Brand babu: Change the meaning forever…

IF all-powerful Indian bureaucrats feel that they will someday be able to wipe out the word babu, which still carries a negative connotation thanks to the colonial baggage, it’s just impossible. It’s a small and sweet-sounding word which people would continue to use and hear in lieu of the tongue twister “bureaucrat” or more official type “civil servant”. Though most civil servants blame media, and probably rightly so, for corrupting the word babu to make it synonymous with comfort and laziness, it’s a fact that media will continue to use it for humour and space. It’s space because “bureaucrat” is a lousy word for a headline, and “civil servant” is too big to fit into a space which demands large font-size! Mind you, the word “bureaucracy” is no longer a positive word, and it won’t take much time for the media to belittle the word “civil servants” either. Before I air my views, let’s first see how popular dictionaries are interpreting the word. In dictionary.com which is considered to be the Bible for tech savvy netizens looking for word meanings, here are the meanings for babu: a) Hindu title of address equivalent to Sir, Mr., or Esquire. b) A Hindu gentleman. c) A native Indian clerk who writes English. d) Usually Disparaging. Any native Indian having only a limited knowledge of English. Will you agree with this set of meanings for babu? I don’t. Let’s now read what Wikipedia, which is the most respected free encyclopedia used by net users across the world, has to say. It says, “In British India, ‘babu’ was a term used to describe a native Indian clerk. The word was originally used as a term of respect attached to a proper name, the equivalent of ‘mister’, and ‘babuji’ was used in many parts to mean ‘sir’; but when used alone without the suffix, it was a derogatory word signifying a semi-literate native, with a mere veneer of modern education. In the early 20th century the term babu was frequently used to refer to bureaucrats and other government officials, especially by the Indian media; in this sense the word hints at corrupt or lazy work practices. It can also mean the pimp or client of a sex worker. The term babu has thus fallen out of favour in polite society, since it may be taken as an insult.” I strongly feel that Indian bureaucrats should engage in a brand-building exercise to convert “babu” into a neutral word if not bringing it straight into the positive zone. First, the connotation of the word will automatically change if administrative reforms are being carried out from time to time. I feel many Indian bureaucrats are very hard working and disciplined and there are cases where they have proved to be better managers than India Inc’s top ranking CEOs. I personally know many bureaucrats who are not only the products of top Indian B-schools, but have the quality of the best managers of the country. Here is my big dilemma: If a St Stephens pass-out or an IIM guy joins Infosys or HSBC, he earns respects and reputation, forget his fat salary for a moment. But how can the same person turn into a lazy babu if he cracks the UPSC exam to join as an IAS? That’s the irony which administrative reformers need to look at very carefully. The 6th Pay Commission has introduced, though symbolically, a performance incentive for those who are better than the rest. I feel it’s the high time healthy competition should be encouraged within the government. The time-bound promotion needs to be weeded out if the government wants its schemes to be successful, and more significantly, if India aspires to be a truly developed nation by 2020. Also, why not encourage entry of professionals into the bureaucratic set-up at mid-career level? If Nandan Nilekani can join the government, or Cornell professor Kaushik Basu taking up a full-time job in North Block sacrificing his high salary, there would be many mid-career professionals with rich experiences in their own domain, won’t mind taking a joining bureaucracy and becoming babus? Let’s induct professionals at the joint secretary level and make them the mission heads of various programmes across the country. Yes, babu remains in your mind-space. Let’s change its meaning forever. If you spot a smart bureaucrat call him a smart babu, if he is lazy call him a lazy babu. And those who are smart, dedicated and yet powerful, babu blogger loves to call them, babuz --- both for singular and plural. babu survives, and maybe for a better tomorrow…

State officers meet in New Delhi today to brainstorm on administrative reforms

IN THE first ever get-together to brainstorm on issues related to administrative reforms, secretaries of departments of administrative reforms of various states and union territories are taking part in a conference to be held in New Delhi on Friday. The conference will focus on the implementation of second Administrative Reform Commission (ARC) recommendation pertaining to the states. The conference, to be inaugurated by Prithviraj Chavan, minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions, aims to create a national platform to share experiences of the states in the field of reforms or initiatives undertaken by the department of administrative reforms in the states. According to a government release, this is a part of an agenda to improve public service delivery, make the administration effective, transparent and accountable. The conference will provide a forum for the various states to highlight the issues being faced by them in the area of administrative reforms, the release said. Issues that are likely to come up for discussion include organizational structure of the administrative departments in the states, budget allocation and reform activities in addition to brainstorming challenges faced by them in the execution of reforms activities and assistance required by them from the Centre. babu blogger in his post “Quick fix: Govt discusses cutting down of file movements” dated June 27, 2009, said how the number of level through which a file passes for a decision would not exceed three if a 26-page note that was doing the rounds in power corridors had its way. Govt issues yet another memo on prevention of sexual harassment Issuing yet another office memo, the government reiterated its commitment regarding prevention of sexual harassment of women in government. The memo issued recently by department of personnel and training (DoPT) was related to CCS (Conduct) Rules, 1964 - Guidelines regarding prevention of sexual harassment of working women in the workplace. It had earlier issued a memo dated July 21, 2009. In fact, a provision was added in 2004, on inquiry procedure which was laid down in the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965. Also read, “DoPT reminds government officers and staff of guidelines on “sexual harassment” dated July 25, 2009. Spotting the babuz With the announcement of the fifth most powerful bureaucrat in the country, the BoI (Babus of India) list of 5 top babuz will be completed. Watch out this space to get the complete list of India’s 5 most powerful bureaucrats based on feedback received from senior bureaucrats and politicians.

Babuz no 3: Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar is India’s third most powerful bureaucrat behind Pulok Chaterji & TKA Nair

A WEEK before the announcement of Parliamentary results in May this year, cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar, a 1970 batch IAS of Kerala cadre, ordered all secretaries to prepare a 100 days agenda for their respective ministry or department. By then, it was strongly anticipated that Congress would lead a coalition government, and by the time the government was actually formed, its 100 days agenda should be ready. No wonder, once Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh began his second innings from his South Block office, he had no qualm about Mr Chandrasekhar getting a one-year extension. Yes, K M Chandrasekhar who is well regarded among top echelon of civil servants in India is India’s No 3 most powerful bureaucrat. He is babuz no 3, just behind 1974 batch IAS from Uttar Pradesh cadre, Pulok Chaterji and principal secretary to PM TKA Nair, according to feedback received by babu blogger from senior civil servants and politicians. Also, read “babuz no 1: Pulok Chaterji is India’s most powerful bureaucrat” and “babuz no 2: principal secretary to PM TKA Nair is India’s second most powerful bureaucrat” posted on August 17 and 18 respectively. A former ambassador & permanent representative of India in World Trade Organization (WTO) and revenue secretary in the ministry of finance, Mr Chandrasekhar has a post graduation degree in management studies from the University of Leeds in United Kingdom. In fact, Mr Chandrasekhar had a close tie with another secretary three batch junior to him for the third position as many senior IAS officers in power corridors have rather vouched for the latter to be more powerful than the cabinet secretary. Anyway, the 1973 batch officer is babu blogger’s choice as the fourth most powerful bureaucrat in India. Watch out this space in the coming days to check out who are babuz no 4 & 5.

State secretaries to discuss urban issues in New Delhi today Principal secretaries or secretaries of urban development of states and union territories would meet on August 19 in New Delhi to discuss project completion in 65 Mission Cities under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), submission of Quarterly Project Reports (QPRs), utilization of funds and projected requirement of funds etc. The state government officials will also discuss other urban schemes such as national urban sanitation policy, pilot project on implementation of service level benchmarks and accelerated urban water supply programme (AUWSP) etc.

babuz no 1: Pulok Chaterji is India’s most powerful bureaucrat; find out who are no 2, 3, 4 & 5

IN GOVERNMENT, no one feels he is unimportant. From the person who signs and receives a letter to the secretary of a department who takes all major decisions, everyone in power corridor seriously attempts to make his or her presence felt. After all, each individual in the government is powerful enough to speed up a process, or paralyze it completely. If everyone in the system is so powerful, who should qualify to be babuz or India’s most powerful bureaucrats? According to the feedback received by babu blogger from at least 30 senior bureaucrats in the country, 5 babuz or 5 most powerful bureaucrats in India have been chosen. While selecting the list of top 5 babuz, more weightage is given to the clout that he or she has on the system rather than the significance of the post that the bureaucrat is currently holding.

Pulok Chaterji, babuz no 1 A 1974 batch IAS from Uttar Pradesh cadre, Pulok Chaterji could now be posted far away in Washington DC as an executive director of the World Bank, but his one phone call carries more power than many important files doing round the power corridors of Delhi. But what makes him so special and powerful? A secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) till recently, Mr Chaterje’s personal equation with Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s family can’t be ignored by anyone in the government including those who are senior to him. After all, he served as district magistrate of Rae Bareli in early 1980s, a director in the PMO during Rajiv Gandhi’s time, a secretary (joint secretary equivalent) in Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in early 1990s, and then a private secretary to Sonia Gandhi when she was the leader of the Opposition. What’s more, he is a highly efficient officer with a clear focus on delivery. There is already a buzz that the man who had a say in virtually every appointment of the government during Dr Manmohan Singh’s first innings, may soon come back to power pockets of Raisina Hill. Watch out this space in the coming days to find out who are the babuz no 2, 3, 4 & 5. Read "BoI announcement on Spotting The babuz" posted on July 28, 2009. Other News: Over 3000 vacant posts of judges to be filled up The government may soon expedite the process of filling up vacancies of judges in various courts including those in High Courts, Prime Minister indicated it in a joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices in New Delhi on Sunday. “The existing vacancies in High Courts are quite high in number and need to be filled up urgently. I would urge the Chief Justices of High Courts to initiate proposals for quickly filling up these posts, he said. Also, the process will begin to fill up about 3000 posts of judges in the country which are now vacant because of delay in recruitment, he indicated.

babuz aaj kal: India’s most powerful civil servants are being spotted; Indian PM too has Kissinger-type master bureaucrats

IN THE process of finalizing babuz, or the most powerful bureaucrats in the country today, babu blogger scanned through some of the major international news items which talked about powerful bureaucrats around the world, and finally spotted a very interesting titled "Nixon designs new bureaucracy" published in the St. Petersburg Times, on November 22, 1972. The news report said how then US president Richard Nixon was quietly but stubbornly designing a radically new federal bureaucracy which will centralize power inside the White House to a degree never attempted before. The paper in its seemingly breaking news, 37 years ago, further said that the proposal was to create four or five new Kissinger-type master bureaucrats working directly under the President. They would exercise fully as much control over their old-line departments as Kissinger exercised over the State Department through National Security Council. Nixon wanted to take direct control of the sprawling and often immovable bureaucracy into his own hands, operating through his new master bureaucrats, the report added. Mr Nixon (1913 –1994) was the 37th President of the United States (1969–1974) who had earlier served as Vice President of the United States (1953–1961). Significantly, Henry Kissinger is a German-born American political scientist who served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the Nixon administration. During the Nixon and Ford administrations, he was a flamboyant figure and according to Wikipedia, he described himself as perhaps the only National Security Advisor to have a fan club on his own. Any clue who should top the list of babuz, or India’s most powerful bureaucrats? Write at babu.blogger1@gmail.com

200 officers face music under RTI so far; Penalty imposed by CIC

THE Central Information Commission (CIC) has found a number of officers guilty and imposed penalty in more than 200 RTI (Right to Information Act) cases, minister of state in the ministry of personnel, public grievances & pensions Prithviraj Chavan said in Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Though details of the officers are not mentioned in the brief written reply to a question, most cases are related to delay in furnishing information. The Commission received 18,803 complaints and appeals during the period 2005-06 to 2007-08. According to information provided by the CIC, the number of applications received by various public authorities during the years 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 were 24436, 171404 and 263261 respectively. Information in respect of the 2008-09 and current year are not available, it was informed in Parliament. During 2006-07, a total of 100411 applications were disposed of, but information about the disposal of applications for the other years and about the nature of applications received are not maintained centrally.

Action & Appointments a) The tenure of Shekhar Dutt, a 1969 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS (Retired), and deputy national security adviser in the national security council secretariat has been extended for a period of six months with effect from August 1, 2009. This will be treated as ‘re-employment on contract basis’. b) The appointment of Amber Sen, (RAS:70) (Retd), strategic intelligence adviser in the Cabinet Secretariat has been extended for a period of three months with effect from August 1, 2009. This will also be treated as ‘re-employment on contract basis’. c) The premature repatriation of Dilip Biswas, IDAS (1977), presently working as additional financial advisor in the ministry of defence (finance) to his parent cadre has been approved with immediate effect in order to enable him to avail the benefit of promotion to the next higher grade in the cadre. BoI announcement: List of Babuz soon babu blogger likes to extend sincere thanks to all those visitors including senior civil servants for giving valuable insights into who could possibly be India’s top Babuz --- the new term coined to depict the smartest and most powerful bureaucrats in the country. If you have any name in mind kindly mail me at babu.blogger1@gmail.com

Officials must travel by Air India to claim LTC, clarifies DoPT

IF YOU are a government babu planning your tour with your family by availing Leave Travel Concession (LTC) scheme, forget in-flight enjoyment of Jet Airways or Kingfisher Airlines this time. The government has clarified that its earlier order issued on July 13, 2009, that officials had to take Air India both for their domestic and international tours, would be applicable for LTC as well, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) said. The matter whether the earlier order of air travel only by Air India was referred to the department of expenditure under the ministry of finance, it was decided after a wide consultation that Air India, which lost whopping Rs 5,000 cr last financial year, should get the traffic of government employees availing the LTC. The earlier order said that if travel destinations are not connected by Air India, the officials may travel by Air India to the closest point beyond which they may utilize the services of another airline which again should preferably be an alliance partner of Air India. In fact, a restructuring plan of Air India needs an urgent infusion of Rs 20,000 crore to tide over its worst ever financial crisis. The annual wage bill of the national carrier is about Rs 3,100 cr.

BoI announcement on 'Spotting The Babuz'

Call them the Babuz. The word is coined to describe the most powerful within the power corridors. Babu Blogger is soon coming out with a list of Babuz, or the most powerful bureaucrats in the country based on feedback from a number of people in power centres including civil servants and politicians. If you have any name in mind and reasons for his nomination, kindly mail it to babu.blogger1@gmail.com Your identity would not be revealed.