Polyglot IFS Sujan Chinoy delivers speech in Japanese at Abe’s luncheon

WHEN Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hosted a luncheon at his official residence in Tokyo only for the Japanese-speaking ambassadors, India’s envoy in Japan and 1981 batch Indian Foreign Service officer Sujan Chinoy found his place, and quite rightly. The officer, originally belonging to Kathiawar region of Gujarat, also delivered a speech in Japanese highlighting his impression of Japan and India-Japan bilateral ties. Chinoy is a polyglot, with command over languages such as French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, in addition to…

Health officers preventing lifestyle-related diseases may apply for a course in Japan

INDIAN government officials who are responsible for the control of Lifestyle-Related Diseases (LSRD), are encouraged to apply for a group training course to be held in Japan from May 25 to June 29, 2014. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has formally asked for applications from officers of various nations to attend the LSRD prevention training. Lifestyle-related diseases appear to increase as countries become more industrialized and people live much longer. Such diseases include...

First ever female aide to Japan’s PM appointed; How Abe attempts higher growth by pro-woman steps

A WEEK ago, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appointed Makiko Yamada as his official secretary, creating history by appointing the first ever female aide to prime minister. Most see this as a part of Abe’s ongoing initiative of achieving higher economic growth by empowering women. The appointment of the 53-year-old bureaucrat in such a key post along with other initiatives of bringing more Japanese women into the workforce have prompted…

Indian officials may apply for PhD programme on Nano Satellite Technologies in Japan

HIGHLY qualified Indian government officials may apply for a three years doctorate course on Nano-Satellite Technologies being offered by Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT), Japan, in collaboration with United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). The candidates with…

Indian civil servants asked to apply for masters in Tokyo; List of 3 courses

GRIPS at Tokyo

THE government has encouraged its civil servants to apply for one-year-long masters courses in law and public policies in Tokyo’s premier institutes like Kyushu University and National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). The courses, which will begin from…

Govt sends engineers to Japan for training on power distribution grid

REMEMBER the dark-age last year. The pan-India power grid collapse in July 2012 virtually stopped the nation’s movement for two days. Now, the government is sending some engineers to Japan for a group training course on “Improvement of Electric Power Distribution Grid”. The training organised by…

Indian investigators to join training on crime prevention in Japan

SENIOR Indian officials, mainly the investigators, will join their counterparts from Asia Pacific region to undertake training on crime prevention, the core part of which will be held in Japan between

How To Avoid Bureaucracy: Japan PM’s experiments fail

IN AN unprecedented development, Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan has sidestepped the country’s bureaucratic channels and in turn created a temporary response team to the nuclear crisis. Kan, known for his anti-bureaucracy stance, has included his own advisers in the response team. The move has angered Japan’s career officials who are now subtly spreading the message that the earthquake-tsunami-nuke leak crisis is not being handled properly, local media reports say.

Kan has also junked nuclear emergency plans that were largely written by bureaucrats. Kan’s top aid Yukio Edano told a section of media that usual bureaucratic system is slow and there’s no way such a method could respond to a disaster of this scale.

But Kan’s office is getting flaks for avoiding normal bureaucratic procedures to handle the crisis. When there was a fire, Kan’s office reportedly gave the order to send police trucks rather than fire tenders!

(In Picture: Japan PM’s Official Residence)

Govt invites suggestions on prevention of bribery of foreign public officials

The government has invited comments and suggestions from people on “The Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and Officials of Public International Organizations Bill, 2011” which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on March 25, 2011. Those who are interested may send their views or suggestions on the Bill by 30th April 2011,a DoPT circular dated April 11, 2011 says.

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Bill on Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials

Action and Appointments

P Hazarika, a retired IAS officer from Guwahati, presently working as officer on special duty in the Sports Authority of Assam has been appointed as an advisor for Goa National Games Secretariat. Goa will organize the National Games 2011.

Tokyo’s power couple, HK Singh and Mrinalini Singh, playing good hosts to visiting Indian brass

Hemant Krishna Singh, a 1974 batch IFS and his painter wife Mrinalini Singh are now playing hosts to political and diplomatic brass from India. They are avid golfers, but these days, they have more work outside the course.

As India’s Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, his wife Gursharan Kaur, Union minister for external affairs SM Krishna, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao, national security advisor Shivshankar Menon are busy meeting Japanese political and business leaders and attending power lunches and dinner diplomacy, it’s the Singh couple who are playing perfect hosts.

India's Ambassador to Japan, Singh has held assignments ranging from being country officer for the US (1980-1981), director for Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan (1991-1992) to joint secretary for Western Europe (1992-1995) in the ministry of external affairs. Later, he was first secretary in Washington DC (1981-1985), and Counsellor in Kathmandu (1985-1988) and Belgrade (1988-1991). Ambassador Singh was also the Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the UN Offices in Geneva (1995-1999) and Ambassador of India to Colombia. He also served as Ambassador of India to Indonesia with concurrent accreditation to East Timor.

And what’s about his better half? Mrinalini Singh is a keen golfer, but no one can ignore that she is an accomplished painter and sculptor. No wonder, she has held several exhibitions of her art in Geneva, Bogota, Jakarta and Tokyo!

It’s life beyond mere art of diplomacy!

Kalmadi not invited for Cabinet secretary’s Commonwealth dinner

Finally, cabinet secretary who organized a thanksgiving dinner after the successful staging of the Commonwealth Games virtually snubbed Organizing Committee head Suresh Kalmadi as the latter was not invited for the party. In addition to bureaucrats who played a key role in the last-minute arrangement of the Games, politicians connected to the Games including Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, Lt Governor Tejender Khanna, and Union sports minister MS Gill attended the cabinet secretary’s party.