IAS Association changes its Twitter logo in support of HC Gupta, KS Kropha, KC Samariya -- the officers convicted in a coal scam

IN A rare occasion and some would argue in the confrontation with judiciary, the IAS Association in its official Twitter handle has placed a unique logo. It reads: “I Stand By HC Gupta, KS Kropha, KC Samariya #IAS”. Only on Friday, a Delhi court held former IAS and ex-coal secretary HC Gupta guilty of corruption and criminal conspiracy in a case linked to the allotment of coal blocks in West Bengal. The other officers found guilty were…

IAS Association condemns Army personnel's assault of a police station and attack on deputy commissioner in Arunachal Pradesh

THE IAS Association today (Tuesday) condemned the assault of a police station and the attack on a deputy commissioner and superintendent police in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh by about a hundred Army personnel. In a Twitterer post, the Association said: “This is unimaginable and strongly condemned. Assault on Police Station, attack on DC and SP by uniformed personnel is unacceptable. Strongly condemned and hope that the…

“If I were to be born again, I would love to be an IAS officer”: Secretary Anil Swarup

Anil Swarup, 1981 batch IAS

BY THE end of this month, secretary of the department of school education and literacy — Anil Swarup — will retire after serving as a civil servant for long 37 years. Today (Tuesday), just ahead of his retirement, he has taken to the Twitter to give a hurrah to the IAS as a career when he said he enjoyed "every moment" as an IAS. The following is what the 1981 batch UP cadre IAS posted:

Know the Indian civil servants scaling Mt Everest; IPS Association quizzes who’s the first IPS to achieve it?

AS THIS article being written, IPS Association’s Twitter quiz on the first IPS officer to climb the Mount Everest is presently on. The quiz is: “We all know that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the 1st men to climb on the #MountEverest and Avtar Singh Cheema was the 1st #Indian to climb Mount Everest…#DoYouknow who was the 1st IPS officer to climb #MountEverest?”. The options provided are,  GR Radhika, Suhail Sharma, Aparna Kumar and Atul Karwal. And the voting is presently on. As the season of reaching the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak by climbers across the world is in the news, this…

IAS Association asks for death sentence to killer of Himachal town planner Shail Bala Sharma

AFTER Tuesday’s gruesome murder of assistant town planner Shail Bala Sharma in Himachal Pradesh’s hill town Kasauli, IAS Association has said, “nothing less than a death sentence will do justice”. In a tweet posted on Thursday morning, IAS Association said: “Shocking! Such criminals need to be arrested and punished without any delay. Nothing less than a death sentence will do justice. Deepest Condolences to the family of the brave officer - Shail Bala. Respect.” As reported, the assistant town planner merely…

IPS Association’s DNA jibe creates row; “Let’s not a friendly cricket match turn into a DNA test”, IAS Association retorts

Victorious UP IPS cricket team (Courtesy: Twitter)

A FRIENDLY cricket match between IAS XI and IPS XI in Lucknow during the weekend created a row after the IPS Association attributed its officers’ victory to its "DNA", something which the IAS Association did not take very kindly. It all began after the IPS XI trashed IAS XI by 9 wickets in a friendly match played during the IAS Week in Lucknow. IAS Week in UP is a regular event, and possibly is the largest of this kind in India. But the IPS Association posted this controversial tweet:

IPS Association refutes media report; says “IPS officers welcome challenges”

THE association of the Indian Police Service (IPS) officers on Tuesday said that its members, all IPS officers, “welcome challenge” while refuting a media report saying that the IPS officers avoid joining the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) as DIGs because “there is little scope for cushy postings at its Delhi headquarters, challenging field positions and rigours of daily operations.” Calling the analysis…

Delhi wakes up to a chocking blanket of smog, but the police personnel on duty brave the situation

ON TUESDAY, the national capital Delhi found itself under a choking blanket of smog, with levels of the fine pollutants known as PM 2.5 reaching over 700 as against 300 which itself the authorities call hazardous. But the traffic police in Delhi has no options but to be at the streets to perform their duties. The IPS Association thanked Delhi traffic police by tweeting the following:

How civil servants reacted to PM’s LBSNAA visit; “Mussoorie days are the most memorable for any IAS official”

AS Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent a couple of days at Mussoorie’s Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) last week, a number of ministers and civil servants across seniority expressed their feedback; for many a civil servant it was more an occasion to refresh their fond memories in the campus when they were undergoing training. BoI here publishes some of the officers' reaction to PM’s visit to the academy where he spent a night and participated in a Yoga session among a series of other interactions:

When a Twitter algorithm detects riots, violence faster than police; more about the Cardiff University study

RESEARCHERS in UK’s Wales have come out with a Twitter-monitoring algorithm that can identify riots even before citizens actually report about those unrest to police, according to media reports published in UK’s newspapers and elsewhere. Reports say, the model has recently been tested on the basis of data gathered from Twitter during 2011 riots occurred in the city of London. That the algorithm could identify…

Indian bureaucrats are demonstrating their creativity and photo skills in the getup of their social media handles

THIS photo says it all: There are colours, excitement, movement and happiness. This is the cover photo of the Twitter handle of Syed Akbaruddin, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. In this era of social media when every diplomat or bureaucrat can express their creativity, design and photography skills in their individual handles, BoI lists some of the innovative cover photos of the Twitter handles of Indian bureaucrats after examining about 350 of those.

“…Times of gunny bags and suitcases gone”: How senior bureaucrats are reacting to govt’s surgical strike on black money

New Rs 2000 note to be introduced on Nov 10, 2016

WHEN prime minister Narendra Modi announced on Tuesday night that the legal tender character of bank notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 would get cancelled from that mid-might, there were shock, confusion, and also a sense of happiness among people across society. Former IPS officer and Lt Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi said in Twitter, “…Times of gunny bags and suitcases gone”, talking about the end of decades old practice of carrying illicit cash. BoI here presents how some of the senior most bureaucrats and former bureaucrats reacted in social media to this surprise government move: 

Ex-foreign secretary Nirupama Rao takes to Twitter to discuss TV channels’ Kashmir debate; gives befitting replies to trolls

ON A day, IAS officer from Kashmir, Shah Faesal stirred up a debate by writing a newspaper article with a strong argument that every hour of prime time TV news aggression pushes Kashmir a mile westward from India, former foreign secretary of India and 1973 batch retired IFS Nirupama Rao carried forward the debate in micro-blogging site Twitter, giving reasons why there is a need for matured and intelligent discourse, and also giving befitting replies to trolls. Rao, who had huge experience in effectively handling many a tricky issue including Kashmir diplomatically at various global forums in the past, said,

BoI Power List 2015: Bureaucrats with sizeable Twitter followers wield more power, get 4th position

WHEN BoI posted an article on Twitter-saavy bureaucrats in October last year, an anonymous reader added a few more names: “P Narahari, current DM of Indore, MP is a very active user of social media and has used SM effectively to connect with the citizen in his previous posting as Gwalior collector. And also the collector of Kochi who was in news recently. You can also see the municipal commissioner of Nashik, Praveen Gedam who regularly tweeted about the progress of Nashik Kumbh…” Yes, corridors' power rules have changed. A bureaucrat no longer derives power just from signing a file. The power of a bureaucrat also comes from the number of Twitter followers or number of comments that he or she gets in a Facebook post. So, the 4^th Most Powerful Bureaucrat in BoI Power List, 2015, is…

From awareness on stalking to guiding a complainant, cops now use Twitter at ease

Hyderabad Police advt on stalking

IF YOU are a police officer and active in Twitter, get ready for queries in social media too. And mind it, it’s not just queries alone, if you can’t crack the case, be prepared to get adverse feedback on your “inability” – and that too, all in an open forum. First, here is a recent Twitter conversation of a complainant who lost his laptop with the Bengaluru police which through its official Twitter handle trying to guide the complainant:

Who are the bureaucrats in Twitter? And why their followers love to read about "safe" sarkari experiences

ON Thursday night, former foreign secretary of India and 1973 batch retired IFS officer Nirupama Rao thanked her 4 lakh Twitter followers. "400K followers today. Humbled and honored. Thank you all", she wrote in a post in the micro-blogging site, Twitter. In fact, if there is one area of Indian bureaucracy that has undergone a sea-change in the last couple of years is the very willingness of more and more serving bureaucrats and diplomats to share their “safe” sarkari experiences in social media platforms. BoI picks out a few bureaucrats from a list of about 500 who are effectively using Twitter to reach out to citizens:

RIP APJ Abdul Kalam: How IAS, IPS, IFS officers remember this former President

Joint Secretary Usha Padhee with Kalam (File photo)

WHEN the news surfaced on Monday evening that India’s Missile Man and former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam died in Shillong aged 83, a number of sitting and former bureaucrats took to social media platform to express their condolences, narrating their earlier associations with the man who dreamed big for the nation. 1996 batch IAS Usha Padhee released her photo with Kalam. Read more to know about the IAS who received his graduation certificate from Dr Kalam, the IFS officer who once organized Kalam’s visit to Sydney and the officer who chose to tweet a Sanskrit verse on Kalam's farewell:

Chemistry Works: Why Narendra Modi showers praise on Ajit K Seth for his "creative effort"

Cabinet Secretariat Corridors

AS Ajit K Seth ended his extended 4-year-term term as India’s cabinet secretary on Saturday, prime minister Narendra Modi posted three tweets to praise one of Seth's initiatives in cabinet secretariat called “Art in Steps” before wishing him for the “new phase in his life”. For the low-profile bureaucrat who studied chemistry in St Stephen’s college in early 1970s and served two prime ministers -- Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi -- as their cabinet secretary, it was mainly the art of good chemistry that worked in his favour. First, let’s read what Modi had to say for Seth on Saturday…

What provokes IAS officers to oppose lateral entry of specialists and claim they are specialists in governance?

A NEWSPAPER article arguing that prime minister Narendra Modi should have started his innings by ending the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), has provoked a number of IAS officers to resort to social media to strongly defend their contribution to the nation and oppose lateral entry of specialists. Though the article published in a business daily was against “un-fire-able, unaccountable civil service” as a whole, it mainly targeted the IAS with “imperial-era privileges”. Former chief secretary of Delhi Shailaja Chandra, who calls herself an “independent policy analyst” and “Once IAS” argues that the alternative to…

“Listen to the wind, it talks…” Meet Indian Forest Service officer RP Saini who tweets a quote a day

RP Saini

THERE was a time when senior bureaucrats used to keep wall poster with inspirational quotes written in it. But as social media creeps into the corridors of power, the placement of the quotes is turning soft now. Here, meet this Kolkata-based 1986 batch Indian Forest Service officer and additional principal chief conservator of forests Dr RP Saini who tweets an inspiration quote almost everyday day. Find out how Ravi, as he is fondly called by his friends, attempts to inspire others: