7 officers including 3 non-IAS appointed as additional secretaries or equivalent; 7 IES officers empanelled as JS

THE government on Friday announced the following seven additional secretary level appointments:

More about private secretaries of 3 ministers -- Amit Shah, Smriti Irani and Jitendra Singh

THE Central government last week appointed private secretaries of three prominent ministers — home minister, Amit Shah, textiles minister, Smriti Irani and DoPT and DoNER minister, Jitendra Singh. Here below are the details:

Know Your IAS: Dr Rohit Yadav of Chhattisgarh cadre is PS to civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu

Dr Rohit Yadav, 2002 batch Chhattisgarh cadre IAS officer, has been appointed as private secretary to civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu. Yadav will get the rank of a Government of India director. An MBBS in clinical pathology before getting into IAS, Yadav originally belongs to…

AGMUT cadre IAS Niharika Rai to be Gadkari’s PS in Ganga rejuvenation

THE Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Tuesday approved the appointment of Niharika Rai, a 2005 batch AGMUT cadre IAS, as private secretary to Nitin Gadkari, the minister for road transport and highways, shipping and water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation. She will be the minister’s PS in the ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation. She will be ranked as…

Government prematurely repatriates 2 officers back to Railways; orders say, the move is for “promotion”

THE government this week prematurely repatriated two railway officers back to their cadres in Indian Railways. The orders, however, mentioned it clearly that their premature repatriation was meant for facilitating them to avail promotion in Railways. For example, one of the officers — Tripti Gurha will now be the executive director, statistics and economics, in the Railway Board. Here are the orders of premature repatriation of two Indian Railway officers:

Govt gives nod to Anuj Gupta's appointment as railway minister’s OSD; forest officer Ms. TJ Kavitha shifted as PS to MoS, Skill Dev

Ms. TJ Kavitha, a 2000 batch Rajasthan cadre Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officer, was on Friday appointed as the private secretary to the minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship Anant Kumar Hedge “in relaxation of the cooling off requirement”. Significantly, her appointment was made after the curtailment of her...

No full-time secretary in 3 government departments; 3 officers appointed as private secretaries to ministers

THERE is no full-time secretary in three union government departments — the department of administrative reforms and public grievances, the department of corporate affairs and department of justice, as the government on Saturday gave additional charge of the posts to secretaries of other ministries. Then, three more officers — one each from IAS, P and T Finance and Accounts Service, and Indian Revenue Service (C and CE) -- have been appointed as private secretaries to ministers. Here are the details of the latest appointments:

IAS Arvind Mehta appointed OSD in Advance Cell of 15th Finance Commission; Vipul Bansal as PS to defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman

THE government has kickstarted the process of forming the 15th Finance Commission after appointing 1984 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre IAS Arvind Mehta as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Advance Cell of 15th Finance Commission, at the rank of a union additional secretary. The advance cell is created to make preparatory arrangements for setting up of the Commission. Meanwhile, the government had approved the appointment of five private secretaries to ministers including Nirmala Sitharaman (defence), Suresh Prabhu (commerce and industry) and Piyush Goyal (railway). Here below are the details of the appointments:

Ministers’ PS, deputy secretary, directors to undergo training on file noting, drafting etc.

PRIVATE secretaries of union ministers such as M Venkaiah Naidu (Parliamentary affairs), Nitin Gadkari (road transport and highways), Suresh Prabhu (railways), Jayant Sinha (MoS, finance), Rajiv Pratap Rudy (skill development and entrepreneurship) etc. among other deputy secretary or director-ranked officers will undertake a 3-day-long orientation programme beginning March 28 on file noting and drafting, office procedure, parliamentary procedure, budget procedure, purchases procedure and…

Bandana Preyashi appointed as Ravi Shankar Prasad’s PS: Why many in Siwan called her “sir”?

Bandana Preyashi, 2003 batch IAS and the one who is considered a hard taskmaster among Bihar bureaucrats, has been appointed as private secretary to minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the department of legal affairs. Preyashi, 40, who as Barh sub-divisional officer hogged the limelight for locking the foodgrain godown of don-turned-JD (U) MLA Anant Singh alias Chhote Sarkar, continued to remain a news-maker in the state where young civil servants…

PMO's JEEVan: Modi has now 2 private secretaries – Rajeev, IAS and Sanjeev, IFS

The order appointing Singla as Modi's PS

ON SATURDAY, the Centre appointed prime minister Narendra Modi’s second private secretary: Sanjeev Kumar Singla, 1997 batch IFS officer currently posted in Israel. Only last month, a Gujarat cadre IAS of 1996 batch Rajeev Topno was appointed as Modi’s PS. According to convention, PM takes with him two private secretaries, one from IAS and another a career diplomat. BoI picks out 5 things about this mid-career diplomat:

Batchmates Are Back: Know about Rajnath Singh’s OSD Nitesh Jha and oil minister’s PS Binay Srikanta Pradhan

THE Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by prime minister has approved the proposal of appointing 2002 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS Nitesh Kumar Jha as Officer on Special Duty to union home minister Rajnath Singh days after putting on hold the appointment of an IPS officer, Alok Singh, as his private secretary. Meanwhile, minister of state (independent charge) handling petroleum and natural gas ministry Dharmendra Pradhan gets a diplomat…

5 things to know about Narendra Modi’s private secretary Rajeev Topno

THE Central government on Wednesday appointed 1996 batch Gujarat cadre IAS and current director in prime minister’s office (PMO) Rajeev Topno as private secretary to prime minister Narendra Modi. Topno has been working in Manmohan Singh’s PMO since June 2009, i.e. a month after UPA-II came to power. Here are 5 things you may like to know about Topno.

Why Bengal CM was kind towards rail minister’s PS Vandana Yadav?

LAST year, West Bengal chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee turned down the requests of many IAS and IPS officers who wanted to come to New Delhi on Central deputation. The most prominent rejection was then Birbhum district magistrate and 2002 batch IAS Soumitra Mohan who finance minister Pranab Mukherjee wanted to be his private secretary in place of Manoj Pant who was to fly to Washington DC to become senior adviser to ED in World Bank. Miss Banerjee was however very kind towards one officer: 1998 batch IAS Vandana Yadav who was allowed to come on Central deputation. She became Mukul Roy’s private secretary in the ministry of shipping.
Now, Ms Yadav has been laterally shifted from the ministry of shipping to the ministry of railways. Ms Yadav will now be Roy’s private secretary in the Rail Bhawan. But why Ms Yadav in the first place got Mamata Banerjee’s nod to come to Delhi when CM even refused to consider Pranab Mukherjee’s pleas? Here is the answer...

Culture minister Kumari Selja denied to get the PS she chose; proposal of appointing a 1991 batch IAS rejected

Not An Easy Pitch!

IN ONE of the rare instances, minister of culture Kumari Selja was denied to have the private secretary she wanted. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister, has rejected the proposal of ministry of culture for the appointment of Dr G Anupama Kumar, a 1991 batch Haryana cadre IAS officer currently working as director in the department of tourism as private secretary to the minister of Culture and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja. Originally hailing from Andhra Pradesh, G Anupama Kumar was a doctor by profession before she joined IAS in 1991. She was in the cadre till she joined as a director in the tourism department in November 2009. In the letter of rejection, however, no reason was mentioned.

The DoPT has published the rejection letter, dated March 4, 2011, (Read Letter) in its website and sent a copy of the letter to Prime Minister’s Office, cabinet secretariat, ministry of tourism, Haryana chief secretary among others. Significantly, in the letter, the word “rejected” was highlighted with an underline, but that’s considered to be a normal practice.

Meanwhile, the appointment of PK Kesavan, a 1986 batch Kerala cadre Indian Forest Officer, has turned lucky as he was appointed as private secretary to the minister of state for Power C Venugopal at director level with effect from the date of assumption of charge of the post and for a period up to June 12, 2013.

31 women employees of Railways honoured

Thirty one outstanding women employees of Indian Railways were honoured on the occasion of Women’s Day celebrations organized by Railway Women’s Welfare Central Organization (RWWCO) in New Delhi on Tuesday. They include PT Usha who is working in Southern Railway, former captain of Indian women national cricket team Diana Edulgee of Western Railway and Neelam Katara, social worker and wife of a senior railway officer, a government release said.

In 1986, RWWCO decided to organize Women’s Day on 19th November every year to commemorate the birthday of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. But this year, the function is being held on March 8 that coincides with the International Women’s Day rather than Indira Gandhi’s Birth Day. 

No relaxation of 10 years norm for minister’s private secretary, says government

THE government has reiterated that it has not relaxed its earlier order of not permitting an officer to work as private secretary to a minister beyond 10 years. Minister of state in the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions V Narayanasamy said it in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

It was also mentioned that the directions of the appointments committee of the cabinet regarding the 10-year tenure were circulated to all ministries or departments of the Government of India for ensuring compliance. The appointments in the personal staff of ministers at levels below deputy secretary and director are done by the ministries themselves. No centralized information is maintained for the same, it was added.

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Yes Boss

Private Life: Lessons from Chandolia saga 

Secretaries In Action

Raghu Menon, secretary of information and broadcasting ministry, said innovations in technology led to increased access to quality information, facilitated better connectivity with affordable services and created a platform for mass empowerment and participation amongst the people. The emergence of new media had resulted in unconventional ways in which news and information was now being circulated. This has resulted in a series of policy initiatives which have aimed to create an enabling environment in the media and entertainment industry. Menon said it while inaugurating the BES Expo 2011 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on Thursday.

Action and Appointments

a) Sanjay Singh, a 1976 batch IFS, presently ambassador in Tehran, has been appointed as secretary (east) at the ministry of external affairs in place of Vijay Latha Reddy who has retired.

b) Reetu Jain, a 2001 batch economic service officer has been appointed as deputy secretary in the G-20 secretariat in the department of economic affairs under the ministry of finance.

c) R Vineel Krishna, the 2005 batch Orissa cadre IAS who was abducted by Maoist extremists on February 16 was finally released. Krishna told a section of media that he was kept somewhere in a hilly area and was surrounded by Telugu speaking Naxals.