Indian Finance Minister’s B-team gets ready for the big annual event of Feb 26

HERE'S the picture of India’s B-team that has sealed the fate of Budget 2010-11, which is being presented in Parliament by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday. Sitting along with Mr Mukherjee (middle) are minister of state (revenue) SS Palanimanickam (right) and the minister of state (E,B&I), Namo Narain Meena (left), both of whom incidentally are were not deeply involved in nuances of the Budget.

But the men who were actually behind this mammoth exercise spanning over three months and more, are the bureaucrats standing behind Pranab babu and his ministerial colleagues. Expenditure secretary Sushama Nath (extreme right), a 1974 batch MP cadre IAS and finance secretary Ashok Chawla (5^th from right) and 1973 batch Gujarat cadre IAS are the two bureaucrats who were part of the Budget team of P Chidambaram too. Also, the chairman of CBDT SSN Moorthy (third from left) and CBEC chairman V Sridhar (2^nd from left) have been part and parcel of this year’s Budget process from the very beginning.

What’s however is quite significant this time is the induction of a number of new faces after the Budget preparation process had actually begun. By the time, Cornell University professor Kaushik Basu (4^th from the left) joined the North Block as chief economic advisor in November at the rank and pay of a secretary, he did not have much time to experiment on how bureaucracy works, and he began the gigantic task of collating the economic survey that was presented on Thursday.

Interestingly, as many as three key bureaucrats --- R Gopalan (5^th from left), a 1976 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS and banking secretary, Sunil Mitra (2^nd from right), 1975 batch West Bengal cadre IAS and revenue secretary, and finally Sumit Bose, 1976 batch MP cadre IAS and disinvestment secretary --- donned their roles in North Block much after the Budget process had already reached its peak.

Bihar IAS’ office raided

Bihar Vigilance Investigation Bureau on Thursday carried out a raid at the office of the outgoing Patna Municipal Commissioner K Senthil Kumar, a 1996 batch Bihar cadre IAS and seized some documents. There was a raid both at the office and residence on Wednesday too. He reportedly owns a café and a departmental store in addition to having a number of immovable properties in Patna, Delhi and Chennai. 

Academic-turned bureaucrat Kaushik Basu finds Indian bureaucracy slow; terms civil servants ace drivers caught in traffic jams

A MONTH after taking charge as the chief economic adviser to government of India at the rank of a secretary, former Cornell University professor Kaushik Basu said that he had not changed his mind about the slowness of Indian bureaucracy but added that the problem lies with the system and not with the individuals who comprise it.
“It is like ace drivers caught in a traffic jam; a huge waste of a valuable resource”, he said in a guest column titled, “Life in the heart of Indian government” written exclusively for BBC.
He further said that his experience in the first week was “harrowing” as he had to handle questions concerning the economy that came at rapid fire from parliament and from policy-makers. “I was asked, for example, if allowing futures trading in food created inflationary pressure on the spot market price of food,” he mentioned.
After experiencing the life at high-ceilinged North Block office in Lutyens’ Delhi, Mr Basu suggested, “We have to re-examine the structures of decision-making in our bureaucracy so that permits are given quickly for new enterprises to start and bankrupt ones to close, food grains are released promptly when prices begin to rise, justice is dispensed with quickly when somebody is wronged, and visas are given (or not given) as promptly as possible.”
But he complimented the professionalism of his colleagues in finance ministry. “I did not expect the level of professionalism and commitment to work that I encountered in my ministry,” he added.
(In Picture: Foreign tourists walking on New Delhi’s India Gate area amid dense fog on January 6, 2010. The road leads to President’s House and South Block and North Block housing key Indian ministries including PMO, Defence, Home and Finance.)

Adverse remarks in ACR and beyond
After the assessment, officers will receive the overall grading and assessment of integrity, with effect from April 1, 2008. Prior to that only adverse remarks in the ACR were required to be communicated for representation, if any. Now it has been decided that general terms, such as “I agree or disagree with the Reporting Officer/Reviewing Officer” used by the Reviewing or Accepting Authority shall not be construed as sufficient reason for upgrading / downgrading the overall grading given by the Reporting Authority or Reviewing Authority.
Read the Office Memo on modification of adverse remarks, dated January 6, 2009

Action and Appointments
a) Dr Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Mandhata Singh, Additional Judges of Patna High Court have been appointed as Judges of Patna High Court.
b) Justice Reddi Kantha Rao, Justice Vilas Vishwanathrao Afzulpurkar and Justice Puligoru Venkata Sanjay Kumar, all Additional Judges of Andhra Pradesh High Court, have been appointed as Judges of Andhra Pradesh High Court.
c) Vinod Kumar Sharma has been appointed as Additional Judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court for a period of two years.

Three bureaucrats made responsible for monitoring Commonwealth Games finances

THE government has set up a three member sub-committee to oversee all financial matters related to the progress of the Commonwealth Games, 2010. In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, minister of state for youth affairs & sports Pratik Prakashbapu Patil disclosed it. The members of the committee are urban development secretary , sports secretary and additional secretary /special secretary (expenditure) of the ministry of finance and Chief Executive Officer, Organizing Committee (OC) . The Committee will scrutinize in particular, all the decisions that are placed before the executive board of OC for approval, the minister said. In fact, the total budget earmarked for the conduct of Commonwealth Games for the OC has been enhanced by the government from Rs 767 crore to Rs 1620 crore, as projected by the Organizing Committee, CG – 2010. The government has so far released a total amount of Rs 591.56 crore. Action Out of Power Corridors

Ambassador Kalam? Yes, you are right! Former president of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam has been selected by children of the country as Bharat Ka Paryavaran Ambassador, meaning India's Environment Ambassador. Dr Kalam will be felicitated today in New Delhi by the ministry of environment and forests. The vote for India’s Paryavaran Ambassador Campaign to generate awareness on climate change and sustainability issues was launched by President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil on World Environment day, 2008. An initiative of environment ministry, it was implemented by Center for Environmental Education (CEE) in partnership with ArcelorMittal. The timing of the selection is interesting as the world leaders have begun to deliberate on climate change in city of Copenhagen. Any individual could be voted as the Ambassador to lead the movement. And Action Within... a) Dr Kaushik Basu, a noted economist and Cornell University professor, joined the government as Chief Economic Advisor in finance ministry on Tuesday. He will hold this post in the rank of secretary to the Government of India. After doing his graduation in economics from St. Stephen’s College under Delhi University, Dr Basu completed M Sc and Ph.D in economics from London School of Economics. He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2008 and National Mahalanobis Memorial Medal in 1989. Dr. Basu has been a Fellow of the Econometric Society since 1991. b) Justice Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya, Judge of the Madras High Court, has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court, with effect from the date he assumes charges of his office. c) Justice Tankeshwar Prasad Sharma, Additional Judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court, has been appointed as Judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court. ...if I were the chief secretary! Whereas senior bureaucrats in Gujarat had to go for a morning walk with chief minister Narendra Modi in just-concluded Chintan camp held in Rann of Kutch apart from having mandatory attendence of an hour-long Yoga session for four days, junior IAS officers had to participate in a competition in which the officials were asked to speak on the theme --- "If I were the chief secretary...''.And yes, there were prizes too. Dr Sandhhya Bhullar, a 2003 batch IAS and district development officer (DDO) Panchmahals, won the first prize, PK Solanki, DDO Amreli, clinched the second, according to reports.