Sam Pitroda is new tech advisor to Odisha govt; Will he put together a team of non-bureaucrats once more?

NOTED telecom guru and inventor Sam Pitroda on Wednesday was appointed as technical advisor to Odisha government. The man who has immense contribution in India's telecom revolution from late 1980s onward, is now expected to play a key role in making Odisha, currently a laggard in IT and telecom, a front-runner, as the state turns 100 years in 2036. Pitroda is expected to anchor the preparation of the state’s Vision 2036, according to the press statement issued by the state chief minister’s office. But keeping in mind Pitroda’s earlier innings, it can safely be assumed that he won’t bank on bureaucrats much, but will cobble together a team of technocrats comprising…

Nilekani’s UID team Vs Sam Pitroda’s bureaucrat-less innovative agenda

Sam Pitroda...

IN power corridors of Delhi, Sam Pitroda and Nandan Nilekani have similar identities. Both are immensely successful private sector honchos with zeal to bring about changes in governance. Both enjoy cabinet minister’s status, and are currently entrusted with two future-looking projects. For Nilekani, it’s about giving a unique identity number, or Aadhaar, to resident Indians. Pitroda’s mandate is to connect a billion people through public information, infrastructure and innovation. In a way, both are UPA government’s poster-boys showcasing reforms and technical innovations.

Yet, there is a serious difference between Pitroda and Nilekani. Pitroda, known for his characteristic bureaucrat-bashing, has roped in a slim and sophisticated non-bureaucrat team with the only exception of 1990 batch IAS Kalpana Awasthi. Ms Awasthi is his OSD at the rank of a joint secretary in Government of India. Nilekani on his part has heavily banked on IAS and other Group A service officers to make his UID mission a success like his Infosys innings. Nilekani’s key lieutenant, Ram Sewak Sharma is a 1978 batch Jharkhand cadre IAS, and even his private secretary MS Srikar is a 1999 batch Karnataka cadre IAS. Not just that, all deputy director generals posted across the country are from IAS or other Group A services.

...Nandan Nilekani

In contrast, Pitroda’s associates are Cambridge-educated Sukhman Randhawa who interned at BBC and the Penguin Group in London, and Mitakshara Kumari who had graduated from UK's University of Sussex and worked with European Union at Brussels. The other associates include Rahul Nayar who did his M.Phil in technology policy at Cambridge, and Vikas Bagri who was a part of initiating a rural BPO.

The comparison would not have been necessary if Nilekani had continued a smooth, seamless journey at UID. But if the problems and negative publicity that Nilekani’s UID mission has earned in the last few months are any indicators, his IAS managers have not done a very good job. The Parliamentary standing committee virtually junked Nilekani’s new bill. The home ministry has repeatedly raised objections to UID entering into its turf, and none other than Planning Commission which houses UIDAI is asking Nilekani “not to change track and stick to his original mandate”.

Now, the talk of the corridor is: why the hell Nilekani’s managers, read IAS, have failed to do the basics of inter-ministerial co-ordination? What’s more, some of his managers who got attracted to him because of the challenge and glamour associated with the project, are now looking at exit routes. Some of them reportedly want to move to not-so-glamorous and small ministries.

But here is the danger. Nilekani’s failure means end of the road for the government to woo any more high-performing corporate honchos.

Meet Sam Pitroda’s new OSD Kalpana Awasthi, 1990 batch IAS officer

TELECOM guru and adviser to Prime Minister, Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, Sam Pitroda may not be keen to build a team around bureaucrats, but he finally gets Kalpana Awasthi, a 1990 batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer as his OSD. Ms Awasthi who has been a director in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) from March 2005 is now on an extension of her Central deputation tenure.

Kalpana Awasthi is a first class graduate in history from Sophia College under Bombay University, and later she completed a year-long MA course in international development policy from USA. In 1999, she attended a 10-week-long programme on local government.

Starting her career as a joint magistrate of Aligarh, she was the DM in Fatehpur in late 1990s. She executed various assignments in the cadre including one as chief development commissioner in Allahabad before moving to New Delhi’s power center --- the PMO.

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First Indian Army chief to visit Vietnam in 15 years

Army Chief General VK Singh is visiting Vietnam on a four day visit from July 26, 2010 to strengthen bilateral military ties. His visit assumes significance as this would be the first visit by an Indian army chief to Vietnam in 15 years. General VK Singh will call on General Phung Quang Thanh, minister of national defence of Vietnam, besides holding talks with Chief of General Staff and Chief of Army of Vietnam. The Army Chief will visit historically important cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh. 

Dinesh Trivedi-Sujatha Rao saga rooted to a Rs 140-crore web project

THE spat between minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi and health secretary K Sujatha Rao had its origin in a Rs 140-crore proposed project for creating a web portal. The Trinamool Congress leader announced creating such a vast project after consultations with national knowledge commission chief Sam Pitroda in November 2009, but he later found that the secretary was not clearing his project.

As it turned out later, such a project with huge financial implications can’t be sanctioned by the secretary, and it needed to be sent to the ministry of finance for approval. Mr Trivedi’s anger and frustration over the delay forced him to come out openly and criticize Ms Rao and other bureaucrats of red-tap. Mr Trivedi in a television interview termed Indian bureaucrats “ineffective” and suggested the need for secretary level officers to visit villages with Members of Parliament to have some sense of accountability.

Action and Appointments

Both the departments of higher education  and school education have created two posts at the level of additional secretary. In fact, Sunil Kumar, a 1979 batch Chandigarh cadre IAS has been appointed as additional secretary in the department of higher education whereas Ms Anita Kaul, a 1979 batch Karnataka cadre IAS has been appointed as additional secretary I the department of school education and literacy.

Sam Pitroda’s office in Planning Commission to pay consultant more than a secretary’s salary

SOUNDS odd, but Adviser to PM Sam Pitroda’s office in Planning Commission is ready to pay a consultant a monthly salary of more than the pay of a Government of India’s secretary. According to an advertisement released by Office of Adviser to PM on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, a consultant with 5-6 years of experience would be given a salary upto Rs 90,000 per month. Significantly, a secretary to government of India who will have an experience of at least 33 years, gets a fixed pay of Rs 80,000 per month though he gets perks like accommodation in prime localities which will have huge market value.

Telecom Guru Mr Pitroda who holds the rank of a cabinet minister under Dr Manmohan Singh’s government, has openly told media how he was not interested in recruiting IAS officers, but would handle the job with a skeleton staff of experts with full domain knowledge.

In fact, according to the advertisement, which is also attached in Planning Commission’s website, the Consultant B with academic qualification of Masters Degree or above, or technical qualifications such as B Tech, MBA or PhD, will be paid a consolidated fee, ranging from Rs 40,000 to Rs 90,000 per month.

But the big question is who is likely to be selected for such a lucrative government offer? The advertisement itself clearly mentions the high benchmark for the post. “In this category, candidates having experience of “out of box thinking” on policy issues, focused on research work, will be accorded priority”, it says.

For more details on 6 jobs for consultants in Sam Pitroda’s office, read Insider’s post, “Salary up to Rs 90,000” in http://www.jobcorridor.com/

Moily vouches for IAS talent to tackle Naxals

Union law minister Veerappa Moily said IAS officers could play a vital role in helping curb Naxalism by ensuring implementation of central schemes and equitable development. The schemes targeted at the underprivileged need to be implemented at the grassroots level, he said adding that there had been shortcomings in this regard. The minister was speaking recently at a function organised by JSS Training Institute in Bangalore to felicitate those selected for IAS and Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) from the institute. 

South Sumatra pioneers in outsourcing of civil servants; govt there not to recruit staff on contract

IN A classic case of how future bureaucracy may look like, the administration in South Sumatra is now preparing a blueprint to implement an outsourcing system whereby private companies would be given contracts to supply civil servants. The government, in turn, would not recruit any more contractual workers on its own, and many of the existing temporary staff may find their way to become permanent employees, a report in the The Jakarta Post said.
Under a new regulation, all provincial administration agencies will subcontract the service to third parties or outsourcing companies, the paper said. The report further quoted South Sumatra Civil Service Agency head Muzakir saying that handling the matters related to temporary employees working in government agencies would no longer be the responsibility of the administration. The outsourcing also means the end of service of many existing civil servants working in a contract basis. “Their performance will also be evaluated periodically, and the contracts of those who are deemed lazy will be terminated,” Muzakir said, according to the report.
South Sumatra is a province of Indonesia with a population of mere 69 lakhs.

Is Pitroda following Nilekani or vice-versa?
Is Sam Pitroda following Nandan Nilekani, or it’s the round way round. If government gossips are taken seriously, Mr Pitroda’s relatively long innings in the government has been a comfort factor for former Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to take risk in government and take up the challenge of a new government project after having an outstanding career in India’s second largest software export company.
Whether that’s true or not, Mr Pitroda is following Mr Nilekani in Yojana Bhawan, literally. Former chairman of the National Knowledge Commission has recently moved into Room No 125 of the Planning Commission which was recently vacated by Mr Nilekani to shift out to his new UIDAI office in Jeevan Deep building in New Delhi’s Connaught Place area.
Is Nilekani preferring IAS to corporate guys?

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New Cadre Allocation Policy for IAS
Cadre-wise list of IAS (From 2005 to 2008 batch)

Nine events of 2009 that may impact India's corridor of power in 2010 and beyond

AS the year 2009 nears end, Babus of India (BoI) presents 9 events that may impact the corridor of power in 2010 and beyond.


1) Third Party Assessment Of IAS
Third party assessment of Indian bureaucrats began with a pilot project of selecting 80 out of 130 empanelled officers for the posts of joint secretary. The experiment was done with a panel of four retired bureaucrats as experts, and it could turn out to be a regular feature in selecting bureaucrats for various posts in the years to come.


2) Not Every IAS, IPS Or IFS Be Dhoni Or Tendulkar
The government came out with a guideline saying saying that officers should not be given 10 out of 10 in a routine manner by the reporting or reviewing authorities, and this should be restricted to 20% of the officers under their supervision, and any grading of more than 8 for each attribute must be justified by giving reasons in writing in a separate sheet.

3) No To Random Transfers
If Dr Manmohan Singh’s new government has its way, bureaucrats may not be at the mercy of their political masters in matters related to transfers. If the government is able to convert the proposed Civil Services Bill into an Act of Parliament, the success of government programmes will be linked to the performance of bureaucrats who run those at the ground level, and politicians will have the least control over those bureaucrats, initial reports on the content of the Bill have suggested. Though the bill could not be introduced during the year, there is a possibility that it would come up next year.

4) File Notings In Public Domain
The government officials need to be much more careful in file notings as those are already in public scrutiny under the RTI. The summoning of two DoPT officials by CIC to explain why they should not be prosecuted under RTI provisions, finally led the government agree that file notings would come under the RTI. It means whatever you write in official files would be under public scrutiny.

5) Performing Officers To Get Higher Increment
If DoPT has its way, performing government officials may end up receiving better yearly increment than what was even promised in the 6th Pay Commission recommendations. While modifying the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission that up to a 20% of the performers among officers may be given an annual increment of 3.5% instead of a normal practice of 2.5%, the government proposed that performers may be granted even 4% of increment.

6) Dr Singh Is Keen On Implementing Ethical Governance Codes
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh wants design of government’s development programmes to be transparent, simpler, decentralized and less discretionary so as to bring in accountability to the administrative system. While addressing a conference of CBI and state anti-corruption bureaus recently, Prime Minister of India said that recommendations of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) on ‘Ethics in Governance’ were examined in great detail, and some of those could be implemented.

7) Nilekani And Pitroda's Entry Into Babudom
In a rare instance of choosing a corporate honcho over a politician or a bureaucrat to spearhead a mega government initiative, Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of leading software company Infosys Technologies, was appointed as chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as chairman in the rank of a cabinet minister. Similarly, IT czar Sam Pitroda was appointed as adviser to PM on infrastructure, innovation and information. The move is significant as more such technocrats could get preference over seasoned bureaucrats or politicians for getting appointment in key government posts in 2010 and beyond.

8) Facing The Challenge Of Disclosing Assets
Bureaucrats are under pressure to disclose their assets under the Right To Information Act (RTI). After agreeing to disclose file notings which civil servants successfully blocked for quite sometime, they may have to make public their total assets, a norm which is being routinely practised by politicians. Senior bureaucrats in the government of India participated in a DoPT-initiated meeting in November to discuss the matter.

9) New Instructions To Help Babus Communicate With Netas 
In yet another tale of Netagiri and babudom, Indian political masters imposed a set of additional instructions on how officers should behave with the Members of Parliament. This set of detailed instructions issued on the conduct of government servants in official dealings and correspondence with the Members of Parliament are in addition to the provisions in the Conduct Rules, and the Manual of Office Procedure.

Will Pitroda & Nilekani be able to do what ex-Ford Motor veteran McNamara did it to US admin?

IT CZAR Sam Pitroda’s appointment as the Advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on infrastructure, innovation and information after Infosys Technologies co-founder Nandan Nilekani’s appoitment as chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) may bring in some changes the way the government functions. As both of these private sector honchos are pampered by giving the rank of a cabinet minister, a few more high profile private sector veterans may be attracted to join the government laterally. In fact, 68-year-old Pitroda, who is also the chairman of National Knowledge Commission, has prior experience in working with government though Mr Nilekani has no sarkari exposure earlier. No wonder, Mr Pitroda's talents were recognised during the NDA regime when he received Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for excellence in Public Administration and Management Sciences. (See Picture with former PM A B Vajpayee and ex-President of India KR Narayanan) Significantly, post-retirement assignment of two senior bureaucrats in India, principal secretary to PM TKA Nair and national security advisor MK Narayanan hold the rank of ministers of state only implying that Dr Singh has attached much importance to both these specialists by according cabinet minister’s rank. The big question here is whether Mr Pitroda and Mr Nilekani could do what former president of Ford Motor Company Robert McNamara did to the US administration in 1960s when he was made Defense Secretary under President Kennedy. As was acknowledged in a sub-section called Reforms in Public Administration in the USA, one of the reports of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission has mentioned how Mr McNamara introduced the culture of questioning all assumptions and assertions, of quantifying costs and benefits, of using techniques like project evaluation and review (PERT) and critical path method (CPM) to cut costs and delivery times of projects, the use of mathematical techniques for optimizing resource allocation (operations research), network planning, value engineering, and a detailed planning, programming, and budgeting system. No wonder, the managerial culture introduced by Mr McNamara gradually spread to several other departments of US federal government! Straight From Files TKA Nair’s advice to Nilekani on project implementation (September 16, 2009) Action & Appointments a) Alok Prasad, a 1974 batch IFS officer and currently India’s envoy to Sri Lanka, has been appointed as deputy National Security Adviser. Prasad will hold the office for two years or until further orders, according to the decision of the ACC. He was also India’s High Commissioner in Singapore and deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of India, Washington from 2000 to 2004. b) Former finance secretary and chairman of Thirteenth Finance Commission Dr Vijay Kelkar has unanimously been elected as chairman of the Forum of Federations, an international organization headquartered in Ottawa. It seeks to strengthen democratic governance by promoting dialogue on the practices, principles, and possibilities of federalism through partner governments, a government release said on Thursday. c) Avinash K Srivastava, joint secretary in the ministry of corporate affairs has been nominated as the official spokesperson of the ministry for interacting with the media representatives. He is a 1982 batch UP cadre IAS.