More about Eenam Gambhir -- the diplomat who challenged Nawaz Sharif’s speech at the United Nations

Eenam Gambhir (Photo Courtesy: Facebook)

SINCE Thursday morning, Indian television and social media were abuzz with the way an Indian diplomat —a 2005 Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Eenam Gambhir — gave an apt response to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s speech at the United Nations where the Pak PM had earlier raised the issue of Kashmir and hailed slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani a “young leader” from Kashmir. “The land of Taxila, one of the greatest learning centres of ancient times, is now host to the Ivy League of terrorism. It attracts aspirants and apprentices from all over the world”, she said in UN while describing Pakistan as the “global epicentre of terrorism”. Here are a few things you may like to know about this young Indian diplomat. 

More about Renuka Chidambaram— the IAS who is deemed to have resigned

Renuka Chidambaram (Photo Courtesy: UN)

IAS officer of 1985 batch — Ms Renuka Chidambaram of Karnataka cadre who has been out of duty for almost three years now is deemed to have resigned with effect from July 1, 2013, adding one more name to the list of officers taking up foreign postings and deciding not to continue as IAS. According to Government of India records, Ms Chidambaram, now aged 57, was last posted as a senior political affairs officer in United Nations Mission in Sudan in 2010. She was then on deputation from the Government of India. Earlier, she was on leave between 2007 and 2010. Her batch mates are now…

Sandeep Silas: Why is this Indian railway officer approaching United Nations?

Sandeep Silas, IRTS

Sandeep Silas, a senior railway officer working in road transport and highways ministry, is on a unique mission called “Garland of Peace”. Silas, a 1984 batch Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer and masters in public administration from New York’s Syracuse University, is trying to convince the United Nations that…

Story about “bloated” UN bureaucracy

NOW, United Nation's bureaucracy is getting flak for its size and inefficiency. As more and more experts are voicing for reforms and the need to create a smarter workforce for this global body, The New York Times has published a very interesting insight of this entire debate in an article titled, “A Bloated U.N. Bureaucracy Causes Bewilderment”.

After all, the UN has five big centers — New York, Geneva, Rome, Vienna and Nairobi in addition to many more small centers. According to the article, in Geneva alone, the United Nations held 10,000 meetings in 2009, offered 632 training workshops and translated 220,000 pages of documents for its yearbooks, reports, and working papers. “But in these difficult economic times, as many countries reduce their own services, critics are asking whether there is a case for putting this army of civil servants to work in a smarter, more streamlined manner,” it argues.

What’s probably needed today is an improved version of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s initiative of late 1990s to reduce staff, cut administrative budget and weed out patronage.

Read: NY Times Story

Action and Appointments

a) G Balachandran, a 1977 batch West Bengal cadre IAS and currently additional secretary and financial advisor in the Department of Space, has been appointed as Advisor in Inter State Council Secretariat in place of Shashi Prakash, a 1976 batch MP cadre IAS who has retired.

b) Former additional chief secretary of Karnataka AKM Nayak has been selected as the state chief information commissioner of Karnataka. A three-member committee, headed by chief minister BS Yeddyurappa chose him for the top post of the Right to Information watchdog in the state. Ex-IAS officer D Thangaraj and ex-IPS officer MR Poojar have also been selected to be information commissioners.

c) An RTI activist has written to the Prime Minister and the CBI questioning the appointment of Ratnakar Gaikwad as the chief secretary of Maharashtra. It was alleged that Gaikwad was the commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) when it gave the Adarsh building in Mumbai an occupation certificate (OC) on September 16, 2010.