Navin Kumar to be Bihar chief secretary; Will Anup Mukherjee run an NGO fulltime?

Navin Kumar, a 1975 batch Bihar cadre IAS, is joining as Bihar’s chief secretary. Kumar, who reportedly had working problems with urban development minister Kamal Nath sometime ago, will take the new assignment on September 30, 2011 following the retirement of Anup Mukherjee. Kumar was shifted from the Union urban development ministry to the ministry of drinking water and sanitation recently. He was also a principal adviser in the Planning Commission.

Significantly, current incumbent Anup Mukherjee, a 1974 batch IAS was one of the contenders for the cabinet secretary’s post that got filled up in May this year. There were unconfirmed reports that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was keen on bringing Anup Mukherjee to the Centre, and feelers were sent for the purpose. Mukherjee reportedly showed reluctance and told the feeler that he would rather concentrate on an NGO post retirement.

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Navin Kumar’s profile

Babus in Demand

The government is looking for a joint secretary level officer to fill up the post of Controller General, Patents, Design and Trade Marks. The selected officer will be based out of Mumbai. The post comes under the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) which is a part of the ministry of commerce and industry. The selected officer will get a salary at the pay band of Rs 37,400—67,000 and grade pay of Rs 10,000.

Action and Appointments

a) Ms Arvind Manjit Singh, a 1984 batch IIS officer, has been appointed as joint secretary in the ministry of culture. 

Know Your Babu: Profile of new urban development secretary Navin Kumar, 1975 batch Bihar cadre IAS

THE government has zeroed in Planning Commission principal adviser and 1975 batch Bihar cadre IAS Navin Kumar as the new urban development secretary in place of M Ramachandran, 1972 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS who retired on June 30. The formal announcement may likely to come later today.

A postgraduate in physics, Mr Kumar was the district magistrate in West Champaran district in early 1980s, and had served in Central deputation both in the ministry of water resources and department of economic affairs (DEA) before moving back to the cadre. Later, he became the joint secretary in the ministry of finance and company affairs (1999-2003) and also clinched the powerful position of Director General (DG) of Doordarshan (2004-’06). He also served as the development commissioner in Bihar in Nitish Kumar’s government before joining the Planning Commission as the principal adviser in the rank of a secretary, Government of India.

Global Window: Russia may trim bureaucracy by 20%

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has indicated that the number of state officials could be cut by 20 percent “in order to increase government efficiency”. His theory says the move would save a major amount of government resources which could be used to “stimulate” the rest of the workforce. Russian bureaucrats has earned the reputations as bloated and corrupt. Energy dependent Russian economy suffered a major setback when global economic crisis hit it and tumbled the oil prices globally in 2008.

7 envoys present their credentials to Indian Prez

The envoys who presented their credentials were Dr Ruben I. Zamora, the Ambassador of El Salvador, Mr Ronald B. Allarey, the Ambassador of the Philippines, Thongphanh Syackhaphom, the Ambassador of Laos, Mr. Doulat O Kuanyshev, the Ambassador of Kazakhstan, Dr Nanguyalai Tarzi (See Picture), the Ambassador of Afghanistan, Mr Marco Piccinini, the Ambassador of Monaco and Mr Byron Escobedo Menendez, the Ambassador of Guatemala.