31, 2009)

Domestic Training Training at CSIR, Lucknow University for 68 weeks (1970)

Foreign Training Short Term Training for 3 weeks at UK (2004) Training at Italy for 6 weeks (1987)

Other Action & Appointments a) The proposal of department of commerce for extension in tenure of Rajiv Yadav, a 1981 batch Assam cadre IAS as Executive Director, Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) for 3 months upto January 17, 2010 has been approved. b) The proposal of the ministry of home affairs for inter-cadre transfer of Ms Aslam Khan, a 2007 batch MP cadre IPS from Madhya Pradesh to AGMUT cadre has been approved. c) S Krishnan, a 1975 batch IAS and currently special secretary in the ministry of labour and employment will be the new secretary in the department of fertilizers. d) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the assignment of additional charge of the post of Member (Finance), Atomic Energy Commission, Space Commission and Earth Commission to Sushama Nath, 1974 batch MP cadre IAS who is also the secretary in the department of expenditure under the finance ministry.

Jobs at UIDAI: Nilekani needs additional DGs in eight cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad

THE government has issued a circular asking for applications from suitable candidates to fill up posts of additional director general (ADG) at the level of deputy secretary or director, in the offices of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under the Planning Commission. The posts are located in eight cities --- Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Ranchi, Guwahati, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The officers at the deputy secretary or director level who are eligible to work at the Centre under the Central Staffing scheme could apply. The applicants should identify the locations where he wants to place his candidature. The nominations for the posts should reach in four weeks of the issue of the circular which is September 25, 2009. Read: TKA Nair's advice to Nilekani on govt projects (Sep 16, 2009) 1978 batch IAS R S Sharma appointed UIDAI DG (July 17, 2009) Action & Appointments a) P J Thomas, a 1973 batch Kerala cadre IAS and presently secretary in the ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has been appointed as India’s next telecom secretary in place of S Behura, his batch-mate from UP cadre, who is retiring on 30th September, 2009. b) Ms Jayati Chandra, a 1975 batch UP cadre IAS, and presently secretary, department of youth affairs in the ministry of youth affairs and sports, has been appointed as secretary, ministry of development of North Eastern region (Doner) in place of Jarnail Singh, a 1974 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS, who is retiring on 30th September, 2009. c) The government has approved the proposal of the 13th Finance Commission for extension of Central deputation tenure of V Bhaskar, a 1981 batch AP cadre IAS and B S Bhullar, a 1986 batch UP cadre IAS, who are presently working as joint secretaries in the 13th Finance Commission for a period of three months beyond October 31, 2009 or until further orders. d) The competent authority has approved the following additional charge arrangements for a period of three months with effect from 1st October, 2009 or until further orders, whichever is earlier:- (i) K Sujatha Rao, IAS(AP, 1974), secretary, department of health and family welfare, will hold the additional charge of the post of secretary, department of AIDS control under the ministry of health and family welfare. (ii) Sindhushree Khullar, IAS(UT, 1975), secretary, department of sports will hold the additional charge of the post of secretary, department of youth affairs under the ministry of youth affairs and sports. e) The Competent Authority has approved premature repatriation of S N Misra, IDAS (1979), presently working as joint secretary in department of defence production, to his parent cadre of availing benefit of promotion to the Higher Administrative Grade in IDAS.