Make in India, Start Up India: Tough task ahead for new DIPP secretary Ramesh Abhishek

RAMESH Abhishek on March 1 assumed charge as secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion under the ministry of commerce and industry. An IAS officer of 1982 batch (Bihar cadre), Ramesh succeeded Amitabh Kant, who was appointed as the CEO of the NITI Aayog on a two years term. Abhishek was initially appointed as Officer on Special Duty in DIPP so as to get a sense of some of the high-profile initiatives like Make in India and Start Up India that the DIPP undertook.
Abhishek, who was said to be in race for the post of chief of market regulator Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India), was earlier working as...

Modi says India’s bureaucracy can be “enlivened”; but a “rockstar bureaucrat” gets a pat on the back

Kant with PM

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India’s bureaucracy could be “enlivened”, and the country’s direction could be “changed” with the same set of bureaucrats. While launching the global campaign of “Make In India” that envisions India to be a global manufacturing hub, Modi said: “…same office, officers, cars, files, and even ways of functioning, still they can be enlivened. India’s direction can be changed”. Meanwhile, after the event, DIPP secretary and 1980 batch IAS Amitabh Kant was praised in social media platforms, and one person went to the extend of describing him as...

DMIC to Udyog Bhawan Corridor: What could be new DIPP secretary Amitabh Kant’s priorities?

AS NEW secretary of department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), Amitabh Kant has a chance to script an incredible story of industrial corridors in India. As DIPP secretary, Kant will not only be the ex-officio chairman of Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) where he has been the CEO till now, but more significantly, he will also be…

Every Indian state to appoint nodal officer to deal with MEA; WTO centers to be set up in states

NOW, each Indian state will have a nodal officer to deal exclusively with the ministry of external affairs (MEA). The MEA in turn will set up a joint consultative group with the states for regular interaction between the Centre and the states in addition to hand-holding the state governments on border management issues. The decision was taken at the first annual conference of chief secretaries held in New Delhi on February 1-2.

The conference, organized at the initiative of cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar, also proposed to evolve a mechanism for facilitation of real-time intelligence sharing by states with defence forces. Also, states would now set up WTO Centres for training of their personnel and for creating greater awareness about negotiations and implications of WTO agreements.

On Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), states may now consider setting up cabinet committees under chief ministers and extend all possible support for expediting the process of enrolment of persons for the issue of UID number. Also, each state will now nominate a nodal officer for interaction with the Centre on all issues relating to development in science and technology. Also, a standing committee of secretaries chaired by the cabinet secretary will be constituted for popularizing relevant technologies for each state. The committee will also have secretaries of scientific departments, Planning Commission, DIPP, MNRE and ministry of food processing industries as its members.

Engineering Services Exam from June 26, 2010 

The Union Service Public Commission (UPSC) will hold the engineering services Examination, 2010 commencing from June 26, 2010. The Commission proposes to make available online application submission for Engineering Services Examination, 2010 from February 6 to February 22, 2010 for which a separate notice is to be issued. Any confusion? Just dial, 011-23389366.

Action and Appointments

a) Justice Anil Ramesh Dave, Chief Justice, Andhra Pradesh High Court has been transferred as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court.

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, ministry of information and broadcasting during the absence on leave of Raghu Menon, 1974 batch Nagaland cadre IAS up to 12th February, 2010.

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R Bandyopadhyay's video conferencing tool 

All for Right Writing 

Click here for the OFFICE MEMO for the 5th workshop for officers of the level of director and deputy secretary on preparing notes, to be held on 16-17 February, 2010

Know Your Babu: 1976 batch IAS Rajinder Pal Singh, new DIPP secretary

BIO-DATA
Name: Rajinder Pal Singh
Cadre and Batch: Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS, 1976
Date of Birth: October 20, 1951
Place of Domicile: Haryana
Mother Tongue: Punjabi

Educational Qualifications
Post Graduation in Mathematics

Major Postings
a) Sub Collector (From July 1, 1980 to December 1, 1980)
b) Project Officer, Agriculture & Cooperation
(From December 1, 1980 to February 1, 1981)
c) Chief Rationing Officer, In cadre, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public DistributionFrom February 1, 1981 to November 1, 1982)
d) Collector, (From March 1,1984 to July 1, 1985)
e) Director, (Dy Secy Level/JAG), In CADRE, Finance
(June 1, 1988 to July 1, 1989)
f) Director (Census Operations)
Ministry of Home Affairs, Registrar General of India (RGI)
(July 1,1989 to September 1, 1992)
g) Managing Director, (JS Level), In Cadre, Finance
(From November 1, 1992 to May 1, 1993)
h) OSD, Planning and Programme Implementation,
(From May 1, 1993 to December 1, 1994)
i) Managing Director, (JS Level), In Cadre, Industries
(From July 1, 1995 to October 1, 1997)
j) Principal Secretary, Additional Secretary level, Panchayat and Rural Development, In Cadre, (From June 8, 2001 to February 28, 2002)
k) Joint Secretary
Department of Defence Production and Supply, New Delhi
(From February 28, 2002 to March 18, 2005)
l) OSD, Joint Secretary equivalent, Ministry of Finance, Punjab and Sind Bank
New Delhi, (From March 18, 2005 to December 25, 2005)
m) Chairman and MD, Joint Secretary Equivalent, Ministry of Finance, Punjab and Sind Bank, New Delh, (From December 26, 2005 to February 11, 2007)
n) Chairman and M D, Punjab & Sind Bank
Additional Secretary Equivalent, Ministry of Finance,
(February 12, 2007 to August 26, 2009)
o) On Compulsory Wait, Additional Secretary Equivalent, Ministry of Finance
(From August 26, 2009 to November 24, 2009)
p) On Compulsory Wait, Secretary Equivalent, Ministry of Finance, (From November 24, 2009 to December 31, 2009)
q) Secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), ministry of commerce and industry,
(From January 1, 2010 till date)

Awards / Publications Details
NIL

Prez Patil says she is proud of more women joining Indian Police Service

PRESIDENT of India Pratibha Patil wants IPS officers to take a few steps ahead of law breakers and says she is proud to see a large number of women joing Indian Police Service. She was talking to a group of probationers of the 61st batch of the IPS who called on her at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday. The group of 91 officers, in which 22 are lady officers, bring with them the experience from varied backgrounds, with some of them being qualified doctors, engineers and information tech-nologists.
The women officers of this IPS batch described their aspirations to the President, saying that they would strive to sensitize the police on important social issues, help the poor and be leaders, by having a vision.

Defence secretary on China visit from January 6
Defence secretary Pradeep Kumar, a 1972 batch from Haryana cadre, is expected to visit China from January 6 to hold dialogue with the Chinese military leadership, media reports said. It will be the first ever official visit by an Indian defence secretary to Beijing.

Action and Appointments
a) R Gopalan, a 1976 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS, presently special secretary, department of commerce, has been appointed as secretary, department of financial services, ministry of finance by upgrading the post of additional secretary held by G C Chaturvedi, a 1977 batch UP cadre IAS to its original level of secretary. In turn, GC Chaturevedi, will remain as additional secretary in the department of financial services until further orders.
b) Rajinder Pal Singh, a 1976 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS, presently on compulosry wait in the department of financial services, ministry of finance, has been appointed as secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), ministry of commerce and industry in place of Ajay Shanker, a 1973 batch UP cadre IAS who retired on December 31, 2009.
c) Anwar Ehsan Ahmad, a 1976 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS, presently special secretary, ministry of home affairs, has been appointed as secretary, department of border management in the MHA.

Indian state bureaucrats may be asked to improve conditions of doing business

INDIAN bureaucrats stationed in various states may be asked to play a larger role to facilitate business and help India gaining its ranking in the global survey of ease of doing business. The message may be given in a meeting of state industry secretaries to be held on October 30 in New Delhi as regulatory issues pose as hurdles in starting a business in most parts of India. The meeting is convened in the backdrop of a recently commissioned study by the World Bank on "Doing Business (DB) in India" comparing major Indian cities in terms of ease of starting and operating businesses. While there is a need to simplify and reduce regulatory procedures, there are a number of best practices developed by different states which can be replicated without much difficulty and without significant allocation of resources, the study found. According to the study, if each state/city were to adopt the best practices available within the country, India’s rank would improve by as much as 55 positions in the global ranking, a department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) release said. The meeting to be held on coming Friday is expected to engage state bureaucrats in accelerating the process of industrial reforms in the country. From Old Files The Grace Commission, set up in 1982, was a major initiative of US President Reagan for securing government reform as desired by the private sector. It interviewed some 2000 businessmen to find out how wasteful and mismanaged they perceived the federal government. Some 2500 specific recommendations were provided by the Grace Commission for getting rid of wasteful programmes, removal of red tape, and divestiture of assets of the federal government, etc. which, it claimed, would save the government $424 billion in three years. These recommendations were controversial. However, the White House claimed later that 80% of the prospective savings could be achieved. (Reproduced from a report of India's 2nd Administrative Reform Commission) No personal comments in BoI BoI (Babus of India) will not provide a platform to pass personal comments on any bureaucrat. In response to babu blogger's post on "Who are ‘officials in the Indian Railway Board’ who took dollar bribe?" a number of anonymous comments were received in which senior officials were directly attacked. There were mentions of officials being solicited with prostitutes when they were on foreign tours. Those comments were rejected as they were not suitable for publication. It's hereby requested that no such comments should be sent, though anonymous comments on issues related to bureaucracy are always welcome.

Why do Goan Netas hate babus? State politicians demand separate IAS, IPS cadre only for Goa

TENSIONS between Netas and babus in India are well known, but it has reached the climax in Goa where politicians have openly criticized their bureaucrats as inefficient and non-cooperative. Tensions have reached the stage when the government of Goa has begun consultation with the Central government to create a separate cadre for the state of Goa only. Currently, Goa (See picture) is a part of the AGMUT cadre (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories), where bureaucrats are transferred among those states and union territories. But if there is a separate cadre only for Goa, local politicians will have the power to transfer them at their will. State chief minister Digambar Kamat said in a written reply tabled in the assembly recently that the possibility of having an independent cadre of IAS (Indian Administrative Service) and IPS (Indian Police Service) officers only for Goa was being explored in consultation with the government of India. According to media reports, sole Rajya Sabha MP from the state Shantaram Naik had even accused IAS and IPS officers posted in the state of being inefficient and uncooperative, and added that it was very difficult to get rid of bad, uncooperative officers as that comes under the jurisdiction of the Union home ministry. Read "Netagiri & babudom: A new set of instructions issued to help officers communicate with MPs" posted on August 7. Files To Fields Feeling bored at going through the unexcited files! Here’s a smart alternative. Come autumn, a series of sports events will make civil servants working in various Central government ministries and departments of Delhi engaged allowing them to temporality junk files and join their colleagues in fields. Whereas inter-ministry chess tournament will be held at Nirman Bhawan from September 15 to 25, 2009, the volleyball encounter will take place at Brassey Avenue, Delhi from September 9 to 11. And that’s not all. Central civil servants cultural and sports board in collaboration with Gujarat government is organizing another volleyball tournament from October 6 to 8, 2009 at Gandhinagar. Also read, "WATERLOO: Civil servants may show their talent in a Water Polo event in Delhi" posted on July 29, 2009. Action & Appointments 1) R K Jain, a 1981 batch IAS of Himachal Pradesh cadre has been appointed as chief (joint secretary level), National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) under the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) in the pay scale of Rs 18400-22400 (pre-revised), for a period of three years. 2) K M Acharya, a 1974 batch MP cadre IAS and secretary in the ministry of social justice and empowerment will hold additional charge of the post of secretary in ministry of women and child development from August 29, 2009 to September 6, 2009, and for any extended period of the spell of leave of Anil Kumar, a 1973 batch UP cadre IAS.

Railways’ Sari cadre inspires Sarkari brigade; 9.6% of government employees are women

WITH women officers beginning to dominate the Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS), those in the sister railway services have coined a new informal name to the cadre – Sari, which incidentally is the reverse of the abbreviation – IRAS. For those not so familiar with Indian culture, Sari is an elegant dress worn by Indian women (see picture), and is made popular abroad by Bollywood actresses. It’s learnt that most women now prefer to join this service, and at times weigh it above Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS), Indian Railway Personnel Services (IRPS) etc. In fact, the leadership position of the IRAS has also been with women officers. Sowmya Raghavan, financial commission of Indian Railways at the rank of secretary to the government of India, is currently the top IRAS officer. Though officers of other cadres might call it “Sari”, but the first IRAS officer recruited in 1930 happened to be a man -- C T Venugopal. Also, the first IRAS financial commissioner (K S Bhandari in 1939) and the first IRAS officer becoming secretary to government of India (Y T Shah in 1944) were both men. The first lady IRAS officer was Priya Prakash of 1957 batch, and the first woman IRAS to become financial commissioner in Indian Railways was Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan. Significantly, the government has repeatedly said now that it would encourage more women to join it. According to a census, 9.68% of Central government employees were women in 2004. The census was conducted by the directorate general of employment & training under the ministry of labour and employment.

Pati, Patni & … stands correct The appointments committee of the cabinet (ACC) has approved the proposal to appoint Anjali Prasad, a 1983 batch IAS of Uttarakhand cadre as joint secretary, in the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), in the pay band of Rs 37400-67000, (PB-4) plus grade pay of Rs 10000, for a period of five years from the date of assumption of charge of the post or until further orders. On July 16, babu blogger in his post “Yet another Pati, Patni & Post tale: Anjali Prasad to replace her husband as DIPP joint secretary”, wrote that Mrs Prasad would get the post which has been lying vacant after her husband N N Prasad, a 1981 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS joined Geneva-based world intellectual property organization (WIPO) a couple of months ago. Action & Appointments a) The proposal of the ministry of home affairs for extension of inter-cadre deputation of Chitrangad, IPS (UP, 1996) from Uttarakhand to Uttar Pradesh for a period of two years beyond August 25, 2008 has been approved. b) Akshay Kumar Rout, an IIS officer of 1984 batch has been appointed as director general (information education & communication) in Election Commission of India at a joint secretary level for five years.

Yet another Pati, Patni & Post tale: Anjali Prasad to replace her husband as DIPP joint secretary

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.

Powerless Corridors: Officials in commerce & industry ministries felt the heat as there was a day-long power cut on Monday

Don’t call them power corridors anymore. Top bureaucrats and other employees of Delhi’s Udyog Bhawan housing the ministries of commerce and industry felt the heat, literally, on Monday, May 18, as there was a major power failure for over eight hours crippling AC plants, telecommunication, computers to name a few. The work in the two crucial ministries virtually came to a grinding halt on a day when many officials of these two pro-industry ministries would have rejoiced the 30-stock BSE index Sensex surging a record high of over 2000 points. No wonder, even the senior bureaucrats had to call their peons themselves as even calling bells were not functioning. Whereas secretary of DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) Ajay Shankar was lucky as he was in US on a personal visit, his counterpart in commerce ministry G K Pillai had no choice but to undergo the sufferings. Despite the near-emergency situation in the building, and a virtual blackout in corridors of the two ministries, a section of officials including Mr Pillai and their support staff had to prepare for the special meeting called by cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar on action plan of the first 100 days of Dr Manmohan Singh’s second innings.