Know Your Babu: New Petroleum secretary Saurabh Chandra

Saurabh Chandra, 1978 batch UP cadre IAS and secretary in department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) has finally clinched a bigger ministry. Chandra will be India’s new petroleum secretary at a time when the row over gas price increase that would benefit Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has taken a political turn with the Aam Admi Party making it a big electoral issue ahead of Lok Sabha poll. Earlier, Chandra missed two ministries,…

DIPP’s Saurabh Chandra turns a Harvard student; could move as DEA secretary

Looking Ahead: Saurabh Chandra

DIPP secretary Saurabh Chandra has recently taken a flight to Boston. The reason? The 1978 batch UP cadre IAS is now attending a Harvard crash course on leadership development. The two-week-long course is all about managing political and economic change, an essential quality for a babu to survive, not even succeed, in the current politico-economic environment. And some in the corridors are convinced that Pulokaseth (Pulok Chatterji and AK Seth) have already made up their minds that Chandra would be shifted to North Block…

Will Saurabh Chandra be a full-fledged commerce secretary; what’s about DEA?

THE announcement that 1978 batch UP cadre IAS and DIPP secretary Saurabh Chandra will hold additional charge of commerce department could be interpreted in two ways. Is it yet another instance of government’s adhocism? Or it should be seen as a breather for principal secretary to PM Pulok Chatterji and cabinet secretary Ajit K Seth to sit down together with a list of impending vacancies and possible contenders, and mark those in one go. But who will then be commerce secretary, one of the few departments which the government usually hands over to…

3 senior most IAS of 1978 batch have an exposure to Bharat, how?

Bharat Vs India

THREE senior most IAS officers of 1978 batch who are becoming secretaries had an exposure to Bharat, quite literally. All of them have worked in rural development ministries either in states or in the Centre during the recent past.

After the topper of the batch Jawed Usmani got himself shifted to UP as chief secretary, three senior most secretary-empaneled officers, Saurabh Chandra (UP cadre), Gokul Chandra Pati (Orissa cadre) and Arvind Mayaram (Rajasthan cadre) have in fact had a long association with rural development ministries.