Eight out of 14 officers appointed as GoI joint secretary on Sunday are women officers; Full List

THE Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Sunday approved the appointment of 14 officers at the rank of GoI joint secretary or joint secretary-equivalent. Out of those officers, only five are IAS officers. Another highlight of the Sunday's appointments is, eight out of 14 newly-appointed JS happen to be women officers. Full list is here below:

2 WOMEN ON TOP: More about Karnataka’s new chief secretary K Ratnaprabha and DGP Neelamani N Raju

Ratnaprabha after being elevated as CS (Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

WITH 1981 batch IAS K Ratnaprabha’s appointment as the chief secretary of Karnataka, the state has two women officers at the top — chief secretary and director general of police (DGP). A month ago, 1983-batch Indian Police Service officer Neelamani N Raju took over as the DGP in the state. Here below are the 10 things that you may like to know about these two women officers.

IAS officers will now be trained on Beti Bachao Beti Padhao at LBSNAA

THE ministry of women and child development is collaborating with Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie, to train IAS officers on a variety of issues including Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, gender budgeting etc. In a tweet recently, it said: “Ministry WCD to collaborate with #LBSNAA, Mussoorie, to impart training and sensitise IAS officers on issues pertaining to gender”. According to the ministry, the IAS  officers will be trained on 4 issues. Those are:

What bureaucrats, diplomats have to say on International Women’s Day

Mumtaz Kazi while driving a train  

“May we grow in a world where our potential and those of 50% of the planet is fully realized in safety and with opportunity”, writes Paris-based India’s Ambassador to UNESCO Ruchira Kamboj in her message on the International Women’s day celebrated across the globe. And the Indian Diplomacy, the official Twitter account of India's public diplomacy under the ministry of external affairs, released the photo of CB Muthamma, the first woman to clear the ICS examinations. Muthamma who was the first woman to join the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is indeed the trail-blazer of Indian diplomacy. Another officer, an IAS, calls women an…

Year End Special: Corridor’s 5 women newsmakers of 2014

Ruchira Kamboj

WHEN the preparation for Narendra Modi’s swearing-in as the 15th Prime Minister of India began, the ministry of external affairs directed one of its diplomats, Ruchira Kamboj, to take the first flight from Paris. Kamboj who had just joined as India’s permanent representative to UNESCO, was to oversee the protocol arrangements of the foreign dignitaries to be present during the oath-taking ceremony. Here are the five women bureaucrats who turned newsmakers in 2014:

Do you know there is a provision of age relaxation for divorced women to join govt? 7 key provisions for women

Cleopatra: A painting by IAS Subhra Saxena

NO WOMAN officer has become a cabinet secretary or home secretary in the last 67 years of India's Independence. But, do you know women are officially encouraged to join the government service? Or, do you know about the provision for age relaxation for appointment in government service for women judicially separated from husbands and not re-married? If you don’t, here are 7 points below:

Trail Blazers: Why should you always remember these 12 women IFS officers

Muthamma: India's first woman IFS officer

HEARD of Madam Muthamma, India’s first IFS? Or, can you name the first woman spokesperson of India’s foreign office? Or the first pair of sisters in the Indian Foreign Service? And finally, the woman IFS officer who had to resign because she wanted to get married? Here are 12 women officers, taken out of the list of outstanding women IFS prepared by the public diplomacy wing of the MEA, who will always be remembered as trail-blazers in the service. Here it’s why:

Aspiring women civil servants in China protest over invasive health test

A GROUP of aspiring women civil servants in China recently staged a protest in the city of Wuhan holding banners saying: “What does your menstrual history have to do with becoming a civil servant?” Future civil servants were protesting against the detailed medical examination on a range of health issues including the state of a woman’s uterus, cervix and vagina,...

Sikkim’s women, bride price & Rinchen Ongmu as first woman chief secretary

Draupadi: A symbol of empowerment?

THE official website of the Government of Sikkim is running a ticker announcing that Ms Rinchen Ongmu, IAS has taken over as the “first woman chief secretary” of the state. For the rest of India, which has witnessed many a woman chief secretary, (India is however yet to get a woman cabinet secretary) this piece of news may sound uninspiring. But BoI takes you through a few factoids of Sikkim’s womanhood which will actually make…

Women Safety: Central IAS Association’s list of suggestions to Verma panel

A 17th Century Painting on Rape and Atrocities

Central IAS Association has suggested that the government should make it mandatory for all senior government recruits to sign a declaration that “they have not and will not either give or take dowry”. The Association which wants definition of rape to be changed to include marital rape, however, opposes “castration and other abnormal kinds of punishment”. In the wake of the recent gang-rape incident in Delhi, here are some of the suggestions submitted by Indian Civil and Administrative Service (Central) Association to JS Verma Commission appointed to examine the present laws on safety and dignity of women.

Any suggestion on women safety? Any Complaint? Contact Usha Mehra Commission at Vigyan Bhawan

ON DAY 1 of the New Year 2013, the government announced constituting a Special Task Force comprising Union home secretary, Delhi chief secretary among others to look into safety issues of women in Delhi on a fortnightly basis. Also, do you have any complaint or suggestions to make on women safety? You can contact Justice Usha Mehra Commission personally or call in the following telephone numbers:

Nirupama Rao's thoughts on women, gender blindness and her mathematician mother

Woman On Top: Rao with US secretary of state Clinton

INDIAN ambassador to US and 1973 batch retired IFS officer Nirupama Rao has called for more efforts to make science inclusive. Rao on Friday inaugurated the first Women Science Congress on the sidelines of the 99th Indian Science Congress (ISC) at Bhubaneshwar. Here are the excerpts of her speech on women in general, gender blindness in Indian science and her mother who solved difficult maths in her life.

Women In General

Women, as the popular saying goes, “hold up half the sky”. The Indian sky still needs many more skilled and qualified women to sustain it, and to disseminate the fruits of progress throughout the country…The image of the wise woman, the healer and nurturer who has access to the ocean of knowledge is common to many cultures.

Science Is Gender Neutral

Historical evidence and scientific research show that the pursuit of science is gender neutral. Yet, the contribution of women to technology is hidden from history. The moot point is why scientific streams remained largely male-dominated or why there are very few women members in various national science academies or in decision-making positions in scientific establishments. …We cannot afford to be charged with gender blindness in this crucial field that is so vital for India’s development.

Her Mathematician Mother

I was inspired to be an independent, professional woman by my mother who, in the year India won its independence, graduated from a college for girls in Mangalore with a first class degree in mathematics. I know 2012 is the Year of Mathematics. For me, as a little girl growing up in the fifties and sixties, mother was a fountain of knowledge and a go to person for all our math questions. And because math experts are also good at so much more, she was an expert on almost everything else. …She was the one who contextualized the story of Madame Curie for me when as a young nine year old, I read the Curie biography for the first time. Mother empowered us as a result of her own scientific temper and intellectual dimension. You educate a woman and she educates a family.