Brajesh Mishra, Surendra Singh and Shyam Saran among prominent civil servants winning Padma awards

HERE are some of the prominent Indian civil servants who have received the Padma awards, India’s highest civilian awards, announced on the eve of the Republic Day.

Brajesh Mishra: Won Padma Vibhushan. Mishra, a former Indian Foreign Service officer, was the country’s first National Security Advisor under former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was the first non-IAS principal secretary to the Prime Minister of India.

Surendra Singh: Won Padma Bhushan. An IAS of 1959 batch, Singh retired in 1996 as cabinet secretary. He had also served as secretary (industry) and secretary (company affairs), special secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office and special secretary in the ministry of commerce. After retiring from the IAS, Singh served as Executive Director on the Board of the World Bank.

MN Buch: Won Padma Bhushan. An IAS of 1957 batch, Buch held a number of senior posts under the state government in the state of Madhya Pradesh and in the Centre.

Shyam Saran: Won Padma Bhushan. A 1970 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Saran was foreign secretary in the Government of India. He had also served as Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Indian Ambassador to Indonesia and Indian Ambassador to Myanmar, High Commissioner to Mauritius, joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, Deputy Chief of Mission in Tokyo and Counsellor in the Indian Embassy in Beijing.

Narayan Singh Bhati from Andhra Pradesh and PK Sen from Bihar have won the Padma Sri in civil services category. 

Centre relaxes LTC rules to allow government employees to travel by air to J&K

TIME to explore the beauty of Kashmir valley and get the expenses reimbursed! Sounds good. In fact, the Centre has relaxed the LTC rules to allow government employees to travel by air to Jammu and Kashmir, according to an order issued by DoPT dated June 18, 2010. The same order has made it clear that the employees needed to fly only Air India.

All officers or employees of government of India will now be allowed to avail LTC to visit J&K against conversion of one block of their home town LTC, the order said. They are allowed to fly to any place of J&K either from Delhi or Amritsar airport.

The order will be in operation for a period of two years from the date of issue.

Read DoPT CIRCULAR, dated June 18, 2010

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Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran joins Wipro board

Former foreign secretary and the Prime Minister’s envoy on climate change Shyam Saran, a 1970 batch IFS, is joining the board of India’s software company Wipro Ltd on July, 2010, as an independent director. Mr Saran came into news recently when he was virtually at loggerheads with environment and forest minister Jairam Ramesh on a number of issues related to climate change. Mr Saran decided to quit the government when his two batch junior Shiv Shankar Menon was made the national security advisor (NSA) with the rank of a minister of state whereas Mr Saran remained as a secretary rank official. 

Bureaucrats clean bowled by 2 Rameshes --- Jairam and Sachin

CALL it a syndrome of reiterating Netagiri over babudom. Yes, no proactive politician may like bureaucrats to assert on a particular subject, but environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh’s tirade against bureaucrats in the wake of Shyam Saran’s controversial resignation was quite hard-hitting, and some would perhaps argue it as avoidable.

Asserting that he was not a rubber stamp to the bureaucracy, Mr Ramesh said on Wednesday that it’s the job of a politician to set the policy, and bureaucrats are consultants. “Bureaucracy cannot dictate policies”, he told a group of media persons on Wednesday. He too agreed that he had differences with PM’s special envoy on climate change Shyam Saran, adding that bureaucracy can’t dictate policies as it was ultimately the minister who had to face Parliament. He further claimed that he had the support of the Prime Minister on all issues.

In fact, Mr Saran, a former Indian Foreign Service officer of 1970 batch, recently announced that he would quit his job with effect from March 14, though he did not spell out his serious differences with Mr Ramesh. There was a speculation that Mr Saran who now holds the rank of a secretary, would be promoted to the rank of a minister of state.

Significantly, Mr Ramesh’s observation on bureaucracy came at a time when most bureaucrats around the country were watching the superlative performance of another Ramesh – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar who made history by becoming the first batsman in the world to pull a double century in an one-day international match!

It could not be verified whether Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who himself was a bureaucrat and served as a finance secretary, would back Jairam Ramesh on his outburst against bureaucracy, but PM did send a congratulatory message to the other Ramesh on his reaching yet another milestone at Gwalior match, and termed it a “magnificent achievement”.

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Action and Appointments

a) Shatrughna Singh, a 1983 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS, has been appointed as joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

b) Ms Sneh Lata Kumar, a 1979 batch MP cadre IAS has been appointed as MD, TRIFED under the ministry of tribal affairs at the level of joint secretary for the period from the date of assumption of charge of the post till August 13, 2010.

c) Ms Kiran Chadha, CSS, and joint secretary in the ministry of women and child development, has been appointed as Executive Director, Rashtraya Mahila Kosh under the ministry of women and child development.

Behind PMO’s tweet-like message on Shyam Saran’s exit; what stops Dr Singh doling out MoS rank to his key envoy?

ON Friday, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has given a terse release saying “Mr Saran has been permitted to demit office with effect from March 14”. Yet, the exit of Shyam Saran, a 1970 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer and one of the key architects of India-US nuclear deal, was not as simple as this Tweet-like short message was meant to be.

For Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, it has been a tough job to carve out an honourable position for this diplomat-turned climate change negotiator after Shiv Shankar Menon, a 1972 batch IFS was made national security advisor (NSA) at the rank of a minister of state. Though there were speculations that Mr Saran would also be given the rank of a minister of state, as it has been in case of advisor to PM, TKA Nair, it was not done in the backdrop of his disagreements with India’s environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh.

After all, Mr Ramesh who is a close confidante of the Prime Minister, is also a minister of state, and that means the elevation of Mr Saran to the same rank would make it a complex story as both of them don’t see eye to eye in all crucial climate change matters.

It remains to be seen whether the government would still entertain the views of two other retired officials, C Dasgupta, a 1962 batch IFS and former environment secretary Prodipto Ghosh, a 1969 batch UT cadre IAS, as both of them too were highly critical of Mr Ramesh’s views on climate change!

(In Picture: Saran with former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice; file photo)

Question Time

A question on “assets of officers in public domain” will come up in Lok Sabha on February 24, 2010 during the current budget session. The questions that would come up in Rajya Sabha on February 25 are related to Central resolution on whistle blowers act, CBI cases in Assam, performances of civil servants, and filling of backlog vacancies etc.

Questions in Lok Sabha

Questions in Rajya Sabha