4 persons of eminence required as Information Commissioners; lawyer, scientist, journalist et al may apply

THE government has sought the applications for four Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission — the officers who have the final say on issues pertaining to Right to Information Act, 2005, commonly called the RTI. The officers will be located in New Delhi. According to the RTI Act, an Information Commissioner needs to be a person of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass-media or…

2 posts of Information Commissioners to be vacant soon; are you eligible?

THE government has advertised for the posts of two new information commissioners in Central Information Commission, as two incumbents are due to complete their tenure on December 31, 2016 and February 17, 2017 respectively. Who can apply for the posts? Will two bureaucrats be finally chosen? In fact, any person of…

Why the babu in Manmohan Singh emerges when he picks up RTI

PM with CIC Satyananda Mishra

PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh ceased to be a bureaucrat in 1991 after 20 years of civil service in ministries such as commerce, finance and Planning Commission. But the babu in Singh comes out every time he addresses issues concerning Right To Information Act. An analysis of Prime Minister’s consecutive speeches in Convention of Information Commissioners reflects the mood of…

Changing pattern of civil services examination to come up in Rajya Sabha

THE questions related to changes in civil services examination would come up in Parliament. An unstarred question on changes in civil services examination has been admitted for Rajya Sabha on November 18, 2010.

In a major step to change the civil services pattern, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has recently announced a new syllabus for the preliminary examinations, replacing the optional subject with an aptitude test. But many students are not happy as they find the new syllabus much tougher than the earlier one.

The other questions that would come up in Rajya Sabha on the same day include definition of good governance, extension of senior officers, amendment of the RTI Act, grade pay for deputy secretary and under secretary and recommendations to make RTI more effective, just to name a few.

Two major starred questions where minister would answer in Parliament are on reserved posts for ST, SC and OBCs, and increased corruption in the country.

Global Window: Finland companies complain of Russia’s bureaucratic bottlenecks

Finland companies that are doing good business with Russia by increasing their exports have now complained bureaucratic bottlenecks in Russia. According to a survey by Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce, the biggest challenges for Finnish companies are still the customs, as well as bureaucracy in general and the shortage of qualified personnel.

Finnish companies are however optimistic. About 70% of them believe that their exports to Russia will increase over the next six months as the Russian economy is set to grow at five percent in the coming years. 

Questions on RTI figure prominently in Parliament

THE questions related to Right to Information Act, 2005, particularly its possible amendments are getting more and more space this Parliament session. The amendment of RTI and questions on file notings will come up again on May 5, 2010 in Lok Sabha, India’s lower House of Parliament.

Only on Thursday, minister of state in the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions Prithviraj Chavan said in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha how the RTI Act has an inbuilt system of monitoring of the implementation of the Act. He further mentioned that no amendment of the Act so far as the structure of the State Information Commission was under consideration.

The other prominent questions that will come up on May 5 in Lok Sabha include bureaucrats with professional degree holders, income limit of creamy layers of OBC, complaints about civil services examinations etc., according to the provisional list of unstarred questions published so far.

Secretary In Action

Corporate affairs secretary R Bandyopadhyay has asked the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to impart the training to professionals for converging Indian Accounting Standards with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) at an affordable cost and of high quality. He inaugurated the curtain raiser ceremony of the chain-workshops on Indian Accounting Standards converged with IFRSs in New Delhi on Thursday

Rail men clinch gold in world TT championship

Indian Railways Men Team won the Gold Medal, first time, in the history of USIC (World Railways) Table Tennis Championships by beating the France in the final by 5-1. The World Railways Table Tennis Men’s and Women’s Championships were held at Nijniy Novgorod (Russia) from April 22 to 27, 2010. A total number of 15 countries have participated in the said championship.

The men Team included Anirban Nandi, Arpit Bhopalkar and Sayan Paul Roy. The women team which won the Bronze Medal consisted of Prajakta Tipale, Pallabi Kundu and Mansi Bhagwat.

Also, Arpit Bhopalkar won the Gold Medal in Men individual category by beating Albert Kolodskikh of Russia by 3-1 in the final. 

Unsuitable Boys: Govt sends third reminder to fill up posts at UIDAI’s Guwahati and Ranchi offices

WHAT could be construed as a clear sign of reluctance of senior bureaucrats to join Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), recently renamed as Aadhaar (Foundation), at least in a few centers, the government has recently given a reminder that the newly created outfit headed by former Infosys co-chairman Nandan Nilekani would require deputy secretary and director level officers in its regional offices located in Guwahati and Ranchi.

Though advertisements for the posts of Assistant Director General of UIDAI were issued first on October 5, 2009, and then a reminder was sent on December 4, 2009, no suitable candidates were found for its Guwahati and Ranchi centers. In fact, it could not be verified whether the department of personnel and training (DoPT) received any application at all for those vacancies, and if it had received applications why it had failed to select the right candidates.

Significantly, the DoPT sent a reminder on April 20, 2010 to all chief secretaries of the state saying, “it is again requested that the names of the willing officers at deputy secretary or director level who are eligible to work in the Centre under Central Staffing Scheme may please be recommended for this office”. The copies of the reminder were sent to the cadre controlling authorities too.

Civil, Yet Not Servants

For those bureaucrats who like to identify themselves as civil servants, a recent article published in Time may not be a happy reading. In a special article titled “The Dangers of Digging Up the Truth in India” written by Daniel Pepper, it was argued how the RTI Act brought a cultural sea change in India while adding, “…More than 60 years state bureaucrats have acted more like colonial masters than servants of the people.” Published from US in partnership with CNN, the Time is one of the most well respected magazines on global affairs.

Action and Appointments

a) The premature repatriation of SK Panda, a 1980 batch Manipur-Tripura IAS and joint secretary in the department of AYUSH to his parent cadre, has been approved. Mr Panda has been appointed as chief secretary of government of Tripura.

b) The government has approved the extension of central deputation tenure of Ms Amita Sharma, a 1981 batch MP cadre IAS and joint secretary in the ministry of rural development for a period of one year beyond April 10, 2010.

c) Taleen Kumar, a 1987 batch West Bengal cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary in the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP).

d) T Jacob, a 1984 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary in the department of food and public distribution.

e) Prem Kumar Gera, a 1985 batch Gujarat cadre IAS has been appointed as joint director in Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie at the joint secretary level.

f) Ms Anuradha Mitra, presently additional financial adviser of the ministry of defence (finance) has been appointed as principal advisor (financial analysis) in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

RTI Act unlikely to be amended; rejection of frivolous requests could be made possible by changing rules

THE RTI Act is unlikely to be amended despite there has been a voice within the government that vexations and frivolous requests under the Act need to be rejected by amending the Act. There were media reports saying that there was a rift between Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on whether the Act which has been projected as a major tool to bring in transparency, should be amended at all. According to Mrs Gandhi and the party spin doctors, there is no need to amend the Act as it could be politically detrimental, though some part of the Act has brought inconvenience to the functioning of the government.

In a carefully prepared written reply in Parliament, minister of state in the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions, Prithviraj Chavan, hinted that there was no need to amend the Act, and that if need be, the issues involved may be addressed by amending the rules.

“While no indication can be given at this stage regarding the amendments which will be incorporated in the Act as discussions with the various stakeholders are yet to be held, the proposal under consideration covers, inter-alia, amendment to enlarge the scope of suo-motu disclosure, to avoid frivolous or vexatious representations, to modify the provision about disclosure of cabinet papers, to make a provision for giving current charge of Chief Information Commissioner to any Commissioner, to provide the constitution of Benches of the Commission and to incorporate a new section empowering the Commission to make regulations,” he said in the reply.

In a related development, government of Uttar Pradesh sent a proposal for grant of Rs 7.50 crore for construction of building for the State Information Commission under the proposed Government of India scheme for providing assistance to states for this purpose. But the Central Government has not taken any decision on the proposal of the state government, Mr Chavan said in Rajya Sabha on Thursday without answering the question “why”.

Action and Appointments

a) Railway minister Kumari Mamata Banerjee presented the 55th Railway Week National Awards for Outstanding Services-2010, in New Delhi on Thursday. (See picture on right)

The ministers of state for railways E Ahamed and K H Muniyappa and the chairman, Railway Board, SS Khurana were also present on the occasion.

b) Urban development secretary M Ramachandran took part at the signing ceremony of the “Reciprocal Common Transport Agreement” among NCR states of Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan for unrestricted and seamless movement of traffic in NCR region. The function (See picture on left) took place in New Delhi on Thursday.