Coming Soon: 2011 batch IAS Vijayakarthikeyan’s fiction, "Once upon An IAS Exam"

Vishy’s worst nightmare — failing the UPSC’s Civil Services exam — has come true. He is plagued by insecurity, fear and doubts. The mother of all competitive examinations has rejected him and he needs a reason to live. So, what does he do? He tells his best friend Rithika, ‘I love you… Will you marry me?’

Here’s a forthcoming fiction “Once upon An IAS Exam”, written by Dr K Vijayakarthikeyan, an MBBS-turned IAS officer of 2011 batch. A Tamil Nadu cadre IAS, Vijayakarthikeyan is presently posted as…

Know Your Babu: Newly-appointed MHA additional secretary Rajni Sekhri Sibal is also an author on cows

LAST week, 1986 batch Haryana cadre lAS Ms Rajni Sekhri Sibal was appointed as additional secretary in the ministry of home affairs (MHA). She was working as the Director General in the National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD) when the order came. But here’s a factoid about this officer. This 58 years old bureaucrat is also the author of “Kamadhenu: Cows of India”, one of the few well-researched books on cows and possibly the only one written by an experienced bureaucrat. The book is more of a…

TSR Subramanian, former cabinet secretary and author of “Journeys Through Babudom and Netaland” dies, aged 79

The book written by TSR Subramanian

Thirumanilaiyur Sitapati Ramana Subramanian is no more. Popularly known as TSR Subramanian, this 1961 batch former Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS who had served as India’s cabinet secretary in 1996-98, died today, aged 79. Here are the 10 things you would like to know about TSR:

M Ramachandran who narrowly missed the cabinet secretary’s post writes his memoir: The Mavericks of Mussoorie

1972 BATCH retired IAS and former union urban development secretary M Ramachandran, who had narrowly missed post of cabinet secretary, has come out with his memoir, “The Mavericks of Mussoorie” where he opens up on how and why the country’s top bureaucrat’s post eluded him. As the district magistrate of Rae Bareli in 1980s, he personally knew successive Prime Ministers -- Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, but the bureaucrat missed the bus during the UPA period itself…

IAS officer Ravindra Kumar's book "Many Everests" to hit the stand next month; what the book is all about?

COME new year, IAS officer Ravindra Kumar’s book, “Many Everests: An Inspiring Journey of Transforming Dreams Into Reality” will hit the stand. The author — the first and the only IAS officer to scale the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest so far — shares the tricks and their effectiveness in handling different situations of life, and how to come out of bad situations and multiple failures, according to a…

Pradip Baijal Book: Now, another ex-secretary targets former PM Manmohan Singh

AFTER ex-coal secretary PC Parakh, here is yet another ex-bureaucrat -- former disinvestment and telecom secretary Pradip Baijal – who has written a tale-all book that is expected to hog the limelight for the next few days. There have been striking similarities in the way those two former babus chose to come out with the books. After all, both these former bureaucrats are embroiled in ongoing CBI cases, and their books attempt to reveal…

Sanjay Kumar Panda: Meet the secretary who talked about “zero defect” in a book two decades ago

OVER two decades ago, present textile secretary and 1980 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS Dr Sanjay Kumar Panda published an Oriya book on handloom where he talked about “zero defect”, a phrase that has now caught the imagination of everyone after prime minister Narendra Modi made the “zero defect, zero effect” a national slogan so as to pursue quality in manufacturing. First, let’s see how Panda argued about production of handloom without any defect (zero defect)…

On a clear day, can you see India from Manipur? Yes, IAS-turned entrepreneur C Balagopal has the answer

OVER three decades ago, C Balagopal was a young deputy commissioner in a district in the North-eastern state of Manipur. He left his high-profile job in 1983 to set up a company that ventured into manufacturing of medical devices. He then sold his shareholding to an MNC. Now, Balagopal plans to set up an incubator in Manipur’s capital city of Imphal to help young people setting up businesses. And his book on Manipur titled,

One plus one is equal to what? Better ask textiles secretary and 1980 batch IAS SK Panda

Panda (right) presenting a copy of the book to Vice-President Ansari

UNION textiles secretary and former chief secretary of Tripura Sanjay Kumar Panda is convinced that one plus one is not two but eleven, provided a positive mind-set works in tandem with team-spirit and right technology. As chief secretary of the North-eastern state of Tripura, Panda teamed up with a select bureaucrats, bankers and academics to produce a book titled, “Making One plus One Eleven- Some Innovative Experiences with Tripura”, highlighting some of the unique achievements…

What Vinod Rai’s book says about bureaucrats: Pulok Chatterji, Vini Mahajan, TKA Nair, PJ Thomas, Sunil Arora etc.

Rai with wife

1980 batch IAS officer Sunil Arora is an “outstanding officer”.
Former principal secretary to PM TKA Nair was a “priest” in the PMO. 
Former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai’s book “Not Just An Accountant” has a few interesting anecdotes about men who mattered in corridors of power. Here are about 7 of them:

Any guess on UPA ministers, bureaucrats who requested Vinod Rai to drop names from CAG reports?

THIS photo shows former Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai (standing left) with three UPA ministers: P Chidambaram, Pawan Kumar Bansal and SS Palanimanickam (of the DMK). Rai was the then the banking secretary, and he posed for this official photo ahead of one of Chidambaram’s budgets during UPA-I. Bansal and Palanimanickam were then the MoS, Finance, and in hierarchy Rai was junior to all those three ministers. But days before the release of his supposedly tell-all book, “Not Just An Accountant”, speculations have risen about the names of the UPA ministers who had visited his home with a request to…

Thomas Mathew: More about the IAS who spots 110 species of birds in Rashtrapati Bhavan

A FORTNIGHT ago, the President of India received the first copy of the coffee table book titled Winged Wonders of Rashtrapati Bhavan that tries to capture the avian world inside the Presidential Estate. And the man who brought out this 338-page book after clicking photos of as many as 110 species of birds was none other than additional secretary and 1983 batch Kerala cadre IAS Thomas Mathew. The bureaucrat who...

Delhi LG Najeeb Jung turns book editor; edits book on energy politics

Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and former IAS officer Najeeb Jung has turned a book editor, and that too one on politics of energy. A book titled “The Political Economy of Energy and Growth” edited by Jung was released on Wednesday by former diplomat and vice-president M Hamid Ansari.
A former IAS of 1973 batch, Jung has special interests...

Upamanyu Chatterjee: 1983 batch IAS and author of ‘English, August’ to don a new role as petroleum regulator

The book that won Sahitya Akademi

HAVE you heard of Agastya Sen, a young Indian civil servant posted in a small town of Madna after getting trained at Mussoorie Academy? If you still fail to recollect, here is a hint: Agastya Sen’s imagination is dominated by women, literature and soft drugs. By the way, Sen is not a real IAS but…

With “Fly on the Wall”, Odisha cadre IAS Shubha Sarma turns author

ODISHA cadre IAS of 1999 batch Shubha Sarma has turned author with her first book, Fly on the Wall and Other Stories. It is a collection of 13 short stories with subjects ranging from up-market settings (Dinner at Bukhara) to deep social strife (Flesh and Blood). Former UN diplomat and celebrated writer Shashi Tharoor describes the book as…

Andhra IAS Rafath’s prescriptions in his book “Bureaucracy and Politics”

ANDHRA Pradesh cadre IAS Mohammed Ali Rafath in his recent book, “Bureaucracy and Politics” has not only made a serious attempt to map the historical evolution of Indian civil service leading to the creation of All India Services such as IAS, IPS, IFS etc. but also dealt with the highly sensitive issue of…

Tenzing enjoyed a round of drinks with a good bloke Rudra Gangadharan

SIKKIM-born Palden Gyatso Tenzing, a 1986 batch Kerala cadre IAS who left the service to venture out on a bike journey of 25,320 kms, finally came out with a book in March 2009 titled: “Don’t Ask Any Old Bloke for Directions: A Biker’s Whimsical Journey Across India”. For many a reader, it was an interesting travelogue written by someone who left a high-profile job to experiment with something new on road. But for those in bureaucracy, the book is also a whimsical journey into the sidelights of both boring and exciting life of men in corridors of power. Here is a tribute to Tenzing who died of cancer on July 26. He is survived by his wife, also a bureaucrat and daughter Dechen Tenzing who has emerged as a talented cartoonist.

Here are a few excerpts of the book

On current animal husbandry secretary and 1975 batch Kerala cadre IAS Rudra Gangadharan when he was director of IAS Academy, LBSNAA

“Rudra Gangadharan, a senior colleague from Kerala, heads the Academy as its director. He is pretty relaxed for a babu. And I like him a lot, especially as he invited me for a round of drinks at his residence.”

On boredom

“It was a good run in the IAS till I found that I was not taking the job seriously and taking myself too seriously.”

On recruitment faults

“One of the faults of the recruitment to the Government services in the civil sector is the lack of a psychological profile for candidates…”

Maybe, UPSC should take note of his recommendation.

Action and Appointments

a) RH Khwaja, a 1976 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS has taken over as secretary, ministry of tourism in place of Sujit Banerjee, the last secretary of 1972 batch to retire. In fact, two other 1972 batch IAS officers, home ministry GK Pillai and defence secretary Pradeep Kumar are above 60, but on fixed two-year terms. Mr Khwaja was earlier special secretary in the ministry of environment and forests.

b) Subramanyam Vijay Kumar (In picture) took charge of the secretary, ministry of mines, in New Delhi on August 1, 2010.