Textiles secretary Anant Kumar Singh shifted to dept of land resources; Arun Goel elevated as culture secretary

IN A minor secretary level reshuffle on Thursday, the government changed the ministries of two union secretaries — textiles secretary getting shifted to the department of land resources and secretary, culture, being posed as new textiles secretary. Meanwhile, a special secretary is elevated as union secretary in the ministry of culture. Here below are the details:

Fashion with a Cause: How civil servants post their photos sporting handwoven saris, jackets

Varsha Joshi, 1995 batch IAS sporting a handwoven sari

REACTING to a trend #IWearHandloom that took social media by storm on Monday, a number of civil servants including Ambassador of India to UNESCO Ruchira Kamboj, joint secretary ranked IAS officers Sumita Misra, Abhishek Singh, Varsha Joshi, Usha Padhee etc., NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, former IFS Nirupama Rao, former IPS Kiran Bedi et al have shared their own photos sporting beautiful handwoven dresses in micro-blogging site Twitter in the last couple of days. The trend began when union textile minister Smriti Irani shared her own photo wearing a blue handloom sari with an appeal for others also to wear…

Sanjay Kumar Panda: Meet the secretary who talked about “zero defect” in a book two decades ago

OVER two decades ago, present textile secretary and 1980 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS Dr Sanjay Kumar Panda published an Oriya book on handloom where he talked about “zero defect”, a phrase that has now caught the imagination of everyone after prime minister Narendra Modi made the “zero defect, zero effect” a national slogan so as to pursue quality in manufacturing. First, let’s see how Panda argued about production of handloom without any defect (zero defect)…

One plus one is equal to what? Better ask textiles secretary and 1980 batch IAS SK Panda

Panda (right) presenting a copy of the book to Vice-President Ansari

UNION textiles secretary and former chief secretary of Tripura Sanjay Kumar Panda is convinced that one plus one is not two but eleven, provided a positive mind-set works in tandem with team-spirit and right technology. As chief secretary of the North-eastern state of Tripura, Panda teamed up with a select bureaucrats, bankers and academics to produce a book titled, “Making One plus One Eleven- Some Innovative Experiences with Tripura”, highlighting some of the unique achievements…

Kiran Dhingra appointed as new textile secretary

Kiran Dhingra, a 1975 batch UT cadre IAS, is back to her favourite zone: Ministry of Textile. Ms Dhingra who was joint secretary in textile ministry for five years beginning 2000, has been appointed as India’s new textile secretary.

When Rita Menon, her batch-mate in IAS, retired last month, there were intense speculations in the corridors that Ms Dhingra would replace her. But to everyone’s surprise, PK Chaudhary, secretary in the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), was given additional charge of textile for a period of three months.

But only a fortnight later, the government changed its mind and made current Panchayati Raj secretary Dhingra as textile secretary. Whereas most of 1975 batch IAS officers have either retired or are retiring in next few months, Ms Dhingra will continue in office till January 2013, thus giving her one full-year term in the ministry.

A post-graduate in English literature, Ms Dhingra was deputy secretary and then director in human resource development ministry during 1987-1992, and in between she had a stint as OSD to transport minister in 1990-91. She had also worked as Director General (Shipping) and chief secretary of Goa.

Action and Appointments

a) Ms Loretta Mary Vas, a 1977 batch UP cadre IAS and special secretary in the department of economic affairs, has been secretary in the ministry of Panchayati Raj in place of Kiran Dhingra.

b) Dilsher Singh Katha, a 1977 Punjab cadre IAS, presently in the cadre, has been appointed as secretary in the department of pharmaceuticals.