Agriculture adviser needed in Embassy of India, Brussels; Who’s eligible for the post?

AN ADVISER (agriculture and Marine Products) is needed in Embassy of India, Brussels for a period of three years, and deputy secretary and director level officers are free to apply for the post. As DoPT has written to all chief secretaries, the applicant-officer must have worked for at least two years at the Centre under the Central Staffing Scheme, and should have experience in agriculture and...

Drought in Corridors? No full time rural development secretary as yet; Panchayati Raj secretary to continue holding additional charge

IT SOUNDS odd, but in the midst of the worsening drought situation across the country, Panchayati Raj secretary and 1982 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer Jitendra Shankar Mathur has been asked to double up as rural development secretary too, till August 24, 2016, as the government has failed to identify the right bureaucrat as the rural development secretary. This saga began on February 29, 2016 when the then rural development secretary Jugal Kishore Mahapatra had…

Maharashtra officer Vijaykumar Phad sings Bhajans to dissuade farmers from committing suicide

THERE’S nothing unusual if a senior bureaucrat changes his formal dress to dhoti and kurta after office hours. But how would you react if he takes a Veena in hand and starts singing kirtans and bhajans in villages? For Vijaykumar Phad, the deputy divisional commissioner, general administration in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district, there is a purpose to his act. He feels his singing of devotional songs will dissuade farmers from committing suicide. In fact, Phad’s photo while singing in a village in Aurangabad, as published in…

JS level officer with expertise in agriculture needed at embassy in Rome

COME January, Embassy of India at the Italian capital city of Rome will have a vacancy of Minister (Agriculture), for which the search has begun. A minister in a foreign mission is a joint secretary level officer above counsellor. The DoPT has written to all Union secretaries and chief secretaries of states for…