IN YET another tale of
Pati, Patni and Post, a 1983 batch Uttaranchal cadre IAS Anjali Prasad may join the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) under the ministry of commerce and industry as a joint secretary, the post which is lying vacant after her husband N N Prasad, a 1981 batch Uttaranchal cadre IAS got a foreign posting couple of months ago.
This is, however, a case where the wife incidentally receives the same post held by her husband earlier, unlike BoI’s earlier tale of “Pati, Patni and Post” in which then commerce secretary and present home secretary G K Pillai was competing with his wife labour secretary Sudha Pillai to clinch the cabinet secretary’s post. But neither of those 1972 batch Kerala cadre IAS succeeded as the current incumbent K M Chandrasekhar got one year’s extension.
Significantly, Ms Prasad, a product of Delhi School of Economics, who held various responsibilities at the state level in the field of industry, commerce and finance, also had diplomas on WTO dispute settlement and WIPO diploma in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
Her husband Mr Prasad, who as a joint secretary in DIPP played a key role in sensitizing the IPR issues, joined as the Chef De Cabinet to the Director General of WIPO, Dr Francis Gurry in Geneva two months ago. The WIPO is the world intellectual property organization and one of the 16 specialised agencies under the United Nations.
Ms Prasad is the daughter of former IAS, A N Verma who served as the principal secretary to Prime Minister during Narasimha Rao’s time.