When a picture is worth a thousand words: “Indonesia at our hearts” say 2 IFS batch-mates

AT TIMES a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is a powerful photo of two senior Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers – ambassador designate to Indonesia Nengcha Lhouvum and ambassador designate to Germany Gurjit Singh. Singh till recently was India’s ambassador to Indonesia, and now Ms Lhouvum will shortly take over charge in Indonesia. Posted in a social media site, the message said:

A Tale of Two IAS Batchmates: LK Atheeq of PMO gets extension, LV Nilesh still missing, "deemed to have resigned"

LK Atheeq: A Critical PMO official

IT’S a classic tale of two IAS batch-mates of 1991 batch. One, LK Atheeq, who has been in Prime Minister’s Office from August 2007, is increasingly becoming a critical officer in Manmohan Singh’s PMO. Atheeq, a Karnataka cadre IAS and joint secretary in PMO has recently been given a two years extension till August 12, 2014. The other…

Batchmates Bonhomie: What does R Gopalan's 3-month extension mean?

(R to L) Gopalan, Mrs Paul, Gujral, Bose

THE government has given department of economic affairs (DEA) secretary R Gopalan an extension of three months allowing batch-mates’ bonhomie continuing in North Block. Both finance secretary RS Gujral who also looks after the revenue department and expenditure secretary Sumit Bose are Gopalan’s 1976 IAS batch-mates.

Had this three months’ extension not materialized, Gopalan, an MBA from Harvard, would have retired on April 30, 2012. But what has made Gopalan so special that finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and his adviser Omita Paul have vouched for...

Batchmates’ Budget: How officials ensure that Budget does not get leaked

Gopalan (L), Gujral, Bose (R). FM's adviser Omita Paul is seen

IT’S a rare occasion that preparations of this general Budget were anchored by three IAS batch-mates. Call it a mere coincidence. RS Gujral, finance secretary in charge of revenue department, Sumit Bose, expenditure secretary and R Gopalan, secretary, department of economic affairs (DEA) are in fact 1976 batch IAS. The other two North Block secretaries, financial services secretary DK Mittal and disinvestment secretary Mohammad Haleem Khan are both one batch junior to them.

The job of preparing the Budget that begins in November every year is handled by DEA. But departments like revenue and expenditure give critical inputs to the document and become part and parcel of the entire Budget making process. The finance minister can undertake changes in the document till it goes for printing six days before it’s to be presented in Parliament. As high degree of secrecy is maintained, the Budget document is printed at the press located in North Block’s basement itself.

Most officers working in finance ministry have no idea whether there will be any tax cut or increase in excise duties! Also, a secretary in charge of one department does not know what’s in store for issues related to other departments. The one person who reads the Budget from top to bottom is the DEA joint secretary in charge of the Budget. He along with a few junior officials stay round the clock in North Block at least for the last 10 days. They need to ensure that nothing gets leaked before it’s presented in Parliament on the B-Day. The guys working in the printing press are not allowed to go home when the document is being printed. Packed lunch and dinner, brought from outside, are served there.

But should there be such an aura of secrecy when many policy announcements and even hikes of petroleum prices are done outside the Budget? Once the Direct Tax Code is in place, there will be no surprise tax front in any future Budget. The reality is that in days to come, the Budget may no longer be such a high secret affair!