Prez Pratibha Devisingh Patil to inaugurate UPSC's lecture series on governance today

THE issues regarding contemporary relevance to governance and public administration will crop up for discussion in UPSC's foundation day lecture series today. The inaugural lecture will be delivered by President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil on ‘Governance and Public Service’. Minister of state for personnel, public grievances & pensions Prithiraj Chavan will preside over the function to be held in New Delhi, a government release said. In fact, UPSC may now aggressively position itself as the central player in the field of governance issues, and anchoring this lecture series on governance is one of the key demonstrations towards that direction. It is felt that administrative systems have to keep pace with aspirations of young Indian population for which there is an acknowledged need for modernizing the administrative mechanism. The lecture series is also expected to address the pressing matters of administrative reform, and it may give timely input to the process of reforms. The UPSC has the responsibility of recruiting talents for manning civil services in the country in addition to advising the government on related matters of service which cover personnel policy and human resource management. Envoys of Panama, Paraguay, Serbia, Germany & Iceland present credentials to Prez of India Five envoys presented their credentials to the President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday. The envoys were Julio De La Guardia Arrocha, the Ambassador of Panama, Genaro Vicente Pappalardo Ayala, the Ambassador of Paraguay, Jovan Mirilovic, the Ambassador of Serbia, Thomas Matussek, the Ambassador of Germany (See picture above) and Gudmundur Eiriksson, the Ambassador of Iceland. The credential presentation ceremony was attended by senior members of the missions, senior officials of the ministry of external affairs (MHA) and Rashtrapati Bhavan. Action & Appointments a) There has been a cancellation of the approval of the ACC for the appointment of Taradatt, a 1983 batch Orissa cadre IAS as joint secretary in the ministry of minority affairs in place of Sujit Datta, CSS, and it was decided to appoint R Karikal Valaven, a 1989 batch AP cadre IAS in the said vacancy for a period of five years from the date of assumption of charge of the post or untill further orders. 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 in the ministry of minority affairs during the period of absence on leave of Vivek Mehrotra, a 1974 batch Haryana cadre IAS up to 11th December, 2009. c) S P Seth, a 1975 batch Bihar cadre IAS, presently special secretary in the ministry of coal has been appointed as Principal Adviser, Planning Commission in the rank and pay of secretary in the vacancy of Amitabha Bhattacharya, a 1975 batch AP cadre IAS. d) Rohit Nandan, a 1982 batch UP cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary in the ministry of civil aviation for a period of five years.

RTI Regime: President Pratibha Patil hopes bureaucracy to shed image of red-tapism

IN A rare comment on Indian bureaucracy, President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil said on Monday that Right To Information which was getting embedded into civil society, would bring in urgency to negate the image of bureaucracy as that of red-tapism and certain opaqueness. Inaugurating the 4th Convention on RTI, held in New Delhi beginning Monday, President said, “Institutions are increasingly coming under greater scrutiny. Information is no longer the preserve of a few and there is greater emphasis on transparency of work and accountability. However, there are many occasions where the bureaucracy, evokes an image of red-tapism and certain opaqueness. It is my hope that as the Right to Information gets further embedded into our civil society, there will be even more urgency felt to take action to negate this perception, which at times may be wrong. Good governance and corruption free systems are what people are rightfully expecting, and they can use the Act to get it in full measure.” Meanwhile, minister of state for personnel, public grievances & pensions Prithiraj Chavan said during the convention that the government may make the process of getting information through RTI more user-friendly by deploying suitable technology and removing some legal infirmities. The minister said that the Planning Commission gave an ‘in-principle’ approval for extending a centrally sponsored Plan scheme to strengthen the working of the State Information Commissions to cover IT interventions/E-governance for RTI which would address the issues on both the demand and supply side through the use of technology. Mr Chavan also said that attempts would be made to further strengthen the RTI Act by initiating some legislative changes and more information would be placed in the public domain. (In Picture: The President lighting the lamp to inaugurate the RTI Convention) Straight From Files Dr Manmohan Singh’s prescription for IAS (May 30, 2009) Manmohan Singh asks PMO officials to think creatively (June 12, 2009) Doc’s prescription to diplomats (August 26, 2009) Action & Appointments a) Orders of the ACC for the appointment of Alok Perti, a 1977 batch Assam cadre IAS as additional secretary in the ministry of coal in the vacancy of Rajiv Sharma, a 1976 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS, communicated vide this Department Communication No. 20/11/2009-EO(SM-I) dated 8.9.2009 be held in abeyance till he is accommodated in some other vacancy. b) Rajneesh Kumar Mahajan, a 1987 batch Bihar cadre IAS, has been appointed as joint secretary in the ministry of coal for the period upto April 23, 2011 from the date of assumption of charge of the post or till further orders. c) Rao Kameswara Simhambhatla, a 1984 batch Indian Information Service officer has been appointed as joint secretary in the department of health research for a period of five years from the date of assumption of charge of the post or until further orders. d) Inter-cadre deputation of SS Srivastava, a 1994 batch Punjab cadre IPS from Punjab to AGMU cadre has been extended for a period of one year with effect from September 10, 2009. e) Nalla Bhuma Narayan Rao and Samudrala Govindarajulu have been appointed as Additional Judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court for a period of two years. f) Piyush Mathur has been appointed as Additional Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court for a period of two years. h) Alok Singh has been appointed as Judge of the Uttarakhand High Court.