Indian Finance Minister’s B-team gets ready for the big annual event of Feb 26

HERE'S the picture of India’s B-team that has sealed the fate of Budget 2010-11, which is being presented in Parliament by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday. Sitting along with Mr Mukherjee (middle) are minister of state (revenue) SS Palanimanickam (right) and the minister of state (E,B&I), Namo Narain Meena (left), both of whom incidentally are were not deeply involved in nuances of the Budget.

But the men who were actually behind this mammoth exercise spanning over three months and more, are the bureaucrats standing behind Pranab babu and his ministerial colleagues. Expenditure secretary Sushama Nath (extreme right), a 1974 batch MP cadre IAS and finance secretary Ashok Chawla (5^th from right) and 1973 batch Gujarat cadre IAS are the two bureaucrats who were part of the Budget team of P Chidambaram too. Also, the chairman of CBDT SSN Moorthy (third from left) and CBEC chairman V Sridhar (2^nd from left) have been part and parcel of this year’s Budget process from the very beginning.

What’s however is quite significant this time is the induction of a number of new faces after the Budget preparation process had actually begun. By the time, Cornell University professor Kaushik Basu (4^th from the left) joined the North Block as chief economic advisor in November at the rank and pay of a secretary, he did not have much time to experiment on how bureaucracy works, and he began the gigantic task of collating the economic survey that was presented on Thursday.

Interestingly, as many as three key bureaucrats --- R Gopalan (5^th from left), a 1976 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS and banking secretary, Sunil Mitra (2^nd from right), 1975 batch West Bengal cadre IAS and revenue secretary, and finally Sumit Bose, 1976 batch MP cadre IAS and disinvestment secretary --- donned their roles in North Block much after the Budget process had already reached its peak.

Bihar IAS’ office raided

Bihar Vigilance Investigation Bureau on Thursday carried out a raid at the office of the outgoing Patna Municipal Commissioner K Senthil Kumar, a 1996 batch Bihar cadre IAS and seized some documents. There was a raid both at the office and residence on Wednesday too. He reportedly owns a café and a departmental store in addition to having a number of immovable properties in Patna, Delhi and Chennai. 

Quite Revealing: Indian civil servants’ assets may come under RTI, MP turns first state to give nod

WITH Madhya Pradesh government agreeing to bring assets of bureaucrats in public domain following a recent order of Central Information Commission, the process of RTI Raj prevailing over bureaucrats’ age-old doctrine of secretary has entered the final stage. If assets of 290 IAS officers of Madhya Pradesh cadre have already been brought under the ambit of RTI, it’s not far from forcing civil servants of other cadres as well, to publicly disclose their assets just like their political masters who by law disclose their assets while filing nominations for any Indian election.

Social activist Ajay Dubey has already asked the income tax department to give information on tax returns filed by about IAS officers of Madhya Pradesh cadre during the past five years, media reports said. In fact, bureaucracy in Madhya Pradesh suffered a major set back when a recent Income-Tax raid in the residence of Arvind Kumar Joshi and Tinoo Joshi, both 1979 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS, recovered a whopping Rs 3.1 crore in cash, jewellery and documents of properties disproportionate to their known sources of income. Both the officers have subsequently been suspended, and investigations are continuing. (Read: Tinoo and Arvind Joshi’s date with Delhi’s key ministries)

Significantly, civil servants routinely file their asset disclosures, but those gather dust in official files and have not been made public so far. (Read: Officers’ submission of immovable properties). Also, I-T department does not hand over personal details of any citizens including bureaucrats. But a recent order of the Central Information Commission, pronounced by Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said that disclosure of information such as assets of a public servant cannot be construed as an invasion on the privacy of an individual. The order said, “...If people who aspire to be public servants must declare their property details, it is only logical that the details of assets of those who are public servants must be considered to be disclosable”.

The prominent Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officers now include expenditure secretary Ms Sushama Nath (1974 batch), school education secretary Ms Anshu Vaish (1975 batch), disinvestment secretary Sumit Bose (1976 batch), (Read: Profile of Sumit Bose) MP chief secretary Avani Vaish (1975 batch) (Read: Profile of Avani Vaish), special secretary in defence production Ajoy Acharya (1976 batch), central provident fund commissioner Uday Kumar Varma (who is also a special secretary in Information and Broadcasting ministry till March 31, 2010), Director of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) Padamvir Singh (1977 batch), joint secretary in PMO R Gopalakrishnan (1979 batch) and DG Doordarshan Ms Aruna Sharma (1982 batch) among others.

Also Read: 

Govt should create RTI implementation cell 

RTI Raj: Prez' advice to bureaucrats

Disclosure of file notings under RTI

Challenge of disclosure of assets

Action and Appointments

a) Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday suspended senior agriculture secretary Babulal Agrawal (Read: The IAS with 220 bank accounts) whose premises were raided by Income-Tax Department. The case was handed over to Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

b) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal for premature repatriation of Aditi Mehta, a 1979 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS, presently working as joint secretary in the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (ICNCA) to her parent cadre.

c) The ACC has approved the proposal of premature repatriation of DN Srivastava, a 1984 batch IFS officer and joint secretary in the ministry of overseas Indian affairs to his parent cadre.

d) Neeraj Kumar Gupta, a 1982 batch UP cadre IAS, presently joint secretary in commerce ministry has been appointed as Executive Director, India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO).

e) V Bhaskar, a 1981 batch AP cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary in the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP).

f) SC Sinha, a 1975 batch Haryana cadre IPS, has been appointed as Director General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA). He is currently working as a Special Director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Atul Chaturvedi, 1974 batch UP cadre IAS, is new steel secretary

ATUL Chaturvedi, a 1974 batch UP cadre IAS and presently secretary in department of fertilizers has been appointed as secretary in the ministry of steel in place of PK Rastogi, a 1974 batch AP cadre IAS on his retirement on October 31, 2009. Biodata of Atul Chaturvedi, IAS Cadre: Uttar Pradesh Batch: 1974 Date of Birth: August 16, 1950 Date of Retirement: August 31, 2010 Sex: Male Place of Domicile: Uttar Pradesh Mother Tongue: Hindi Educational Qualifications Masters in Physics First Div

Important Postings a) Assistant Collector, (From July 1, 1976 to July 1, 1977) b) Director, Planning & Prog Implementation, (August 1, 1978 to October1, 1979) c) District Magistrate, Bulandshahr, (From May1, 1983 to June 1, 1984) d) Transport Commissioner (From February1, 1986 to October1, 1986) e) Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi (From October1, 1986 to June1, 1988) f) Director, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi (From July1, 1988 to November1, 1989) g) Counsellor, (Director Equiv Centre) - Foreign Assignment h) Joint Secretary (Ministry of Textiles, New Delhi) (From February 23, 2000 to February 22, 2005) i) Additional Secretary & FA Ministry of Rural Development, New Delhi (From February 21, 2006 to January 2, 2008) j) Special Secretary Ministry of Rural Development, New Delhi From January 2, 2008 to July 28, 2008) k) Secretary, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers (From July 28, 2008 to October 31, 2009)

Domestic Training Training at CSIR, Lucknow University for 68 weeks (1970)

Foreign Training Short Term Training for 3 weeks at UK (2004) Training at Italy for 6 weeks (1987)

Other Action & Appointments a) The proposal of department of commerce for extension in tenure of Rajiv Yadav, a 1981 batch Assam cadre IAS as Executive Director, Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) for 3 months upto January 17, 2010 has been approved. b) The proposal of the ministry of home affairs for inter-cadre transfer of Ms Aslam Khan, a 2007 batch MP cadre IPS from Madhya Pradesh to AGMUT cadre has been approved. c) S Krishnan, a 1975 batch IAS and currently special secretary in the ministry of labour and employment will be the new secretary in the department of fertilizers. d) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the assignment of additional charge of the post of Member (Finance), Atomic Energy Commission, Space Commission and Earth Commission to Sushama Nath, 1974 batch MP cadre IAS who is also the secretary in the department of expenditure under the finance ministry.

LEG SPACE: Govt's austerity measures may make bureaucrats' lives miserable

THE government’s austerity measures have not only stripped off the luxury stay of external affairs minister S M Krishna and his junior minister Shashi Tharoor in Delhi’s five star hotels, but in fact will impact day-to-day lives of Indian bureaucrats too. babu blogger here makes an attempt to decipher fallouts of the office memo issued by expenditure secretary Sushama Nath, on lives of Indian babus.

Memo Says: In view of the current fiscal situation and that arising out of insufficient rain in large parts of the country, and the consequent pressure on government’s resources, there is need for further economy and rationalization of expenditure… It Means: Drought is a passionate subject and no bureaucrat in India will dare to lobby against the move. So, just accept it in the same way your private sector friends have come to terms with their salary cuts in the wake of global financial tsunami.

Memo Says: For the year 2009-10, every ministry/department shall effect a mandatory 10% cut in non-Plan expenditure under the heads: Domestic and foreign travel expenses, publications, professional services, advertising and publicity, office expenses, administrative expenses etc. It Means: You need to be “tight” virtually in every act of expenditure. Forget foreign junkets for a moment!

Memo Says: There will be a complete ban on holding of meetings and conferences at five star hotels. A 10% cut on the budgetary allocation for seminars and conferences shall be effected. It Means: Forget the luxury of attending seminars in comfort zones of five star environment. Try to adapt to old public hall culture.

Memo Says: No travel on government account by air will take place by first class. All domestic travel on government account by air will take place only by economy class, irrespective of the entitlement. It Means: This is the second shock in a row as you just forgot the luxury of Jet and Kingfishers’ business class trips thanks to mandatory air travel now only by Air India. Now, you can’t fly business class in Air India too!

Memo Says: The size of delegation and the duration of visit will be kept to the absolute minimum. It Means: Many low-rung officers will miss good tours and excellent hospitality breaking the monotony of 9 to 5 lifestyle.

Memo Says: Proposals for participation in study tours, workshops/conferences/ seminars/presentation of papers abroad at government cost will not be entertained except those that are fully funded by sponsoring agencies. It Means: Don’t worry. Just get those sponsored. The recession is not as bad as it’s made out to be. After all, Sensex is above 16,000 now from the lows of sub-8000 level.

Memo Says: Purchase of vehicles, except for operational requirements of the defence forces, Central paramilitary forces and security related organizations, will not be permitted. It Means: It’s quite sad if you were expecting a ford ikon to replace your old ambassador as it was recently done in case of a number of North Block officials. But the good thing is that ambassadors survive, at least for now. After all, babu blogger claims himself a follower of white ambassadors, and not of ford ikons! Action & Appointments R P Agrawal, a 1972 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS, and secretary in the department of higher education in the ministry of human resource development will hold additional charge of the post of secretary, department of school education and literacy in the HRD ministry during the period of leave of Anshu Vaish, a 1975 batch MP cadre IAS from 9th September, 2009 to 21st September, 2009.

Key North Block officials behind Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget

CALL it the Team Budget from North Block, or simply backroom boys for India’s finance minister Pranab Mukherjee as he is presenting the General Budget in Lok Sabha in a few hours time from now. Here are the few senior officials who have worked extremely hard for the last one month if not more, to make the Budget to be presented on Monday, July 6, a big success.

Ashok Chawla & His Team A: A 1973 batch IAS of Gujarat cadre, Ashok Chawla, currently finance secretary, directly controls three out of five departments in Finmin --- department of financial services, department of economic affairs (DEA) and department of disinvestment, where there’s no secretary-equivalent officers now. As he held additional secretary’s post in the ministry of finance from April 25, 2005 to January 1, 2007, he had past experiences in Budget preparation. He is aided by some of the brilliant minds in the DEA --- Anup K Pujari (1980, Karnataka cadre), Kumar Sanjay Krishna (1985, Assam cadre), Alok Sheel (1982, Kerala cadre), K P Krishnan (1983 Karnataka cadre), Gobind Mohan (1989, Sikkim cadre) to name a few. Revenue secretary P V Bhide: An IAS from Andhra Pradesh cadre and batch-mate of Mr Chawla, P V Bhide had the earlier experiences of Budget preparation as he held the same post of revenue secretary when then finance minister P Chidambaram presented the Budget in February 2008. He has been the revenue secretary from June, 2007 and had the experience of working as secretary, disinvestment for a brief period. Sushama Nath & Her Woman Team: A 1974 batch IAS of Madhya Pradesh cadre, Ms Nath is heading a team of women officers in the department of expenditure. Ms Nath, who had played a key role in the sixth Pay Commission, is now aided by additional secretary Vilasini Ramachandran and a 1977 batch IAS officer from Gujarat cadre, joint secretaries Anjuly Chib Duggal of the 1981 IAS batch, Meena Aggarwal from Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) and Madhulika Prasad Sukul of Defence Accounts Service. Men Of The Moment: Finance minister is also aided by a number of other key officers in North Block --- chief economic adviser Arvind Virmani, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman S S N Moorthy, and chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) P C Jha.

Finance secretary Ashok Chawla given additional charge of disinvestment; now controls 3 out of 5 Finmin departments

FINANCE secretary Ashok Chawla, a 1973 batch IAS from Gujarat cadre, has proved once more that he is one of the most powerful bureaucrats in the country holding additional charges of two departments which were earlier held by full-fledged secretaries. Mr Chawla, who was recently elevated from the post of secretary in the department of economic affairs (DEA) to finance secretary, has now been given additional charge of the post of secretary, department of disinvestment under the ministry of finance for a period of three months or until further orders, a government announcement said. The appointment, which gives Mr Chawla a conplete control of three out of five departments in finance ministry, is effective from June 11, 2009. The post was vacant after disinvestment secretary Rahul Khullar, a 1975 batch IAS, was made commerce secretary. Earlier, he was given additional charge of the department of financial services since May 1, 2009 where an additional secretary level officer, a 1977 batch IAS officer G C Chaturvedi, was appointed to lead the department. Now, out of five departments in finance ministry, only two has full-fledged IAS at the helm --- secretary Sushama Nath in the department of expenditure and revenue secretary P V Bhide. The bestowing of additional charge of the disinvestment department to Mr Chawla is a significant development in the backdrop of a possible announcement in forthcoming Budget that the government may take a slew of measures on divestment, thereby converting the department into an active zone. Significantly, Mr Chawla and urban development secretary M Ramachandran are the two key contenders for cabinet secretary’s post next year.