G2G consultancy is in; Saarc may announce an award for innovation in government performance

YOU may have heard of B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to customers), but neither of these may have had any direct impact on you and your life so far. If you are a government servant, what may excite you is G2G instead.

In fact, Saarc nations are contemplating to set up a region-wide government performance management network to spot regional best practices and put in place a system to facilitate government to government (G2G) consulting services in the entire region. What’s more, the member countries have also proposed to institute a SAARC award for Innovations in Government Performance Management which would be taken up for consideration at the next Saarc summit to be held later this month in Bhutan’s capital Thimpu.

In fact, India’s cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar in a recent Saarc workshop argued that the race among nations would finally be won or lost not on the basis of comparative advantage arising from resource endowment, but by the competitive advantage created by effective governments. The workshop was attended among others by secretary general of Saarc Sheel Kant Sharma, senior officials from India, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Action and Appointments

a) Former IPS officer and Governor of West Bengal MK Narayanan will discharge the functions of the Governor of Sikkim, in addition to his own duties, during the absence on leave of Balmiki Prasad Singh, Governor of Sikkim. Mr Singh was a former IAS (1964 batch) who also served as home secretary in 1997-99 and executive director and ambassador at the World Bank between 1999 to 2002.

b) Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla launched e-Office developed by National Informatics Centre in New Delhi on Monday. e-Office provides a platform for personalized, role based, secure access to internal information for the employees that is accessible through any browser. The implementation of this system is expected to improve the employee productivity and pave the way for a paperless office.

c) A new Indian Air Force (IAF) airfield, replete with modern infrastructure will be inaugurated by Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik, at Phalodi in Rajasthan, on Tuesday. Besides the Air Chief, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Western Air Command (SWAC) will also be present on the occasion. 

MK Narayanan and Shekhar Dutt are not alone in Raj Bhawans. Who are India’s other officers-turned Governors now?

WITH the appointment of former bureaucrats as Governors of two Indian states recently, the government has made it very clear that rewards for good work could be doled out to former civil servants as well. Despite CPI(M)’s unhappiness over former IPS and current national security advisor (NSA) MK Narayanan’s selection as the West Bengal governor, the appointment of both Mr Narayanan and former defence secretary Shekhar Dutt who will now move to Raj Bhavan in Chhatisgarh has created hopes for some of the top bureaucrats in the country. In addition to West Bengal and Chhatisgarh, there are a number of Raj Bhawans in the country which are today occupied by former officers. Here are some of the officers-turned governors in addition to Mr Narayanan and Mr Dutt.

Dr Shivinder Singh Sidhu, Governor of Goa
Born on October 13, 1929, Dr Sidhu, an IAS officer of 1952 batch, has done his masters in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, and later got his PhD from Kanpur university. His major postings included district magistrate in Kanpur and secretary to the Government of India. He was the chairman of Air India and Indian Airlines, and later became secretary general of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Canada from 1988 to 1991. His books are “Tourism and Aviation-Airborne for Progress” and “Flight into the Millennium-Aviation and Tourism Symbiosis”.
Contact No: (0832) 2453501, 2453502
Fax : (0832) 2453511
Email: governor@rajbhavangoa.org

Gurbachan Jagat , Governor of Manipur

A former Punjab cadre IPS officer of 1966 batch, Mr Jagat was appointed as Governor of Manipur on July 1, 2007. A student of English literature, he became the director-general of police in Jammu and Kashmir from February 1997 to December 2000. He was also the DG of the Border Security Force (BSF) before being appointed to the Union Public Service Commission where he moved up to become the chairman.

Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, Governor of Meghalaya

A Kerala cadre IPS officer of 1967 batch, Mr Mooshahary had a brilliant career in police service, and went up in the ladder to become Kerala’s director general of police and then DG of prestigious National Security Guards (NSG) and the Border Security Force (BSF). He also worked in cabinet secretariat. He assumed the office of the Governor of Meghalaya on July 1, 2008, getting the rare distinction of becoming the first and only bureaucrat-turned governor from the North-East.

Lieutenant Gen Madan Mohan Lakhera, Governor of Mizoram
Born in 1937 and educated at the Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun, Lt Gen Lakhera took part in Goa operation (1961) and Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971. He was awarded Param Vishist Seva medal by the President of India on January 1, 1995. He took over as the Governor of Mizoram on July 25, 2006.
Contact details: Telephone No 0389-2322262; 2323200

Nikhil Kumar, Governor of Nagaland
Born on July 15, 1941, Mr Kumar is a former IPS officer of 1963 batch and son of former Bihar chief minister Satyendra Narayan Sinha. An MA in history, he moved up in the police career to become Delhi police commissioner, special secretary in ministry of home affairs and the Director-General of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and National Security Guards (NSG). His brother in Law is Rajya Sabha MP NK Singh, a 1964 batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, who had earlier served as revenue secretary and principal secretary to the Prime Minister.

Balmiki Prasad Singh, Governor of Sikkim

Born on January 1, 1942, BP Singh became a lecturer in post-graduate department of political science in Patna University at the age of 19 years. An IAS of 1964 batch, this Assam cadre officer was a Queen Elizabeth Fellow in UK’s Oxford University in 1989-90. He was the Union culture secretary and later became the home secretary. In 1999-02 he became the Executive Director of the World Bank.