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MODI DRAWS LINE BETWEEN POLITICAL INTERFERENCE AND INTERVENTION p8 AWARDS FOR 2012-13 AND 2013-14 RECOGNISE WORK AT THE GRASSROOTS p16

Ma May a 5, 2 20 015 15 ` VO VOL O . 9, ISSU S E2

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CBDT Chairman Anita Kapur receiving the award from Prime Minister Narendra Modi

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CIVIL SERVICES DAY

GOVERNANCE AWARDS 2015 28-11-2015

AWARDS

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From the Editor

vol. 9, ISSUE 2 | MAY 2015 Anil Tyagi | editor TR Ramachandran | executive editor Niranjan Desai | roving editor GS Sood | consulting business editor Rakesh Bhardwaj | editorial consultant Naresh Minocha | contributing editor Narendra Kaushik | associate editor Harishchandra Bhat | associate editor (bengaluru) Ajit Ujjainkar | bureau chief (Mumbai) Venugopalan | bureau chief (bengaluru) Kanika Srivastava | sub-editor & coordinator Mayank Awasthi | reporter Pawan Kumar | production coordinator Sumer Singh | assistant manager, logistics Nipun Jain | finance Gautam Das | legal consultant Bushchat Media | edit & design Madan Lal | Webmaster Abhisshek Tyagi | Director advertising & marketing RAKESH ARORAâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; +919810648809 e-mail: adv@gfilesindia.com mumbai: 48/C-1, Areshwar, Mhada, S.V.P. Nagar, Andheri(W), Mumbai 400 053 bengaluru: 2210, 10b main road, 3 block, jayanagar, bengaluru 560 011 CONTACT â&#x20AC;&#x201D; +91 9845730298 e-mail: venu@gfilesindia.in $1,/ 7<$*, 35,17(5 38%/,6+(5 QG IORRU GGD VLWH QHZ UDMLQGHU QDJDU QHZ GHOKL Ä&#x192; 7(/ )$; +All information in gfiles is obtained from sources that the management considers reliable, and is disseminated to readers without any responsibility on our part. Any opinions or views on any contemporary or past topics, issues or developments expressed by third parties, whether in abstract or in interviews, are not necessarily shared by us. Copyright exclusively with Sarvashrestha Media Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction of any material of this magazine in whole, or in part(s), in any manner, without prior permission, is totally prohibited. The publisher accepts no responsibility for any material lost or damaged in transit. The publisher reserves the right to refuse, withdraw or otherwise deal with any advertisement without explanation. All advertisements must comply with the Indian Advertisements Code. Published and printed by Anil Tyagi on behalf of Sarvashrestha Media Pvt. Ltd at Kala Jyothi Process Pvt Ltd. E-125, Site-B, Surajpur Ind. Area, Gautam Budh Nagar, Greater Noida-201306 U.P. (INDIA). All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts in New Delhi only

HERE is popular discontent on the issues of farmers and their lot, land acquisition and proper utilisation of available land. All political parties are anxious to appear as champions of the cause of farmers. The paradox is that none has suggested a concrete solution. The contribution of agriculture to the GDP is approximately 13 per cent, according to data available for 2013, but more than 50 per cent of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population is dependent on agriculture. The biggest contribution to the GDP is not from industry (29.1 per cent) but from the human resource of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;53 per cent. A humongous challenge faces usâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;how to shift the dependence of 50 per cent of the population away from agriculture. The impact of trade liberalisation on agriculture and the global climate change are new challenges. At the same time, fresh opportunities are emerging for Indian agriculture, such as commercialisation of agriculture, diversification towards high-value commodities, and integration with the global markets. It appears that Indian agriculture, at a crossroads, is currently facing both unprecedented challenges and unparalleled opportunities. The key challenges are: (i) weakening of input delivery and local agri-governance systems; (ii) increasing risk in agriculture due to fluctuating weather, prices and trade policies, including the impact of globalisation; (iii) small, declining and fragmented holdings; (iv) growing marketing inefficiencies and increasing agri-waste; (v) limited employment opportunities in the non-farm sector; and (vi) innumerable cases of title deeds in various courts. Appropriate policy and institutional responses are needed to address these challenges by up-scaling and out-scaling some of the successful models evolved within and outside the country. On the brighter side, new opportunities are unfolding in the form of increased demand for agricultural commodities in both domestic and global markets as a result of higher economic growth and rising consumer income. The growing international demand for rice, wheat and maize besides that for cotton, soy meal, fish, meat, poultry and so on also opens up enormous opportunities for export. In addition, the increasing demand for high-value commodities such as fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, flowers and the like, and agri-processed products in the domestic markets is pointing towards potential prosperity that can be brought about in the farm sector. The entry of the corporate sector in developing and delivering market-driven technologies, contract farming, processing agriproducts, developing organised retailing and exploring markets for exports is providing a new dimension to Indian agriculture. But the moot question still remains as to how to involve the farming community, especially smallscale farmers, in capitalising markets and sharing the benefits arising from the new opportunities. Failing to address this problem now can lead to exploitation of the farming community, culminating in distress for small holders. Innovative policies, appropriate institutional arrangements and market-driven technologies can, on the contrary, harness the untapped opportunities and benefit the entire farming community. Modi has to draw up a long-term agriculture governance plan, especially for farmers. Otherwise, India may turn from being a food-surplus to a food-deficit nation and, worse, have the biggest army of unemployed. This would have multiplier repercussions, which could be unmanageable. ANIL TYAGI editor@gfilesindia.com

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gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

CONTENTS

LETTERS editor@gfilesindia.com

5 Bric-a-Brac

congress moods, smriti stays, dda and land acquisition, inexperienced khattar

Union Finance Minister. There are few people who work for their whole life with enthusiasm, irrespective of their age; they are just born to serve society and Mr Kapur is one of them! Anil Maheshwari via blog

8 Civil Services Day

no place for negativity, says modi to bureaucrats

16 accolades for grassroots work 33 introspection by cvil servants:

report of panel discussions on civil services day

From the heart

38 Governance

pension reforms increase risk 41 why have amnesty for tax defaulters?

44 Silly Point

modi gets the better of mufti

46 Stock Doctor

indicators send dismal message

48 Perspective

developing the mind

57 By the Way

keeping couples apart, khattar’s men, new boss, appointment of judges

Save environment If we all understand the relevance of environment, as is stated by everybody, then it is high time to protect it. We can still handle and improve its degradation. The first part of your cover story (gfiles, April 2015), all the needs and present conditions of environment preservation or destruction are penned very straight by the writer, whether it’s about the high level committee set up by the Prime Minister or its inefficiency to take care of the given targets. In the second part, the one-to-one interview with the secretary, MOEFCC, has educated the readers about the work of the ministry, its targets, its schemes and what all is covered under the ministry, whether land, water, air, forests or wildlife. I hope that organisations, civil society and people in general realise that we all have to work as partners. We should understand the direct message given by him that the environment will not wait for us! Sumit via email

Full of life This is with reference to your column profiling Surrinder Lal Kapur, an IAS officer of the 1960 batch (gfiles, First Stirrings, April 2015). He was a batchmate of Yashwant Sinha, former

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

This is in response to the column, My Corner (gfiles, April 2015). Thank you for this beautifully written tribute to Mr Rahul Sharma. It’s very hurtful to know how often men of integrity don’t get enough appreciation! Officers of Rahul’s calibre are few in number and there is reason for it! They have to fight on both ends with corrupt people and the corrupt government! How can one expect people to work fearlessly and do their job when everyone else is working against them? Unfortunately things aren’t going to improve since our elected officials are illiterate, criminals and dishonest! How frustrating and suffocating it must be for people of integrity to work under these circumstances! May God bless him and other officers like him. Naiyera Parween via blog I liked this column. Also, it’s from the heart and It is unique. Plaudits, affection and admiration from a peer are rare. Rahul Sharma will serve his family, his state and his country with distinction, I pray and hope. Shantonu Sen via blog

Poor anchors With due respect to the author (Silly Point, gfiles, April 2015), I fail to appreciate any of these anchors on Indian television. During my more than half a century of life in the West, I never saw a popular respected host to be anything other than “very firm but very polite”. Our people, as it stands today, have to traverse a long distance to be respected hosts. Nripen Acharya via blog

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Bric-a-brac bands & lands

New in the Congress changes highlight shift in thought

HOUGH the Congress has been marginalised in the political system of the country, a fierce war among the top political leadership continues. The top leadership is aware that it will take time for Rahul Gandhi to make an impact, and till then it is important to retain key positions in the party hierarchy. hierarch hy. This beca became c evident at the Kisan Rally organised in April by the the h Congress Congress at Ramlila Maidan. The permanent stage manager, Janardan Janard dan Dwivedi, was conspicuously absent from the podium. Digvijay Singh emerged as the leader of the show. Ashok Tanwar of the emer Youth Congress, Ajay Maken, Pratap Singh Bajwa of Punjab, C n Co J Ja ira Ramesh and Gulam Nabi Azad are some of the Jairam prominent faces that have emerged as the new team of Rahul. Capt. Amarinder Singh did not speak at the rally. Despite Bhupinder Singh Hoodaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efforts to bring whatever crowd he could Ho muster, he was not given much prominence. mus Manmohan Manm n oha Singh and AK Anthony know much about the party and as well as 10, Janpath, so they were given due respect. The veterans within the party are noticing a respe perceptible change and sensing an intense wrestle per even in these days of oblivion. ev

Smriti here to stay S minister with the right contacts m

INIST of Human Resource Development, Smriti Irani, INISTER appears to be perpetually in a mess. She is forging ahead appe on h her mission alone but that is not the way of politics which is all about walking walkin together. She does not believe in bowing to diktats. The television actor must mus have derived her skills by stealing the show in hit teleserials. No wonder she is a loner. She has been seen exiting the Lok Sabha to stand in the gallery, expecting journos or MP colleagues to greet g her. One day, she stood in the corridor of Parliament for half an hour, fiddling with her phone. Surprisingly, Surpri nobody disturbed her. According to party sources, Irani is not on cordial c terms with either BJP Chief Amit Shah or his confidants. Accordin According ing to the grapevine, there was a plan to remove her from the ministry. Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha was poised to take charge of the Human Resource Re Ministry but the plan was scuttled from the top at the last minute. Clearly, Irani has mentors in the right places despite C being a newcomer in the party.

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gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

INSIDE EYE

ILLUSTRATIONS: ARUNA

Land woes dda to take a call on land acquisition bill

HERE is a land racket bomb in Delhi, allegedly owed to none other than Kamal Nath. On September 5, 2013 (before the DDAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s notification 2687 E), it was decided by the Ministry of Urban Development to allow the land pooling policy where a landowner can surrender urrender land holdings into the central pool and be a stakeholder takeholder in the development proposed on the land. In n a way, it was a move to take away land jurisdiction from the Delhi Development Authority. Sources disclosed that all powerful Congress ministers and leaders of the Delhi Government aggregated gregated agriculture wherever it was available. Duee to the change in the master plan in Delhi, land nd prices skyrocketed in Dwarka, Najafgarh, Narela arela and Bawana. The planners were running against nst time as the 2014 general election was approaching hing and mandatory approvals had to be in place. According to the reports, the Lt. Governor of Delhii cleared the file this January and sent it to the DDA DA Vice

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Chairman. Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu is aware of the issue. Naidu has to decide whether Delhi has to make a move on the land pooling policy or not. Whether it is sanctioned or not, farmers who have taken the advance are happy as they are enjoying the luxuries of life without losing their land. The so-called farmer-friendly top Congress leadership is jittery as billions of rupees are at stake.

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Bric-a-brac bands & lands

Whose Haryana? brewing discord between cm and cabinet

ANOHAR Lal Khattar has been a simple social worker who enjoyed his life working with the RSS for 40 years. He had never dreamt of becoming chief minister of a state as volatile as Haryana. Politics has its own intrigues and it does not spare anybody. Sources say the central BJP leadership is introspecting on whether the party has committed a gaffe by appointing Khattar Khattar as

chief minister. There is no clarity on how and by whom the government is being run. The BJP leadership of Haryana does not know what to do. Haryana has a great advantage as a central office for any political party but Khattar is far from being able to handle issues. BJP President Amit Shah and Khattar appear to be at loggerheads. Shah desires fast-paced delivery of the in the state which is not t e political th politi t cal agenda agen happening. Khattar Kha h ttar has to deal with cabinet colleagues who openly defy him. Anil Vij, Health Minister and A close confidant of Shah, Shah never hides his animosity towards Khattar. Ram Bilas Sharma, Minister for Transport and a BJP has his own traits and P veteran, vet ambitions. Thee shrewde shrewdest of all is industrialist and Finance Minister, Capt. Abhimanyu Singh, who is also close to Sha Shah. ha ah. h Singh is a politician to watch out for in Haryana. announced an excise Haryana. He has recently r policy that has resulted in whisky and beer in re Haryana being more expensive Har than th in Delhi. There is a lot of discussion over the reason for d di the increased price. Who is patronising Singh? Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s much to look out for in pot-boiling Haryana.

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gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

CIVIL SERVICES DAY april 2015 bureaucracy

‘Sheelam Param Bhushanam,’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi honoured civil servants on Civil Services Day, a two-day event this year

by RAVINDRA DUBEY

ou should be proud to tell your grandchildren what you did, affecting the lives of common people by taking decisions in favour of the people, and not be telling them about your material accomplishments,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said to civil servants on Civil Services Day. He said that every bureaucrat should have at least one such feather in his cap during his career spanning 38 years. Addressing the civil servants, the Prime Minister recalled Sardar

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Vallabhbhai Patel’s vision of the civil services of independent India, and the role of the civil services in national integration. Today, socio-economic integration should also be an objective of the civil services, he said adding, the national unity implies an end to the digital divide, urban-rural divide, and all forms of socio-economic inequality. He said the entire administrative machinery should be geared up to serve the needs of society. “Sheelam Param Bhushanam,” (character is the highest virtue) the Prime Minister reminded the civil servants, urging them to maintain a

positive outlook. It used to be only a one-day affair so far, but Civil Services Day this year was given added significance by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Administrative Reforms. It was observed for two days, April 20 and 21, at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. Four themes, comprising the social sector, housing, employment and agriculture, marked the day this year. Many authorities on these subjects participated in the deliberations, which were followed by question and answer sessions. The day was celebrated after a gap of one

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HAMID ALI

Modi tells civil servants

year as it was not organised last year due to general election. The government gave away the Civil Services Awards for 2012-13 and 2013-14 together. The Social Sector was the opening theme of the first day. The Minister for Human Resources Development, Smriti Zubin Irani, chaired the session. Other speakers included Dr Vinod Paul of All India Institute of Social Sciences, Professor Govinda of NEUPA, retired IAS officer SC Behar of Azim Premji Foundation and Anil Sinha of the World Bank group. The deliberations concluded that there was an immediate need for penetration of the knowledge bank. Inclusive business models needed to be adopted, comprising low-cost

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gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

CIVIL SERVICES DAY april 2015 bureaucracy

fuel renovation, and there should be more refresher courses for teachers, it was felt. The speakers also stressed the need for skill development of frontline workers. The need for greater inter-departmental coordination was felt along with inclusive development through partnership in addition to strong lifestyle womb-totomb approach and use of technology for healthcare.

HIS was followed by deliberations on the Housing theme. The Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog, Dr Arvind Panagariya, chaired it. State Bank of India Managing Director B Sriram, retired IAS officer Dr M Ramachandaran, Mahindra Lifespaces CEO Anita Arjundas, IAS officers Sitaram Kunte and Sachin Jadav were other speakers. The deliberations pointed out that housing for all has been envisaged till 2022 and that the Union Budget

2015-16 has a provision of two crore houses in the urban sector and four crore in the rural sector. However, the obstacles to achieving this were availability of land, high cost of finance, procedural delays and other inadequacies. Housing, however, is a state subject and the Centre deals with policy planning only. The suggestions in this regard comprised full availability of land, creation of a repository for best practices, rent control reforms, rapid transport system, affordable

Civil Services Day was celebrated after a gap of one year as it was not organised last year due to the general election. The government gave away the Civil Services Awards for the years 2012-13 and 2013-14 together

housing in core infrastructure areas and rationalised duties and taxes on affordable housing. Next on the agenda was the theme of Employment, Skill and Entrepreneurship. The Minister for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Parliamentary Affairs, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, chaired the session. Other speakers included, QCI Chairman Adil Zainulbhai, Mohandas Pai of Manipal Global Education Services, RCM Reddy of IL&FS and IAS officer Sonal Mishra. The session revealed that the Indian workforce has to considerably grow over the current 800 million by 2022 and that today only 2 per cent of the workforce is skilled and literate. South Korea, with 96 per cent, tops the skilled and literate workforce lists, followed by Germany (75 per cent) and the UK (68 per cent). The session enumerated the measures to be taken in this regardâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;bringing aware-

Union HRD Minister Smriti Zubin Irani speaking at the session on Social Sector, a theme on Day 1

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PHOTOS: FOTOS4INDIA

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ness about vocational education, creating awareness about the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF), creation of National Career Counselling Centres and decentralised planning for states. The second day started with deliberations on the agriculture sector. Dr Ashok Gulati of the Indian Council of Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) chaired the session. Other speakers were Dr RS Paroda of the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS), Dr Pramod Joshi of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and retired IAS officer Ashish Bahuguna. The thrust of the deliberations was on concerns like viability of going for a particular crop, risk factor involved and the inefficient markets as there is a wide gap between the produce source and the market, maps are outdated and the land title system is by and large defective. What

was needed was technology, enabling institutions and policies and infrastructure development in addition to the need to strike a balance between research and development and the concerned departments as the farmer was deprived of the right knowledge to reap the benefits of innovation.

HE plenary theme of the function was ‘Context and Challenges of the Civil Services and the Way Forward’. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu chaired this session. The panelists comprised retired IAS officer TSR Subramanian, Shekhar Gupta of The India Today group, Foreign Secretary Dr Jaishankar and retired IPS officer K Vijay Kumar. Former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian said that there should be political reforms along with administrative reforms as earlier the district magistrate lived for his

district as he was attached to it. Today, the Chief Minister’s Office takes the smallest of decisions. Shekhar Gupta said that 95 per cent of bureaucrats were fundamentally honest but 99 per cent were bureaucratic. He said challenges before the bureaucracy were more today because, when the British had devised this system, there were only 40 to 45 crore Indians who were very poor. Dr Jaishankar said that the number of Haj pilgrims has gone up by 11,000 after the liberalisation of the Indian economy. Last year, 45 lakh visas and 99 lakh passports were issued. Besides, he said, 18 per cent of the budget of the Ministry of External Affairs was in establishment as diplomacy is a campaign. Adaptation is a challenge that services have been facing and so is coordination between different services and the government. He also said that the Ministry of External Affairs had raised more

Minister for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Parliamentary Affairs, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, chairs the session on Employment, Skill and Entrepreneurship

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CIVIL SERVICES DAY april 2015 bureaucracy

revenue than it spent. Retired IPS officer K Vijay Kumar also expressed his thoughts on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister of State for Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Dr Jitendra Singh, said that during the British Raj the ICS collector was supposed to collect revenue, But, after six decades, the present-day IAS collector is supposed to generate revenue. The minister also emphasised his government’s trust in the youth of

India and added that there could be no compromise on national interest. He said that literacy could be the key to a developed India in which women had to be educated and emphasis should be laid on sanitation, hygiene and human development. The minister announced exclusive yoga sessions for civil servants on June 21, the International Yoga Day. The plenary hall of Vigyan Bhavan was overflowing with attendees at the plenary session of the ninth Civil Services Day on April 21.

RIME Minister Narendra Modi stole the show. He said that a bureaucrat’s life should not remain confined to files. Though civil servants were good at time management, they needed to spend quality time with their families, he said. A stressful life with hectic schedules and circumstances cannot do justice to any cause. How would they run such a large country if they become dull, he asked. He added that he needed colleagues filled with energy.

The Right to Intervene? by MG DEVASAHAYAM

ONGRESS-LED UPA governments headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave India’s citizens several Rights— Information in 2005, Forest in 2006, Food and Education in 2009. Right to honest government came through the Lokpal, which is yet to see the light of day. Access to basic services, the very raison d’etre for the existence of governments, has become a Right in several states! As the government was drafting the Right to Housing, the 2014 elections intervened and the UPA was packed off. Otherwise we would have been loaded with many more ‘Rights’. The BJP-led NDA and its Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, does not want to be left behind. And so he has come out with his own Rights formula on Civil Services Day 2015—The Right for Political Intervention: “In a democracy, bureaucracy and political intervention go hand-in-hand. This is

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the speciality of democracy. If we have to run this country, we do not require political interference. But political intervention is necessary and inevitable, otherwise democracy will not work. Political intervention is required in a democracy as legislators are elected by the people. Political interference destroys.” Free dictionary defines intervention as “the systematic process of assessment and planning employed to remediate or prevent a social, educational or developmental problem”, whereas interference is “the act or an instance of hindering, obstructing or impeding”. So what the PM said is very true. But the problem is with the word ‘political’ which the same Free dictionary defines in various ways: 1. Relating to, or dealing with the structure or affairs of government, politics, or the state i.e. a political system. 2. Relating to, involving, or characteristic of political parties or politicians i.e. a political campaign. 3. Interested or active in politics i.e

political person. 4. Influenced by, based on, or stemming from partisan interests or political ideology i.e political institution/political crimes. 5. Based on or motivated by selfserving interests, especially in attempting to gain power i.e political maneuvering. As long as the PM’s intention is confined to definition 1, it is perfectly all right because this is the role of elected politicians in a democracy and there are well-defined institutions and mechanism for the purpose. They function as part of the governance system—framing of policies, enactment of laws, approving projects, allocation of budget and oversight of implementation. These need not be called interventions! Bureaucracy works under this system and all civil servants are trained and oriented towards this. But unfortunately, this species constitute only a small fraction of the current ‘political’ milieu. The real problem is ‘intervention’ by politicians other than elected representatives. Political parties do

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The audience mainly comprised senior bureaucrats, including Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, former Cabinet Secretaries TSR Subramanian, Prabhat Kumar, and secretaries to the Government of India, chief Secretaries of states and an overwhelming majority of officer trainees. Drawing a distinction between political interference and political intervention, the Prime Minister stated that the first one ruined the system but the other was necessary and inevitable in a democracy to ensure

most of the interventions and this is not proper since these entities neither have constitutional mandate nor laws and rules governing their functions. Almost all who are active in politics are influenced by partisan interests and their intervention would be injurious to fair, just and equitable governance. Of late, mafia interests have deeply penetrated politics, both inside and outside the legislature. Allowing them to intervene will sound the death knell of democracy and good governance. In the event, the Prime Minister, as the highest political executive of the country, must clearly spell out as to what he meant by â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;political interventionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and who are the politicians who fall in the eligibility category. As to political interference, it destroys the very fabric of administration. Since it mostly happens at the cutting-edge level, it is extremely injurious to public interest. After this exhortation by the Prime Minister, civil servants, particularly those in the field, should not only resist political interference, but also protect junior officials who dare to do so!

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(From top to bottom) Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Dr Arvind Panagariya speaking at the session on Housing; BMRCL Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola at the session on Farmer and Agriculture; and Union Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu speaking on the theme, Context and Challenges of the Civil Services and the Way Forward

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CIVIL SERVICES DAY april 2015 bureaucracy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi releasing the book, Best Practices—Tomorrow is Here, on the occasion

public interest-driven decisionmaking. Political intervention is a must in a democracy as legislators are elected by the masses, he said. The Prime Minster also called on civil servants to hold what he called the yuva mitra day by visiting colleges and talking to students about why they chose civil services over more lucrative avenues. They should also share their experiences with the youngsters to inspire them, he said.

RIGINALLY Y slated to speak for half an hour, the Prime Minister communicated with the audience for more than an hour, keeping them spellbound. He also mooted the idea of honouring retired bureaucrats over the age of 75 and making an effort to learn from their experiences. Modi also spoke in favour of a system in which anybody retiring from the service—from a peon to a chief secretary—would write down his experiences and learnings, which can then be stored on the ‘cloud’ online. The Prime Minister stressed the need of restoring institutional memory as governments can’t run without that. In this regard, he lamented that

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Drawing a distinction between political interference and political intervention, the Prime Minister stated that the first one ruined the system but the other was necessary and inevitable in a democracy the practice of leaving a note to the successor had become defunct from the bureaucratic system. Taking a dig at the tendency of going by the book, the Prime Minister also pointed out that it took an earthquake of devastating proportions to include other natural calamities in disaster management. He said earlier there were only droughts and floods in disaster management. When an earthquake hit Bhuj in Gujarat in 2001, only after that earthquake was also listed among disasters. “Why should we wait for anything like that to happen?” he asked. Referring to a Goldman Sachs report that India would take a decade to reach the Asian average on govern-

ment effectiveness, Modi sought to drive home the urgency of carrying out administrative reforms. He urged the bureaucrats to work as a team to take on the challenges ahead, develop a large institutional memory bank and, at the same time, help raise the next generation of civil servants. The Prime Minister also stressed the importance of ART—accountability, responsibility and transparency. He said good governance is not possible without ART. The Prime Minister said that teams of officers from various states should take up as case studies the award-winning projects and ensure that they were adopted as best practices wherever possible. The Prime Minister conferred the ‘Awards for Excellence in Public Administration’ for the years 2012–13 and 2013-14 to outstanding initiatives in Public Administration. He also released a book, Best Practices— Tomorrow is Here. The event was managed efficiently by Secretray Alok Rawat and Special Secretary Arun Jha (now Secretary, Tribal Affairs) of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. g

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CIVIL SERVICES DAY 2012-13 awards

GRASSROOTS IS THE BUZZWORD Name of the Initiative ‘Save the Girl Child’ to prevent foeticide Name of the Awardee Dr Darez Ahamed District Collector / District Magistrate, Perambalur District, Perambalur, Government of Tamil Nadu Project in Brief x Perambalur District is one of the most backward districts in Tamil Nadu, with the lowest per capita GDP in the state, and a predominantly agrarian society with 83 per cent of the population living in rural areas. x The literacy rate is 74.68 per cent— male 83.39 per cent and female 66.1 1 per cent with a gender gap of 16.5 per cent (Census 2011). x There was a sharp decline in the sex ratio (number of female children born as against 1,000 male children) at birth in recent years. It declined from 965 in 2007-08 to 851 in 2010- 11. x An action plan was drafted to study the situation and work towards achieving the goal of improving the declining sex ratio at birth. The project was named ‘Save the Girl Child’. x The project aimed at arresting and reversing the decline in sex ratio at birth using a multi-pronged strategy, which the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act was not able to achieve. x The project was initiated in August 2011 and has been running ever since.

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Highlights x Early ante-natal care registration. x All second trimester abortions were audited with regard to whether the abortion was spontaneous or done after sex determination. x All male births were audited to ascertain whether they had done sex determination. This audit yielded positive results since the parents were more forthcoming in identifying the scan centres. x Health Sub-Centre served as a unit of intervention. x Mapping of Health Sub-Centrewise sex ratio was done and specific intervention planned, depending on local problem identification. x Areas where abortion was found rampant were brought under continuous surveillance. x Regular follow-ups were done and constant vigil of all pregnant women was maintained by fieldlevel functionaries. x Multi-pronged and multi-departmental approach was used to create awareness, prevent sex determination and sex-selective abortion through campaign mode—with PHCs, doctors and VHNs playing an anchor role—guided and monitored by the district collector. Impact x The average sex ratio in the district improved from 861 in March 2012 to 1016 by March 2013. x Second trimester abortion cases were reduced to less than 20 from an average of 45 per month. x Maternal Mortality Rate of the district was reduced by 50 per cent—to 72 in 2012-13 as compared to 152 in 2011-12.

Name of the Initiative Hum Chhuyenge Aasman, Madhya Pradesh Name of the Awardees Vikas Khararkar District Sports & Youth Welfare Officer

Jameel Ahmad Assistant Administrator, State Sports Academy, Gwalior Project in Brief Women in Madhya Pradesh, particularly those in the tribal areas, have tremendous potential to excel in sports. But the lack of adequate opportunities, sophisticated coaching tools and women-friendly environment had limited women’s participation in sports. This initiative provides sociopsycho-spiritual, educational and economic empowerment of women through excellence in sports. This is done by providing scientific training through expert coaches; improving health through balanced nutritional diet; free formal education to create employment opportunities; attractive prize money; and assured government jobs to athletes of eminence. The project covers female athletes from all the 50 districts in the state. The selected women athletes are brought to the sports academies for skill development. As a result, the state is today able to provide a safe and secure women-friendly environment. It is also substantially contributing to the country’s medal tally in various international competitions.

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Highlights x Massive talent search conducted all over the state and intensively in tribal areas. x Wide publicity done for prospects and possibilities in sports. x Sports training linked with education and employment. Prize money doubled for the winners of state awards, national and international games and championships. ‘Khiladi Kalyan Kosh’ created for any exigencies. All boarding athletes provided with free formal education and athletes with outstanding eminence provided with government jobs. x Software support provided for talent search and coaching. x Athletes provided with balanced nutritional diets based on experts’ recommendations, regular medical check-up and medical insurance. x Existing academies upgraded to world-class standards and new ones created to tap tribal potential. x World-class equipment and playing kits provided for athletes. x Rigorous and intensive world-class coaching provided. x Exposure to national and international tournaments provided. x Winning skills inculcated in athletes through motivational and psychological training. x Women-friendly environment created for athletes. x Collection, compilation, analysis and synthesis of reports done for individuals/groups. Impact The initiative has resulted in improving women’s participation in sports, achieving qualitative and quantitative results, creating employment opportunities and inculcating a winning mindset amongst women athletes.

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Name of the Initiative Sakala; No More Delaysâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; We Deliver on Time Name of the Organisation Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms, Government of Karnataka Project in Brief The government of Karnataka has taken the initiative for the enactment and implementation of the Karnataka Guarantee of Services Act 2011 (now called the Karnataka Sakala Services Act). The Sakala Act has 375 services in its ambit and is applicable to the entire State, covering 33 departments and sub-departments. It has the highest number of services being rendered in the country. Over 3.19 crore citizens have availed of the services with a near 98 per cent success rate on time delivery, in a span of 15 months. Highlights x Pro-active engagement of citizens. x Ownership by government employees: Extensive discussions and deliberations were held with government functionaries and their associations to convince them about the benefits of implementing the Sakala Act and improving their â&#x20AC;&#x153;brand imageâ&#x20AC;?. x Performance agreements: Bottom-up planning done for choosing the services and preparing workflow charts to map the time taken by each government servant for processing various steps in providing the service ensured. This is to ensure that the administrative system is geared up to deliver much before the stipulated time. x Upgrading capacity and infra-

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structure: A detailed training plan was drawn up with the help of Administrative Training Institute, Mysore, to train 16,000 designated officials on the roles and responsibilities devolved by the Act as well as the rules and regulations prescribed under the new dispensation. This has been envisaged as an ongoing process. x Transforming work culture: E-governance is a catalyst in the implementation. The portal—www. sakala.kar.nic.in—provides a seamless interface between the citizen and the government official to receive, process, deliver and monitor the services as per a pre-designed format. x Management by objectives: Effective monitoring is the key to successful implementation of this project. A dedicated mission team is formed to monitor and track the programme progress. Besides, the alerts on pendency, defaults and so on are automated, thus focusing on the areas of concern. x Multi-pronged communication strategy: Over 1,600 street plays were enacted all over the state. Interactions with consumer forums, resident welfare associations, the student community as well as women self-help groups and other NGOs were carried out to spread awareness about the Act. Impact Improvement in delivery time of services, better beneficiary/citizens’ feedback and improvement in measurable indicators.

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Name of the Initiative Crop Pest Surveillance and Advisory Project for pest management for major crops in Maharashtra Name of the Organisation Commissionerate of Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra Project in Brief The project was undertaken after a severe pest outbreak on soybean crop during 2008-09 in Maharashtra, resulting in crop losses over an area of 9 lakh hectares and causing losses worth ‘1,392 crore. A team of experts deputed by the Government of India gave its observations and recommendations and an initiative was taken by the Commissionerate of Agriculture in technical collaboration with NCIPM, New Delhi, to formulate a long-term strategy to deal with such situations. For the first time in the country, a multi-stakeholder project, involving national crop research institutes, state agriculture universities and the State Department of Agriculture, was prepared and implemented through the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. Scientific pest monitoring on real-time basis was for the first time made possible in the country. The project covers the entire area—112.19 lakh hectares— under rice, soybean, cotton, tur and gram crop. Highlights x Software was developed to analyse the data online. x Effective use of ICT was made for rapid data transmission and issue of advisories to farmers. x Considering the multi-tasking

x x

nature of duties of departmental staff, 835 pest scouts and 84 data entry operators were appointed on contractual basis for the project. Connectivity was provided to all the stakeholders. Software and technical training was imparted to the field staff. Observations were recorded every Monday-Tuesday and ThursdayFriday from fixed plots and some random plots. Every Wednesday and Saturday, online data entry was done. Analysed data was made available online to experts to help them assist field officers. SMS messages of measures to be adopted were sent to farmers every Thursday and Monday. Detailed advisories were pasted at gram panchayat and publicised via print and electronic media. Weekly village-level meetings were conducted to guide the farmers. Pesticides were supplied on 50 per cent subsidy wherever the pest situation was above accepted norms. Rigorous monitoring was done at all levels. Pest population data was superimposed on weather parameter data through GIS maps to develop correlation of pest population dynamics for developing pest forecasting models.

Impact Since inception of the project there has been no outbreak of any major pests on selected crops. The number of farmers enrolled for the SMS service has doubled, advisories issued have increased by 4.63 times, number of sent SMS messages have increased by 11.3 times and the shift towards the use of bio-pesticides has increased by 1.57 times.

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Name of the Initiative IT Consolidation Project of CBEC Name of the Organisation Directorate of Systems, Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance Project in Brief The Directorate of Systems, CBEC, has implemented a consolidated IT infrastructure to host all its IT-enabled services across customs, central excise and service tax from a central data centre. This infrastructure has enabled high-quality IT services for taxpayers, other external stakeholders and internal users. The highlight is a standardised, stable and secure IT platform, compliant with ISO 27001 standards for information security and using the best practice framework of IT service management as embodied in Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Highlights There was a strong business case for IT Consolidation in CBEC as there was a clear need for a central, standards-driven, professionally managed IT service, leaving field offices free to attend to their core business activities. Some of the key tenets of the strategy adopted by CBEC include: &RPPLWPHQW IURP WKH WRS A major success factor of this initiative has been the support it received from the Ministry of Finance, senior government officials, CBEC board and officers at the Directorate of Systems (DoS) and commissionerates. 3URFHVV RULHQWHG DQG VWUXFtured framework: CBEC adopted

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ITIL as its governing framework for this project. 5ROH RI &%(& RIILFLDOV Every sub-component of the project is managed and monitored by CBEC officials. The chief information security officer and the information security officer are career IRS officers. (IIHFWLYH FRPPXQLFDWLRQ DQG training programmes: About 20,000 personnel were trained on Change Management and more than 100 on ITIL. Some senior officers are ITIL experts and are certified for COB IT, TOGAF, CISA and SAS. 5REXVW PRQLWRULQJ DQG HYDOXation framework: Measurable and meaningful KPIs have been defined to monitor and measure programme objectives and its achievement, reviewed on a quarterly basis by senior management. Impact The project has touched stakeholders across the categories of taxpayers, departmental officials and other government officials (across ministries / departments). There has been a significant enhancement in service delivery and transparency in operations. It provides a 24x7 window of services, alongwith provision for business continuity and transparency for the taxpayer and CBEC users. The initiative has brought the benefits of standardising processes and their governance, cost benefits, enhanced security, reduced manual dependence, higher service availability, and improved compliance and reporting. Enhanced reporting and data exchange one achieved through an integrated data warehouse and business intelligence system.

Name of the Initiative Easy Tax Compliance through Quality Services Name of the Organisation Central Board of Direct Taxes, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance Project in Brief The project focuses on the processes that have helped the Income Tax Department in realising the objective of providing a ‘non-intrusive tax administration’ for the taxpayer. The end-to-end e-enabled services provided are: ( SD\PHQW RI WD[HV ( ILOLQJ RI 7'6 VWDWHPHQWV ( SURFHVVLQJ DQG WUDFNLQJ RI TDS statements ( YLHZ RI WD[ FUHGLWV ( ILOLQJ RI , 7 UHWXUQV ( SURFHVVLQJ RI , 7 UHWXUQV ( PDWFKLQJ RI WD[ FUHGLWV ( WUDFNLQJ RI SURFHVVLQJ RI WKH income tax returns ( GHOLYHU\ RI UHIXQGV ( WUDFNLQJ RI WKH UHIXQGV Highlights The strategy was: 1. To establish a central information base which could consolidate, against each taxpayer, all the tax paid directly by himself and the TDS by all the deductors on his behalf. This required necessary administrative, legal, computing and communication infrastructure to facilitate uploading information in TDS statements by deductors and uploading of challan level information by the collecting banks to the central system. 2. To develop a platform to file income tax returns that facilitates

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filing on an anywhere and anytime basis. Since in the first step, information on tax payments pertaining to a PAN has been made available in the tax system, the matching of tax credits was possible without attaching physical documents. 3. To provide robust platform that ensures compliance on the part of the deductors on one hand and ensures correctness, completeness and reconciliation of tax credits for the deductees. Since nearly 40 per cent of direct tax revenues come through tax deduction by the deductors, a Centralised Processing Cell (TDS) at Vaishali has been developed. 4. To facilitate speedy processing of e-filed income tax returns since the delay in processing leads to increased administrative costs and increases taxpayer grievances. The positive impact of speedy processing inspires taxpayers’ confidence in the tax administration and has a positive effect on compliance. 5. To eliminate the physical writing of refund cheques. Delivery of all refunds be automated through a technology-driven process. Refund banker scheme was launched. Besides saving time and manpower, it also increased taxpayer confidence. Impact ,PSURYHPHQW LQ WKH GHOLYHU\ WLPH of services 6WUHQJWKHQLQJ RI WKH WD[ administration ,PSURYHG WD[ DGPLQLVWUDWLRQ 7D[ LQIRUPDWLRQ QHWZRUN ( SD\PHQW RI WD[HV &HQWUDOLVHG SURFHVVLQJ FHOO WGV

( ILOLQJ RI WD[ UHWXUQV

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Name of the Initiative Rationalisation of affidavits for reforming the public service delivery system Name of the Organisation Department of Governance Reforms, Government of Punjab Project in Brief The project aims at rationalisation of affidavits for reforming public service delivery. Affidavits were required in support of facts given by the applicants for issue of various certificates, (residence, etc.). Affidavits are affirmations by the applicants (supported in some cases by third parties) and imposed their own cost—buying stamp paper, locating a deed writer, payment to the notary for attestation and, of course, the time and effort consumed in these processes. However, affidavits have no particular sanctity in law and the same function can be easily performed by declarations. In Punjab alone, it is estimated that at least half the households file affidavits annually for one service or the other. Extrapolating this figure to India , the total number may be more than 20 crore citizens/affidavits. Assuming a cost of ‘400 per affidavit (one day’s wages plus stamps, fees and charges), the total expense would be about ‘8,000 crore. Highlights Innovativeness of the initiative and its replicability: Before starting the practice of self-declaration, affidavits were required for various citizen-centric services like residence certificate, issuance of ration card, etc. The new self-declaration

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CIVIL SERVICES DAY 2013-14 awards

practice has reduced the time, effort and costs of the citizen. Increased efficiency of outputs/processes and effectiveness of outcomes: Number of applications regarding affidavits has been reduced at Suwidha centres. Now Suwidha centre efficiency has been increased in terms of providing other services to the citizens. Sustainability: The initiative has already been implemented in more than 40 citizen-related services.

Name of the Initiative Saving the Womb—An Initiative to address and redress malpractices in the implementation of RSBY in Samastipur, Bihar

Impact ,PSURYHPHQW LQ GHOLYHU\ time of services: Suwidha centres are delivering other services within specified timelines and the actual number of services being dispensed at these centres has gone up four times between 2009-10 and 2012-13. %HWWHU EHQHILFLDULHV¶ IHHGback: This is general perception and the same is reflecting in numbers. Since affidavits have been replaced with self-declaration, the process has become smoother. ,PSURYHPHQW LQ PHDVXUable indicators: Number of applications regarding the affidavit have reduced at Suwidha centres drastically. In 2009, such applications were 14,88,053 and 65.5 per cent of total requests. In 2012-2013, it came down to 3,20,963 requests and 9.81 per cent of total requests. Simplified procedures: The practice of self-declaration needs to be adopted in place of affidavits. This will save a lot of difficulties, and sizeable expenses for the citizen, especially having to procure stamps/ stamp paper that is mostly not available at the place where the affidavit is to be submitted.

Project in Brief The project aimed to address and redress malpractices in the implementation of Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojana (RSBY) in Samastipur district of Bihar. An alarmingly high percentage (61 per cent) of hysterectomies in the district was a cause of concem. A detailed and scientific inquiry was undertaken to investigate allegations of malpractices in the implementation of RSBY. This led to revelation of physical and mental exploitation of gullible rural women by cheating them into unwanted uterus removal surgeries to make quick money.

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Name of the Awardee Kundan Kumar District Magistrate, Samastipur, Bihar

Highlights &UHDWLRQ RI PXOWL WLHU WHDPV DW various levels to reach out to each of the beneficiaries involved. 'HWDLOHG FDVH E\ FDVH LQTXLU\ E\ teams of doctors and administrators. 'LVWULFW OHYHO PHGLFDO FDPS KHOG to conduct a medical inquiry on 2,606 women. /HJDO DQG GHILQLWLYH DFWLRQ against all defaulting hospitals. Impact 7KH QRPLQHH LQLWLDWHG D PHGLFR legal investigation by reaching out to more than 5,000 beneficiaries. The medico-legal investigation included inter alia a five-day medical camp, in-

camera hearing of victims, and documentation of records running into thousands of pages, a quasi-judicial proceeding against erring clinics leading to de-empanelment of clinics and lodging of FIR against them. 7KH LQLWLDWLYH FUHDWHG D ORW RI awareness about reproductive healthcare of these rural women and their vulnerability to such malpractices in the guise of social welfare schemes. It led to greater sensitisation and awareness not only among the 5.5 lakh families living under BPL of Samastipur district but in the entire country. ,QVWUXFWLRQV ZHUH LVVXHG WR WKH OMs of the state to carry out similar investigations in implementation of RSBY in their districts. 3UH DXWKRULVDWLRQ ZDV PDGH mandatory for hysterectomy of women below 40 years of age. This led to a check in the wanton hysterectomy taking place across the state. *RYHUQPHQW RI ,QGLD LQWURGXFHG the categorisation clause in the empanelment of hospitals to weed out clinics with substandard physical and human resources. The approval of the District Core Committee headed by the district magistrate was made mandatory for the empanelment of health facilities under the scheme. 7KH HPSDQHOPHQW RI SXEOLF KRVpitals provided a credible alternative to the beneficiary. The empanelment of public hospitals led to flow of funds to the hospitals which was used for upgradation of infrastructure and incentivising doctors and paramedicals of the government system. 7KH SUHPLXP ELG E\ WKH LQVXUance providers after the initiative saw steep decline which meant saving of huge money for both the Centre and the state.

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Name of the Initiative Emotional Drive Campaign, Valsad and Vapi, Gujarat Name of the Awardee Dr Vikrant Pandey Collector and District Magistrate, Valsad, Gujarat Project in Brief Valsad is a tribal district where two talukas—Kaprada and Dharampur— are quite backward. As per the 2011 census, 55 per cent of the district’s population is tribal and 2.6 per cent is Scheduled caste. The BPL population of the district is 37 per cent. After the 2006 Forest Rights Act, a large number of user rights of forest land cases was pending in the district. Under the campaign, the following three categories of action were taken. 8VHU ULJKWV RI IRUHVW ODQG 6RFLDO 6HFXULW\ 6FKHPH 3DULFKD\ 6DPPHODQ IRU GLIIHUHQWO\ abled Highlights Transparency and stakeholder participation All beneficiaries were present at the site to receive the user rights of forest land and certificates were distributed at a single location at the same time in the presence of the chief minister. Red tapism from the system was thus eliminated and in a small time period, the benefits were delivered directly to the beneficiaries. Innovativeness of the initiative and its replicability Following this initiative, all the cases of FRA which were pending since long years have been successfully cleared and land allotted. Delivery was done to all beneficiaries based on a single site. The largest

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“Parichay Sammelan for differently abled” (deaf, dumb and blind) was held at Vapi. With Emotional Drive Campaign people connected directly with the government, resulting in lower resentment, and less number of andolans and dharnas. Impact Greater transparency was achieved in administration for all beneficiary programmes of the government. Red tapism was removed, thus narrowing the gap between the government and the public. Land planning was done by the Agriculture and Horticulture Department for tribal people who got user rights of forest land under the FRA. It has increased the productivity of tribal farmers and made a huge difference in the socio-economic conditions of the tribal people. They now also get personal and medical benefits from the government. Provision of land user rights of forests is a onetime, life-changing event for small and marginal farmers. Based on this resource, they are now able to generate livelihood, raise other resources and support their family members. The campaign was a basket of activities, including disbursement of forest land rights to 17,204 individuals, 100 per cent financial inclusion and covering 100 per cent pension schemes to eligible beneficiaries. There was improvement in delivery time of services and better feedback from beneficiaries. Improvement in measurable indicators and simplifed procedures were other important outcomes.

Name of the Initiative Jashn-e-Jamhuriat: Reasi— Celebrating Democracy (election project for combatting alienation and increasing inclusive electoral literacy and participation) Name of the Awardee Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary District Collector / District Magistrate/ Distt Development Commissioner, Reasi Project in Brief District Reasi in Jammu & Kashmir was among 12 districts having traditionally low turnout in elections. The district recorded a dismal 43 per cent in the 2009 Lok Sabha election with participation of nomads a meagre 23 per cent and women around 33 per cent. A project was launched by the District Collector/Deputy Commissioner for reaching out to all 3,35,000 voters, convincing poll boycotters to participate in the democratic exercise, identify differently abled voters and facilitate their participation, identify the polling booth with lowest participation of women, STs, SCs and organising a scientific campaign for their participation. More than 35 campaigns and 105 activities were launched under the project and 85 partner organisations roped in for sponsorship of campaigns. Highlights (VWDEOLVKPHQW RI WHDPV DQG LQIUDstructure at village / booth level %XLOGLQJ SDUWQHUVKLSV IRU VXVWDLQable initiative: 85 organisations 6SHFLDO SURJUDPPH IRU VFKRROV (OHFWRUDO gram sabhas: Reinventing grassroots democracy

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Â&#x2021; 9RWHU HQUROPHQW PLVVLRQ mode approach Â&#x2021; *UHHQ YRWH SODQWDWLRQ GULYH HQYLronment & democracy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; â&#x20AC;&#x153;One Sapling for one Voterâ&#x20AC;? Â&#x2021; Âł-,5*$Â´ 0LVVLRQ IRU HQUROPHQW of nomadic voters and their participation Â&#x2021; Jai Kisan Jai Hindustan campaign for electoral enrolment/ participation of farmers Â&#x2021; :RPHQ HQUROPHQW DQG WKHLU participation Â&#x2021; :UHVWOLQJ IRU 1DWLRQ 6SRUWV FDPpaign for electoral participation Â&#x2021; 'HPRFUDF\ EORRG GRQDWLRQ FDPSV Â&#x2021; (OHFWRUDO SKRWR H[KLELWLRQ Â&#x2021; 6WUHHW SOD\V DQG VKRZV Â&#x2021; Âł5HKEDUÂ´ VFKHPH IRU LQFOXVLRQ of specially abled, aged as well as infirmed voters. Â&#x2021; 6WDPSV 5HDFKLQJ KRPHV Âą '(2ÂśV message for electoral participation on documents Â&#x2021; /DQJXDJH DZDUHQHVV PLVVLRQ Â&#x2021; <RXWK 3DUOLDPHQW /LQNLQJ \RXWK Â&#x2021; &DPSDLJQ WKURXJK OHWWHUV 606 postcards Â&#x2021; 3ROOLQJ ERRWK FDPSDLJQV Â&#x2021; 3ROOLQJ VWDWLRQ DGRSWLRQ Âł$SQD Booth Campaignâ&#x20AC;? Â&#x2021; 7DUJHWWHG FDPSDLJQ IRU LGHQWLILHG polling booths for inclusion Impact The results of the project in this militancy-infested district are a national record, with turnout increasing from 43 per cent to 81 per cent, womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s participation up from 33 per cent to 79 per cent, participation of nomads up from 23 per cent to 80 per cent and setting up of permanent structures of 301 polling booth area teams to strengthen democracy. The Election Commission of India has rated the project as exceptional and extraordinary, as an example for others in the country to replicate.

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Name of the Initiative Surguja Fulwari Initiative, Chhattisgarh Name of the Awardee R Prasanna Collector & District Magistrate, District Surguja, Chhattisgarh Project in brief The Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) is the main national programme on nutrition. Its resources, however, are focused more on children in the age group of 3-6 years. For pregnant women and under-3 children, ICDS mainly provides Take Home Rations (THR) which is not adequate to address the gaps in dietary diversity and daycare. Surguja Fulwari Initiative is an innovation to set up communitymanaged child nutrition-cum-daycare centres called Fulwaris. Highlights 7ULEDO KDELWDWLRQV ZLWK KLJKHU levels of deprivation and malnutrition were prioritised for starting Fulwari centres. Those habitations were selected where the local community resolved to run a Fulwari centre by contributing voluntary time for childcare. Gram panchayats and Community Health Workers called Mitanins worked together for mobilising the communities. The Zilla Panchayat provided a grant (average ‘50,000 per annum) to mothers’group in selected habitation to run the Fulwari. &KLOGUHQ DJHG PRQWKV WR \HDUV and pregnant and lactating women come to Fulwari and receive three hot cooked meals daily. Egg, green vegetables and oil form some of the key components of food in the Fulwari. Every day, two of the mothers volun-

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teer their time to cook and take care of children. The space is contributed by any willing member of the community. The grant from the Zilla Panchayat is mainly used by the mothers’ group for buying rations and vegetables. By their active involvement in running the Fulwari, mothers also learn more about child feeding and hygiene. They are also trained to grow kitchen gardens, backyard poultry, fruit trees, etc., in their homesteads. )XOZDUL LV DQ LQQRYDWLYH LQLWLDtive which does not appoint any new worker nor does it need any new infrastructure and yet is able to provide nutrition and daycare services for young children. It is a sustainable model which spends government funds directly on food for children and pregnant women and not on paying more workers. The biggest advantage is that there is hardly any gestation period in starting the Fulwari since no recruitment (of staff) or construction (of building) is involved. Impact Mothers’ groups have managed to run nearly 300 Fulwari centres for almost a year now with their voluntary efforts. Around 3,500 children and 600 pregnant women have benefited from the project. The initiative has succeeded in involving panchayats in addressing malnutrition. The knowledge of mothers has also improved in terms of childcare practices. A significant drop in the measurable indicators of child malnutrition, morbidity and mortality has been recorded.

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Name of the Initiative Revival of Sasur Khaderi—2 Rivulet and its Origin, Thithora Lake in Fatehpur District, UP Name of the Awardees Kanchan Verma

pradhans to support this mission and motivate labourers to come to the work site. BDOs had village-level meetings at every village along the river. Meetings were held with college principals, industries, social workers and media so that the objectives of the mission could be propagated.

Executive Engineer

Highlights 0HWLFXORXV SODQQLQJ &RQYHUJHQFH DSSURDFK 4XQHW PRGHO 0DNLQJ LW D SHRSOH¶V SURMHFW 0D[LPLVLQJ WKH RXWSXW &DUH IRU ODERXU &ORVH PRQLWRULQJ

Project in Brief The project began with Sasur Khaderi which originates from a lake in Thithora village and then carves out its course through four blocks of the district. The total distance the river covers is 46 km before it falls into the Yamuna. This river is the drainage for many small and big drains and rivulets. Under the project, a 38-km stretch of river Sasur Khaderi and its origin, Thithora Lake in district Fatehpur, were recreated and rejuvenated under MNREGS generating 2,04,900 man-days of employment in a record 45 days and the dead water bodies were brought back to life. The initiative sought to tackle acute water crisis in the dry season and the problem of water-logging during rains by way of revival, restoration and rejuvenation of the rivulet. It recreated water storage capacity in an area of 7.377 hectares and also improved ground water recharge together with flood mitigation during rains. At the same time, the project aims at preventing the soil from turning sodic and infertile. Meetings were held at all the four block headquarters to request the

Impact +\GUDXOLF SDUDPHWHUV Postinitiative discharge on July 16, 2013 was measured as 689.95 cusecs compared to almost nil in the previous years. Similarly dead storage in the lake on June 15, 2013 was measured at approximately 15,000 cubic metres. (PSOR\PHQW JHQHUDWLRQ There were 2,04,900 person-days generated in 45 days raising the district average from 30 to 90 mandays per year. 0LWLJDWLRQ RI IORRGV DQG water-logging: No water-logging occurred in the catchment areas of the water bodies during the heavy rainfall of 2013 which was a common feature in previous years in similar situations. ,PSURYHPHQW LQ HQYLURQment: Plantation was done on the lake boundary and rivulet banks to add to the environmental quotient of the area. As a result, soil will be saved from turning sodic and infertile due to water-logging. The lake site will also provide a habitat for diverse flora and fauna and a destination for migratory birds.

Special Secretary, Government of UP

Harish Chandra District Development Officer

Kaptan Singh Executive Engineer

Arvind Kumar

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Name of the Initiative Achieving Total Financial Inclusion in West Tripura District through e-ROR (e-Record of Ordinary Residence) & Common Service Centres piloted at Mandwi block Name of the Awardees Abhishek Singh Distt Magistrate & Collector, Tripura

Gitte Kiran Kumar Dinkarrao Pramod Kumar Pal Manohar Bishwas Pradip Roy Project in Brief To achieve Total Financial Inclusion in West Tripura district. an initiative was launched in tribaldominated Mandwi block in coordination with banks, common services centres, panchayati raj institutions and NIC through tracking and identifying uncovered families as per e-ROR (e-Record of Ordinary Residence) and bringing them under banking facilities through brick and mortar branches and branchless banking (CSCs/ USBs) in remote areas. Now 100 per cent coverage has been achieved with CBS accounts and most of the benefits are now routed through bank accounts only. The initiative is being replicated in other blocks as well in the year 2014-15. Highlights SHU FHQW FRYHUDJH RI DOO IDPLOLHV with CBS accounts 2SHQLQJ RI IRXU &RPPRQ 6HUYLFH Centres (USBs) and two ATMs, and 20 USBs in entire district 6HHGLQJ RI DFFRXQWV LQ WKH H 525

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and maintenance of database *,6 EDVHG PDSSLQJ IRU RSHQLQJ RI new bank branches and USBs 5ROOLQJ RXW RI (OHFWURQLF )XQG Management System (EFMS) 'RRUVWHS VHUYLFH GHOLYHU\ WKURXJK Business Correspondents /LQNLQJ RI EHQHILWV OLNH SD\PHQW under MNREGS, lAY, NSAP, NBA, JSY, JSSK, etc $YDLOLQJ RI WKH FUHGLW IDFLOLWLHV LQ priority sectors Impact $OO IDPLOLHV ZHUH FRYHUHG ZLWK &%6 bank accounts ([WHQVLRQ RI EUDQFKOHVV EDQNLQJ through 20 USBs (OHFWURQLF WUDQVIHU RI EHQHILWV under MNREGS, lAY, JSY, etc SHU FHQW LQFUHDVH LQ FUHGLW LQ the agriculture and allied sectors in two years 6HHGLQJ RI WKH DFFRXQWV LQ WKH GDWDbases of schemes and banks 6XLWDEOH SODWIRUP WR DFKLHYH objectives of PMJDY by October/ November, 2014

Name of the Initiative LADO (An innovative initiative for eradicating child marriages) Name of the Awardees JN Kansotia Principal Secretary, Government of Madhya Pradesh

Kalpana Srivastava Rekha Sharma Harish Khare Arvind Singh Bhal Tini Pandey Sushil Kumar Verma Project in Brief The LADO campaign has been initiated by the Directorate of Women Empowerment, Government of Madhya Pradesh, for creating an environment for eradicating child marriage in the state. It is designed with a view to sensitise and train the community about the consequences of child marriage. The LADO campaign has the following four components: &RPPXQLW\ VHQVLWLVDWLRQ 7UDLQLQJ RI FRUH JURXS PHPEHUV 3URPRWLRQDO FDPSDLJQ 3UHYHQWLRQ RI FKLOG PDUULDJH Highlights &RQVWLWXWLRQ RI D FRUH JURXS LQ each village/ward for prevention of child marriages )RFXV RQ VHQVLWLVDWLRQ RI WKH community for creating an enabling environment )RFXV RQ WKRVH DUHDV DQG GLVWULFWV where incidence of child marriage is high (QKDQFLQJ FDSDFLWLHV RI WKH FRUH group members 3URPRWLRQDO FDPSDLJQV WKURXJK radio jingles, television scrolls,

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television talk shows, film broadcasting, etc Â&#x2021; 8VH RI WUDGLWLRQDO PHWKRGV OLNH UROH play, nukkad natak for specific campaigning Â&#x2021; (IIHFWLYH XVH RI SULQW PHGLD WKURXJK advertisement and other methods of dissemination of information like hoardings, flex, publicity, etc Â&#x2021; &RQFXUUHQW PRQLWRULQJ WR HQVXUH success in the initiative Impact Â&#x2021; 2YHU FRUH JURXSV KDG been formed in just over one year Â&#x2021; ,Q D VSDQ RI RQH \HDU WRWDO ODNK people were sensitised by the core group through 80,000 Aanganwadi centres Â&#x2021; $ WRWDO RI VFKRROV ZHUH covered by the core group where sensitisation programmes for children were conducted for making them aware about consequences of child marriages Â&#x2021; 3ULRU WR WKH LQLWLDWLYH WLOO 0DUFK 2013 only 181 child marriage functions were stopped. After initiating the LADO campaign, the number of child marriage functions has decreased remarkably Â&#x2021; ,W KDV EHHQ REVHUYHG WKDW ,QGRUH Bhopal and Ujjain divisions have reported the maximum instances of child marriages and its prevention due to the inclusion of tribal districts like Dhar, Khandwa, Jhabua, Vidisha and feudal-dominated districts like Rajgarh, Ratlam, etc., where the practice is prevalent Â&#x2021; (YROXWLRQ RI FRUH JURXSV with enhanced knowledge about child rights Acts Â&#x2021; 6HQVLWLVDWLRQ RI VFKRROFKLOGUHQ has led to proactive responses from their side towards the issue of child marriages Â&#x2021; (QKDQFHG HQUROPHQW RI FKLOGUHQ and their retention in schools

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gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

CIVIL SERVICES DAY 2013-14 awards

Name of the Initiative Skill Development Program to impart vocational training to the tribal youth, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra Name of the Awardees Ranjit Kumar, District Collector, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra

Abhishek Krishna TSK Reddy PY Deshmane YS Shende Project in Brief 7R LQFUHDVH WKH HPSOR\DELOLW\ RI the youth largely dependent on the primary sector, an initiative called Skill Development Program was initiated on the guidelines of the Prime Minister’s Councill for Skill Development. The Career Guidance and Counselling Centre in the district was formulated to regulate the programme under the control of the District Skill Development Executive Committee, chaired by the District Collector. 7KH XQHPSOR\HG XQGHUHPSOR\HG youth undergo counselling at the village level which is followed by an entrance examination in the form of an aptitude test and personal interview. This helps in determining a suitable trade as per the ability and inclination of the selected candidates. So far the candidates were trained in three domains, viz., hospitality, construction and automobile, This year onwards, the CGCC is planning to scale up and include 13 more disciplines. 7KH FRQFHSW LV WR LGHQWLI\ \RXWK WR whom quality skill development training could be imparted, which would help to bridge the unem-

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ployment vs. labour deficiency gap. Apart from providing consistent and sustainable source of income, the programme is also assisting in reducing disguised unemployment in the agriculture sector. Highlights Â&#x2021; +LJKHU JUDVVURRWV FRYHUDJH through counsellors. Â&#x2021; 6HOHFWLRQ RI FDQGLGDWHV WKURXJK examination and interview which helps to identify the trade that is suitable for the selected candidate as well as the market demand for such trade. Â&#x2021; 7UDLQLQJ DQG WUDQVSRUWDWLRQ FKDUJes are directly borne by the district administration while expenditure on food and accommodation is done by the institute which is reimbursed after completion of training. There is no cost to the candidate. Â&#x2021; &RQVLGHULQJ WKH IOH[LELOLW\ DQG frequency required, a new batch is started to accommodate the requirement every month. Â&#x2021; ,Q WKH SDVW WKUHH \HDUV SHU FHQW of the trainees have been successfully placed, many of them in major cities and industries. Â&#x2021; 2Q DQ DYHUDJH WKH FDQGLGDWH receives â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;8,500 per month along with job availability round the year. Impact In the past three years, the programme has shown promising success in terms of the number of candidates joining the programme as well as the placements that have been secured. Candidates who have succeeded in achieving placements through this initiative are now assisting the programme publicity. There is a high degree of convergence and inter-department coordination in terms of outreach of the programme.

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Name of the Initiative Eraviperoor Grama Panchayatâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Success Story of Local Self-Governance Name of the Organisation Eraviperoor Grama Panchayat, Kozhimala P.O, Thiruvalla, Pathanamthitta District, Kerala Project in Brief The project achieved a paperless and modern office at Eraviperoor panchayat with a Village Knowledge Centre, Environment Gram Sabha, waste management , a mini water supply scheme, Arogya Sabha, Jagratha Samithy, etc. Highlights 1. Paperless Office a. Online certificates b. Digitalisation of office records c. Notices and information through voice and text messages d. Salary of employees and honorarium or board members through bank e. Tracing of records and documents within five minutes f. Touchscreen facility to trace the file movement and information g. All sections of the office, including Front Office, networked h. Installation and application of 12 softwares developed by Information Kerala Mission. Â&#x2021; 9LOODJH .QRZOHGJH &HQWUH Activities include a reference library; training for school students for civil services and other competitive examinations; classes in Sanskrit, etc.; preparing a directory of history, cultural and the traditional knowledge of the village.

Â&#x2021; (QYLURQPHQW *UDPDVDEKD Special gram sabha set up in all wards to create awareness on environment issues and waste management. Also, 20,000 seedlings were distributed to gram sabha participants Â&#x2021; :DVWH 0DQDJHPHQW Under this programme, activities undertaken included distribution of biogas plant, vermi-pipe-ring compost units; plastic recycling unit; plastic road; compost pit; modern slaughterhouse; modern fish market; and setting up of a ward committee giving importance to ecology Â&#x2021; 0LQL :DWHU 6XSSO\ 6FKHPH Eight schemes have been completed under SC/ST plan fund while two schemes under general fund and two schemes under SC/ST plan fund are nearly complete Â&#x2021; $URJ\D 6DEKD Yoga classes held at eight centres; Ayush sub-centres and a yoga centre started at Primary Health Centre Compound; karate classes for 105 girl students; renovation of Primary Health Centre building; pain and palliative care; and insurance coverage for cancer treatment Impact The positive changes brought about by the initiative are appreciated by the people and a survey shows the quality of the service has improved. It is an experiment in good governance to ensure the well-being and good livelihood of the people of the panchayat. The completion of the implementation of each of the projects results in better growth.

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CIVIL SERVICES DAY 2013-14 awards

Name of the Initiative Canal Top Solar Power Plantâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;A New Direction to Green and Clean Energy Name of the Organisation Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Ltd (GSECL) Project in Brief Given the need to economise use of fast-depleting energy sources like coal. oil, gas, etc., and increasing awareness about the importance of green and clean energy, the Gujarat government introduced the Solar Policy 2009. This project exploits Solar Urjashakti with Jalshakti while saving land and conserving water by reducing evaporation. Highlights The site for the project was selected after scientific study. Minimisation of the transmission loss led to strengthening of the grid. Latest technology was used for monitoring of the plant. The project was commissioned within six months. Impact Generation of 3,935 MW of green energy during the period February 2012 to August 2014 (30 months). About 3,770 tonnes carbon emission saved till August 31, 2014. Saving of nine million litres/MW of water/year. Development of surrounding area with greenery. As the project is fully replicable, further projects with higher generation capacity are being planned in the state, on the existing Narmada main as well as branch canal. Employment opportunity for minimum 10-15 persons, unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled, depending on length of canal.

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CIVIL SERVICES DAY exclusive deliberations

For next-gen governance The celebration of Civil Services Day also saw an exuberant churning of the mind. The cream was churned vigorously and up came the butter after separating from milk. The same was the case with the two-day panel discussions on as many as five topics, including Social Sector, Housing, Employment, Agriculture and, to cap it all, challenges before the civil services in which the crème de la crème participated in the deliberations. Three main points came up during the discussions. One was that skills are of paramount importance in any sector. Even civil servants needed domain- or sector-specific skills, project, programme and contract management skills. Two, the need for convergence. Convergence between different services, different sectors and different fields is absolutely essential to take the country forward on the path of development. Three, the task of amending or totally changing the regulations and making them people-friendly. gfiles’ Ravindra Dubey covered all these sessions.

MPORTANT points emerged in the panel discussion on ‘Context and Challenges of the Civil Services in India’ and thus surfaced suggestions on making the civil services a more effective tool of public service delivery and contributing to the country’s development. The panel concluded there was an urgent need for balanced development

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across the country, replication of the mechanics of good governance and their adaptation throughout. A common and integrated action plan of nation-building is needed through effective delivery of public services in an accountable, transparent, citizen-friendly, innovative, highquality, cost-effective and timebound manner.

Throughout its deliberations, the panel strongly felt the necessity for a lateral exchange of expertise between the government and private sector, instituting rewards for timely completion of projects, tenural stability to ensure performance and productivity and least political interference, greater reliance on technology and focus of administrative reforms on electoral, political and judicial reforms. The panelists were unequivocal that maximum governance and minimum government is achievable only when the bureaucracy readies itself to embrace skill, scale and speed. For this, reforms have to be so directed that the civil services become skilled, open, converged and connected. As far as skills are concerned, the bureaucracy has to equip itself with domain/sector-specific skills, project/programme management skills, including commercial, legal and financial negotiation, and contract management skills to implement large projects in a timely and costeffective manner. In addition, civil servants should develop digital skills for improved service delivery and increased reliance on e-governance and mobile governance. This is specifically vital for the lower bureaucracy since they are in the front-line of public service delivery. The deliberations focused on cross-departmental working, interdepartmental engagement, and lateral communication among and within departments. A pressing need for breaking down the silos within the government was felt to unlock productivity and outcomes. Adoption of a shared services model was recommended for services such as IT, finance, procurement and so on, to avoid duplication in effort and cost. A need for the state government departments to share learning and

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CIVIL SERVICES DAY exclusive deliberations

The session on Social Sector was chaired by Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani

best practices with their counterparts in other states was also felt. It was also felt that policies should be formulated with an open mind on new thinking or in consultation with external experts. Even the members of civil society, think-tanks, universities, other countries and states should be included in the process. Besides, social media, crowd sourcing and open sourcing can be utilised to connect with people and promote participatory governance. The culture of openness needs to be adopted for new forms of partnership with the private sector as there is also a need for the bureaucracy to be connected within and globally to imbibe best practices. It should also be connected to counterpart organisations and have horizontal networks across the world. Understanding global best practices will help the civil services to develop world-class acumen, felt the panelists. The panel discussion on ‘Social Sector’ had a focus on health, nutrition and education. The most critical learning from the panel was that though there was a clear-cut need

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for context-specific solutions, certain common underlying principles are imperative for an informed policy discourse. These principles are: greater interdepartmental convergence in policies and implementation, inclusive development through partnerships, focus on lifestyle (womb to tomb) approach in nutrition and health and the use of technology for healthcare and education.

n the need for structural percolation in policy planning, it was emphasised that there could be no compromise on education in the national interest and literacy is key to improving public health in India. The panelists identified the key challenges as nutrition, goal of education, learning outcomes, inclusive development and role of the private sector. On the issue of nutrition, challenges that stunting, wasting and undernutrition posed and their irreversible adverse impact on health and economic development were discussed. Women’s education and greater inter-sectoral convergence to impact

PHOTOS: FOTOS4INDIA

health-sensitive indicators like sanitation, hygiene, women’s empowerment and education were stressed upon. While discussing the goal of education, the need to focus on social development with economic development being an instrument to support and accelerate it was highlighted. It was felt that the need of the hour is for civil servants to act as agents of social change. On the question of learning outcomes, the panel proposed that the quality of education is more relevant than merely increasing enrolment or tests. The quality of teachers, their subject knowledge and ability to impart learning, the immediate need for penetration of knowledge banks up to the block and village level, the need to focus on holistic and cognitive learning and the critical importance of girl child education, which has a multiplier effect on various socio-economic indicators, were the challenges that were identified. On inclusive development and role of the private sector, there was a discussion on inclusive business models and the potential for making India the

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world’s innovation hub for products and services. As far as opportunities and the way forward are concerned, the panelists felt that certain initiatives could be introduced or strengthened in the short term. For instance, on the issue of education, refresher courses for teachers, retention and incentives based on performance and penetration of knowledge resources to the block level can be introduced. State governments could supplement with programmes on adolescent nutrition, IEC strategies for birth spacing, conception post the age of 20 years and strict adherence to antenatal care. The deliberations of the panel discussion on ‘Housing’ established that the Union Budget 2015-16 has envisaged a roof for each family in India, that is, “housing for all” by 2022 — the diamond jubilee year of India’s Independence that will be celebrated as Amrut Mahotsav. The current housing shortage has been estimated at about 4 crore units in rural and 2 crore units in urban areas. More than 95 per cent of this shortage is among lower income groups/economically weaker sections of society. Availability of land, high cost of A financing, ineffective policies, lack of standardised regulations leading to procedural delays and inadequacies in project delivery were identified as the main challenges in the housing sector. Since housing is a state subject, the bulk of the required action needs to be carried out by the states. The Centre’s role is limited to that of policy formulation, planning, providing regulatory environment and facilitating access to finance. A Also, urban and rural local bodies share a crucial role at the ground level. The panelists discovered specific areas of challenge and strategies to

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meet at the Centre, state and local levels, respectively. As far as land is concerned, the panelists observed that the Centre may facilitate creation of an inventory of unused public land and land acquired as per the Urban Land Ceiling Regulation Act (ULCRA), 1976. It may make affordable housing an integral aspect of new smart cities. On the other hand, states can increase the FSI norms in city centres to allow for high-rise growth along with improving and strengthening the existing infrastructure. States can also reform rent control laws, to enable the rents to rise at par with inflation and can digitise land records.

Maximum governance and minimum government is achievable only when the bureaucracy readies itself to embrace skill, scale and speed. For this, reforms have to be so directed that the civil services become skilled, open, converged and connected Local bodies can demarcate and integrate affordable housing in the master plan like the Ahmedabad A model. They can also merge transport plans to ensure rapid transportation links connecting upcoming housing with work centres. As far as finance is concerned, the panelists observed that the Centre can prioritise affordable housing by bringing it in the core infrastructure sector. This will enable housing to have better access to funds and greater procedural transparencies. The Centre can also develop low interest financing such as bonds, REITs, insurance and pension funds. Besides, with lar-

gescale financial inclusion happening through the Jan Dhan Yojana, fulfillment of KYC norms and other verifications have become easier. In this context, a model streamlined process for approval for low-income persons employed in the informal sector can be drawn up by the RBI. Similarly, states can reduce and rationalise duties and taxes on affordable housing.These form a substantial portion of the housing cost. They can also organise consultations with housing finance institutions to develop customised products suited to the state’s requirements, products for women borrowers, for instance.

HE Centre, on the policy formulation front, can link central funding and incentives for implementation of law and policy reform such as rent control legislation, building bylaws and so on. States, on the other hand, can create more rental housing for new entrants to cities through their own funds and through incentives to private developers and evolve a participatory land pooling policy as has been done in Delhi. Local bodies in this regard can make the holding of unused land more expensive through higher duties and taxes. In case of regulations, the Centre can establish a common regulator for all housing finance institutions for parity and transparency and states can establish real estate regulatory authorities once the relevant Act is in place. Local bodies, in this regard, can streamline building bylaws and establish single-window online clearances to eliminate ground-level corruption. They can also create land banks for future housing requirements as is the case in Hyderabad. In the matter of project delivery, the Centre can encourage private sector

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CIVIL SERVICES DAY exclusive deliberations

participation by easing the policy’s environment and can include modern building technologies for low-cost housing in the national building code. States on this front can adopt modern and indigenous low-cost housing technologies suited to the region and earmark available land parcels for private development with clearances and allied infrastructure already in place to minimise project delays. Local bodies can encourage training of workforce in modern technologies and simplify building bylaws and enforce stricter implementation through better monitoring. Besides, in rural areas, community-led housing construction with collective procurement can lead to economies of scale and better empowerment of individual house-owners. On ‘Skill, Employment and Entrepreneurship’, the panelists observed that with millions of people entering the workforce on an annual basis, India’s workforce is expected to grow to over 800 million by 2022. Given the rising demand for workforce across the global economy and India’s favourable demographic setting, the country has a window of opportunity to become a manufacturing hub and an exporter of skilled workforce. However, the challenge is the current level of underskilled workforce. Among new entrants to the workforce, only 2 per cent have received any kind of formal vocational training; this is abysmally low when compared to 96 per cent in South Korea, 75 per cent in Germany and 68 per cent in the UK. Some key challenges emerged during the deliberations regarding skills, employment, entrepreneurship and the eco-system. The panelists discovered that vocational education has low aspirational value attached to it because students and parents prefer academic degrees.This leads to

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scarcity in white collar jobs. The panelists also felt that convergence is needed between policy and implementation levels to optimise resources. Similarly, there was a need for rationalisation in various schemes run by different ministries to avoid duplication. Employability needs to be enhanced by aligning skill training to the demands of different industries.

TANDARDISATION in training delivery, assessment and certification is needed along with implementation of National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) to bring in horizontal and vertical mobility in acquiring skill, and independent assessment and certification process to bring quality in training. A suitable policy/regulatory framework for access to capital for entrepreneurship and promoting ease of doing business were also challenges, according to the panelists. It was felt that the role of the private sector needs to be enhanced in skill and entrepreneurship eco-system to complement the public sector initiatives.

Bringing awareness about the attractive opportunities in vocational education and making it aspirational by the creation of skill universities and multi-skilling institutes is one of the key action points that emerged from the panel discussions. The training for the global market to enhance earnings and attraction of vocational education comes next. What follows is increasing the awareness about NSQF and the opportunity for vertical and horizontal mobility for the trainees. Setting up of national career counselling centres to create awareness about skill training comes afterwards. Local government and district administration should partner the planning and implementing skilling initiatives. Advanced multi-skilling institutes should act as mentors to current ITIs in a “hub and spoke” model, to improve performance of the existing training set-up, panelists opined. The panelists felt that with the challenge having been identified, and all partners putting in place the mechanisms to address it, the goal of Skill

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Plenary session on Context and Challenges of the Civil Services â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Way Forward, chaired by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu

India looks definitely achievable. The discussion of the group on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Farmer & Agricultureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; was structured around five themes including ensuring effective, accurate and realistic land title system, lab to farm which includes issues like lack of focus on agri-based research and higher education in agriculture, farm to table which includes the issues of how to get both agri prices as well as agri markets right, access to credit focusing upon lack of banking and proper insurance covers for farmers and cause of landless labour and lack of alternative skills. Viability of the farm sector, risk exposures in the farming sector and inefficient markets are the three major areas of the concern that emerged from the panel discussions. There was consensus among the panelists that an efficient and accurate land title system is a prerequisite for most reforms. A Agricultural lands were first surveyed in the middle of the 19th century. In most parts of the country, no such surveys have been redone. India still relies on centuryold maps. A Apart from this, there is a

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wide gap between what the records reflect and what exists on the ground. This gap is constantly widening. The appearance of wrong names of persons as owner(s) for a given parcel of land has further compounded the situation.

HE net outcome of all these anomalies is that the land titles are defective. The farmers often refrain from investing in their own lands. They spend a huge amount of time and resources on litigation. A defective land title system also obstructs any crop insurance system. The panel made several recommendations. On making the land title system effective, the panelists strongly recommended a comprehensive survey of all land holdings, utilising modern technology, to be completed within three years. The outcome would be digitised maps of all land holdings. The land revenue department should go back to the basics. The officials should own the responsibility of recording correct titles of lands. This would require massive capacity-

building right from the level of patwaris to collectors with complete knowledge of laws relating to transfer of lands. As far as marketing is concerned, the farmer, at present, does not have a choice of selling his produce the way he wants. To provide better choice to farmers, creation of unified agricultural market has to be initiated in the country. These unified markets, as a first step, could emerge at the state level. This would require amendment of the APMC Act (Mandi Acts). Currently, there is no concept of online marketing for farmers. The middlemen continue to exploit them. APMCs should be restructured so as to provide an electronic platform to market their produces. Online grocery retailers should be further encouraged and infrastructure for e-trading in the commodity market should be developed. The panelists also opined that the regime of MSP needs a relook. In the area of risk management and insurance, the crop insurance system needs to be transformed. The Centre and state need to partly bear the premium. The extra burden on the state exchequer can be compensated by putting a cess on the farm input industry or on export of waterguzzling crops. Once the land holdings are digitised and titles corrected, the entire crop insurance claim management could be technology-driven and the claims could be linked to Jan Dhan Yojana. On the issue of institutional reforms, financial outlay for agri-research can be enhanced to 1 per cent of the GDP. But it needs to be ensured that it is managed efficiently. g

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GOVERNANCE

labour pension reforms

All Central trade unions will hold a nationwide stir on December 5 to protest against the labour reforms initiated by the Narendra Modi government

Pension jolt The government’s decision to invest a part of Employee Provident Fund in equity has come as a shock to the trade unions

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

by NARENDRA KAUSHIK

FTER being dubbed anti-farmer, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government faces the prospect of being branded anti-labour as serious discontent is brewing in central trade unions of the country over changes in labour laws, the proposal to invest part of Employee Provident Fund’s (EPF) incremental corpus of `6 lakh crore in conventional equity and delay in extension of the `1,000 minimum monthly pension scheme in the financial year 2015-16.

The trade unions are particularly incensed by what they call their abandonment by the Labour Ministry in protecting the interests of the workers. They allege the new Labour Minister, Bandaru Dattatreya, has become a yesman for the Finance Ministry and the latter has even stopped consulting the former while taking decisions about the workers. The first signs of this were visible when, during his Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced changes with respect to the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF)

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and the Employee’s State Insurance (ESI). Jaitley said the employee may opt for EPF or the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and, below a certain threshold of monthly income, should have the option of not contributing to the EPF without affecting or reducing the employer’s contribution. The Finance Minister said his government would amend the laws to allow the employee to choose between the ESI and a health insurance product recognised by Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA). On March 31, there was a confirmation of the Labour Ministry’s changeover when in a Central Board of Trustees (CBT) meeting Dattatreya backed the Centre’s proposal to invest 5 per cent of the fresh accruals of EPF in equity, leaving the 10 representatives of labour unions stupefied. This was the first time in the history of the CBT that the Labour Minister, who is an ex officio Chairman of the 42-member board, backed a proposal against the wishes of labour unions. Except for the 10 representatives of employees, all other members (10 employers’ representatives, 10 State representatives and 10 Centre representatives) of the board backed the move. “If you ask me, the department of labour is being taken for granted. It has become an appendage of the finance ministry. The government’s attitude towards labour is very, very bad. It is an anti-labour government,” says AK Padmanabhan, President of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU). Padmanabhan asserts the government has no prerogative to invest the EPF in the market because it is the ‘property of the workers’. Harbhajan Singh Sandhu, General Secretary of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), charges the Modi government with working for corporates and rich

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people. “The government has changed or in the process of amending the Industrial Disputes Act, Contract Labour Act, Apprentices Act and Overtime Act. We will oppose this,” Sandhu claims. Eleven central trade unions, including CITU, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), had called a national convention in New Delhi on April 26 to discuss the situation. The convention, according to Sandhu, is expected to witness congregation of over 2,000 labour leaders from sectors like defence, railways, postal department, banks and insurance. It was followed by a mass demonstration in front of Parliament two days later.

The trade unions allege the new Labour Minister, Bandaru Dattatreya, has become a yesman for the Finance Ministry and the latter has even stopped consulting the former while taking decisions about the workers Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal has since allowed EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) to invest at least five per cent of its incremental corpus (fresh accruals) in equity instruments by the end of 2015. The Secretary has sent a notification (for revised investment patterns) in this regard to the EPFO. The investment may subsequently be hiked to 15 per cent. Ironically, the decision has brought even INTUC (affiliated to the Congress) and BMS (aligned to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the BJP) on one platform. INTUC President G Sanjeeva Reddy calls

the order anti-worker on the grounds that the “share market always fluctuates”. Virjesh Upadhyay, All India General Secretary of the BMS, agrees with him. “Why should poor men’s money be put in the risky market if the government is not prepared to guarantee against loss? It is pure dacoity of workers’ money. Labour has become a commodity,” Upadhyay thunders. The workers’ groups are not sure whether the EPFO has the expertise to invest in exchange-traded funds. “Who will insure the insurer?” Upadhyay asks. He says EPFO is not credible like the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).

PADHYA YAY regrets the Modi government is only bothered about improving ease of doing business in India and cares two hoots about bettering ease of living in the country. He opposes the National Pension Scheme (NPS). He claims that under the NPS, there will be no pension for widows, orphans and parents and there will be no minimum pension. The trade union leaders also question the intent of the government in not extending the `1,000 minimum monthly pension scheme. The scheme was announced with much fanfare in September 2014. In March this year, the EPFO told its regional and zonal offices across the country that it was suspending the payment in absence of any direction from the government to continue the benefit beyond March 31, 2015. This would hit about 32 lakh pensioners across the country and allow them to draw the amount they were drawing before September 2014. “Why didn’t Jaitley include `700 crore for the scheme in his Budget? That speaks of the intent of the

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

GOVERNANCE

labour pension reforms

government,” says DL Sachdeva, Secretary, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC). According to Sachdeva, the minimum pension was hiked to `1,000 after a struggle of several years and yet it was kept ad-hoc. The unions had demanded `3,000 as the minimum pension. How pension is worked out An employee contributes 12 per cent of his basic pay to his provident fund every month. His employer too contributes an equal amount, out of which 8.33 per cent is diverted to his pension fund. The government adds 1.16 per cent to this pension fund. According to Sachdeva, an employee’s pension is worked out on the basis of pensionable salary and the number of years of contribution. The current highest threshold for pensionable salary is `15,000 per month. The pensionable salary includes only basic pay plus dearness allowance. It excludes HRA R (house rent allowance), LTA T (leave travel allowance), CCA (compensatory city allowance), children’s education allowance, transport allowance, conveyance and all other allowances. The trade unions want all these heads to

PHOTOS: NARENDRA KAUSHIK

Why should poor men’s money be put in the risky market if the government is not prepared to guarantee against loss? It is pure dacoity of workers’ money. Labour has become a commodity. Virjesh Upadhyay, All India General Secretary, BMS

be merged into the basic pay so that an employee becomes entitled to a substantive pension after retirement.

PADHYA YAY says about `6,000 crore of the EPFO corpus is unclaimed money. This is probably the money the employees could not withdraw either at the time of leaving their jobs or switching over to other jobs. Before December 31, 1985, the minimum salary for a fourth-class central government employee was `196. It must have been even less

Why didn’t Jaitley include `700 crore for the scheme in his Budget? That speaks of the intent of the government, the minimum pension was hiked to `1,000 after a struggle of several years and yet it was kept ad-hoc. DL Sachdeva, Secretary, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

in the private sector. This is why we had till some years back a pensioner in South India who drew even less than `10 as pension per month. We still had bidii workers who drew pension in two and three figures before the minimum monthly pension was hiked to `1,000 per month in September 2014. ‘Good beginning,’ says business The decision to invest 5 per cent of the fresh accruals into exchange credit fund like Nifty has been hailed by business and industry. Industry feels that the decision faced minimal risk and the ceiling should be increased in future if the yield is rewarding. “The government is going to invest in conventional type of equity where the risk is not high and the growth is good,” says BP Pant, who is an adviser for labour and employment in Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and a member of the CBT. Pant says the global benchmark for investment of pension funds into equity is 42 per cent with various countries of Europe, including the United States of America, having adopted the practice. g

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GOVERNANCE taxation tn pandey

Money has no colour The amnesty scheme, with its open window offer, for Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foreign black money is misconceived and unwarranted

N para 102 of the Budget Speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a new comprehensive law on black money to specifically deal with such money stashed abroad. To this end, he introduced a Bill in Parliament titled Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Bill, 2015 [referred to as Black Money Bill in short). It has 88 clauses and is expected to come into force on April 1, 2016, i.e. from FY 2016-17 [AY 2017-18]. The most regrettable feature of the Bill is the chapter dealing with amnesty for foreign taxpayers, who repatriate their undisclosed foreign earnings and wealth to India within the stipulated time. The date of the applicability of the amnesty provisions and how long the same will be applicable have not been indicated. It may be six months or so, I believe. What amnesty provisions provide [i] The Bill envisages, inter-alia, penalty @90 per cent on those who have undisclosed foreign assets and income overseas. But there will be an option to pay the tax and a penalty equal to 30 per cent of the value

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of undisclosed assets and no prosecution. [ii] The Bill has detailed provisions to ensure that the provisions of the Bill are not misused by assessees and tax authorities. [iii] Tax evasion offences would be non-compoundable. [iv] The offenders cannot move the Settlement Commission. [v] Penalty for any such concealment of income and assets, thus, shall be at the rate of 300 per cent of tax evaded. The present law provides penalty from 100 per cent up to 300 per cent. The proposed law is more stringent. [vi] Non-filing of return or filing of return with inadequate disclosure of foreign assets shall be liable for prosecution with punishment of rigorous imprisonment up to seven years. [vii] Any income in relation to any undisclosed foreign asset or undisclosed income from any foreign asset shall be taxable at the maximum marginal rate and shall not be eligible for any exemptions or

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

GOVERNANCE taxation tn pandey

deductions, which may otherwise be applicable in such cases. [viii]Beneficial owner or beneficiary of foreign assets shall also be mandatorily required to file return, even if there is no taxable income. [ix] Abettors of the above offences, whether individuals, entities, banks or financial institutions, will be liable for prosecution and penalty. [x] Every person holding a foreign account shall have to mandatorily furnish details pertaining to the date of opening of the account in the return of income. [xi] Apart from penalty, the Bill provides imprisonment of up to 10 years for concealment, non-disclosure, false declaration as well as abetment. The provision for abetment can put financial advisers and chartered accountants in the crosshairs of the law should they be deemed guilty of cooking the books. [xii] Authorities have tried to distinguish ‘open window’ offer and amnesty on the ground that in amnesty, one pays only the tax and not the penalty while in ‘open window’ offer, both tax and penalty would be payable. [xiii] The ‘open window’ offer is intended for persons who have hidden assets abroad but want to come clean and avail of the opportunity. [xiv] It has been claimed by the Secretary (Revenue) that the open window offer is not a ‘revenue mobilisation measure’ [then what is it?]. [xv] Apart from the penalty, the legislation also lists a 10-year jail term for ‘wilful attempt to evade tax’. Anyone who possesses or controls documents or books of accounts with false entries or statement, willfully omits entries or statements in the papers, or takes steps that result in tax evasion, will be treated as wilful evader. [xvi] Penalty and prosecution provisions in a nutshell are: y Undisclosed foreign income and assets to face 30 per cent tax, 90 per cent penalty. y The tax department can also launch prosecution, resulting in 3-10 years in jail for evasion. y Up to 7 years jail for non-disclosure of foreign assets, income and interests in foreign firms beyond `5 lakh. y Those abetting false statements face 6 months to 7 years in jail, possibly bringing advisers, and banks in purview. Some undesirable aspects of the provisions There are certain undesirable aspects concerning the amnesty provisions of the Bill, which need special mention:

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

Sl. No.

Disclosure Scheme

Year

Income disclosed [` Crore]

Tax revenue generated [` Crore]

VDS Tyagi Scheme

1991

70.20

National Defence Gold Bonds

1965

N.A.

National Defence Remitt. Scheme

1965

N.A.

Sixty-Forty Scheme

1965

52.18

30.08

Block Scheme

1965

145

19.45

VDIS

1975

744

IT 241 WT 7.70

Special Bearer Bonds

1981

963

N.A.

Amnesty Scheme

1985 to 1986 10,778 [21 months]

200-500

Foreign Remittance Scheme

1991

2,200

N.A.

India Development Bonds

1991

4,500

N.A.

National Housing Bank Scheme

1991

N.A.

VDIS

1997

33,000

10,050

Source for (1) to (11) “Planning for Disclosure Schemes (1991-92),” Ninad Karpe, Business Today, y July 7-21, 1997

[i]

The government has felt shy in calling the aforesaid provisions concerning lenient provisions / amnesty provisions. In the press briefings, these have been referred to as an ‘open window’ scheme by the Finance Minister and ‘one time compliance’ by the Secretary (Revenue). In sum and substance, the provisions are simple amnesty provisions, which provide lighter penalty and no prosecution. This is because of the fact that during the challenge of VDIS, 1997, in the Supreme Court, an assurance was given by the government, that no more amnesty schemes will be introduced. Different phrases are being coined to get over the assurance to the Supreme Court. But what needs to be seen is the substance of the provisions, not the language employed. [ii] The Bill envisages, inter-alia, penalty @90 per cent on those who have undisclosed foreign assets and income overseas. But there will be an option to pay the tax and a penalty equal to 30 per cent of the value of undisclosed assets and no prosecution. [iii] Revenue from such schemes to have been meagre as can be seen from the table.

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[iii] It is becoming a common practice to call amnesty schemes ‘one-time schemes’. Recently, amnesty for service tax evaders was announced by the finance minister while presenting the Union Budget for the year 2012-13, saying: “While there are nearly 17,00,000 registered assessees under service tax, only about 7,00,000 file returns. Many have simply stopped filing returns. We cannot go after each of them. I have to motivate them to file returns and pay the taxes. Hence, I propose to introduce a one-time scheme called ‘Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme’. A defaulter may avail of the scheme on condition that he files a truthful declaration of service tax dues since 01.10.2007 and makes the payment in one or two instalments before prescribed dates. In such a case, interest, penalty and other consequences will be waived. I hope to entice a large number of assessees to return to the tax fold. I also hope to collect a reasonable sum of money” [para 183].

HUS, for service tax, a ‘one-time scheme’ has been accepted to be equivalent to an amnesty scheme. There is no reason why the revenue secretary should feel shy in calling ‘VDIS’ for foreign black money amnesty. [iv] Why amnesty schemes should be shunned [a] They generate little revenue; [b] They demoralise honest taxpayers. [c] Floating disclosure schemes at frequent intervals passes wrong signals to the taxpayers, who start indulging in malpractices and also to those whose philosophy is money, money and more money but no parting with the same. Black money, thus, keeps on multiplying; this is why, in every subsequent estimate, it is found to be higher and still higher. [d] The evils of tax evasion are manifold: firstly there is revenue leakage; secondly, the incidence of tax becomes inequitable inasmuch as the honest man pays taxes but the evader does not; and shortfalls in revenue lead to increase in the rates, aggravating the inequitable impact; thirdly, widespread and successful tax evasion leads to general cynicism regarding all laws, and thus has a disruptive effect on society. [e] Amnesty schemes give a fillip to such money as a feeling starts prevailing that the government is unable to check generation of black money domestically

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and abroad by Indian taxpayers. [f] Black money is not a fund but a flow. Hence, what needs to be checked is the flow. Merely tackling the fund will not be sufficient. [g] Such schemes are unethical. Rewarding tax evaders, who have duped the exchequer and have enriched themselves at the cost of society, cannot be an ethical act. While mooting the VDIS, 1997, the then Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, observed: [h] Moreover, the deterrence from the scheme of prosecution has been removed. Mentioning about one-time compliance and prosecution in the case of tax evasion, Wanchoo Committee observed as under: “Need for vigorous prosecution policy 2.83 In the fight against tax evasion, monetary penalties are not enough. Many a calculating tax dodger finds it a profitable proposition to carry on evading taxes over the years, if the only risk to which he is exposed is a monetary penalty in the year in which he happens to be caught. The public in general also tends to lose faith and confidence in the tax administration once it knows that even when a tax evader is caught, the administration lets him get away lightly after paying only a monetary penalty – when money is no longer a major consideration with him if it serves his business interest. Unfortunately, in the present social milieu, such penalties carry no stigma either. In these circumstances, the provisions for imposition of penalty fail to instil adequate fear of the law in the minds of tax evaders. Prospect of landing in jail, on the other hand, is a far more dreaded consequence to operate in terrorem upon the erring taxpayers. Besides, a conviction in a court of law is attended with several legal and social disqualifications as well. In order, therefore, to make enforcement of tax laws really effective, we consider it necessary for the Dept. to evolve a vigorous prosecution policy and to pursue it unsparingly.” [i] Hence, mere waiving of interest and penalty will not do. If the government wishes that its one-time compliance scheme should bring some revenue, it will have to waive prosecution also alongwith interest and penalty. An Amnesty scheme (or open window scheme / one time compliance scheme, whatever the government may prefer to call it) needs to be reconsidered for scrapping. g

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

SILLY POINT comment mk kaw

Outwitting Mufti

ARVANAND is the pen name of an astute Kashmiri Pandit who has been a close observer of the mind games being played out over the decades in Kashmir. He was for long in the Intelligence Bureau and was involved in the manufacture of half the tales spun by the mandarins of North Block. Long after he retired, he once wrote a masterful analysis of why the Kashmir problem could never be resolved. He proved beyond a shadow of doubt that all the parties to the struggle, in India, Pakistan and the Valley, were vitally and personally interested in an indefinite continuance of the struggle. People remarked that Sarvanand had always been known to be a maverick, but this time around he had really exceeded the outermost limits of forthrightness and was bordering on effrontery. Indeed, he had been brutally frank and had revealed the innermost secrets of the army brass, the ISI, RAW, A the separatist lobby, the Panun Kashmir crowd, the Pakistani Rangers, the BSF, the Americans, the Russians, the A R Afghans, the Chinese… everyone, every blessed one of them. They all privately admitted that Sarvanand should not have said what he did, but there was no doubt that he was unfortunately right. He was the editor-in-chief of the premier community journal being brought out from Delhi. The uproar over his editorial was so strident that he had to be removed from his position. So much for freedom of speech

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

and expression! I recently had a long chat with Sarvanand and wanted to know what he made of the present situation. To my rational mind, Modi had been taken for a ride by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. He had made Modi believe that India could keep Kashmir and hold it too, and that Mufti would help him in this enterprise. I said that Mufti was an old campaigner and Modi a comparative novice, and that although Modi was a shrewd player, this time he had met his match and he was all set to lose. To my surprise, the usually disenchanted Sarvanand said that he felt in his bones that the Kashmir problem had finally met its ‘master player’. For the first time, the Indian side had a plan. It was somewhat convoluted like a game of chess, where a player had to have the capacity to anticipate the opponents’ 20th move, but there was a plan. Modi’s opening gambit was the vociferous selling of Mission 44. He launched a blitzkrieg media campaign to assert that the BJP would bag 44 seats in the Assembly. And because he had taken UP by storm against all odds, there was a credible possibility that Mission 44 just might succeed. Delhi had not happened as yet. Modi had a dark suspicion that the results of the Delhi poll might not be as comfortable as in UP. So he delayed the polls in Delhi as much as possible. This was the first master move. Mufti and the separatist lobby fell into the trap. They outwardly called upon

the people to boycott the polls, but their secret call was for 100 per cent turnout. They failed to perceive that Modi had no possibility of achieving Mission 44. He had merely floated a canard so that the voter turnout would be an all-time record. He could then claim (as he later vociferously did) that the common people in the Valley were happy with the Indian Constitution; they had a deep and abiding faith in the electoral process, and thus could be said to have rejected the options of independent Kashmir or Kashmir as a part of Pakistan. In the second phase, Modi wanted to show Mufti in his “true” colours. Mufti had pretended to be anti-India and pro-Pakistan, but he had negotiated with his arch-enemy, the outrageous emblem of a saffron India, the BJP, for forming a government of sorts in Kashmir. His main strategy should have been to keep the BJP out at all costs. But he wanted to be the Chief Minister and only an alliance with his arch-enemy could place the crown on his head. By starting a long-

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ARUNA

drawn-out negotiation, Modi was able to demonstrate that Mufti was only interested in his own coronation and as far as he was concerned, the people of Kashmir could go to hell! Mufti was now in a double fix. His popularity had plummetted to an alltime low. He could have broken off the negotiations and clambered on to the moral high ground. But age was against him and this was probably the last time he would come within striking distance of the crown. This is where Modi showed his genius as a player, said Sarvanand. Since the day he took over as Prime Minister, he has led Pakistan a merry dance. He was cordial, even effusive, with Nawaz Sharif. He shook hands with him and embraced him; he presented a sari to his mother. And when his guard was down, he stabbed him in the back. He made a great hoo-ha over the Pakistani High Commissioner calling Geelani and party for their annual cup of tea. He cancelled the

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F o r e i g n Secretaryy level-talks. He even told the Indian troops to iinflict maximum damage on their Pakistani counterparts. Sharif did not know what had hit him. Come Republic Day and Modi was able to persuade the First Citizen of the US to attend the festivities and not pay the customary call on Islamabad on his return journey. Sharif was now in an absolute tizzy.

N their disturbed state of mind, all that Mufti and his Pakistani mentors could think of was the strangely incongruous remark that Mufti made minutes after he took the oath of office as chief minister. He expressed thanks to Pakistan and the separatist lobby in the Valley for letting the election process be smoothly conducted. But the people of Kashmir are not fools. They noted the fact that Mufti had dragged the negotiations on till the BJP conceded the chief ministership to him for all of six years. Now Mufti was really in a soup. He tried to redeem himself by releasing Masrat A Alam and letting Andrabi

hoist the Pakistani flag and lead a squad of burqa-clad women in singing the Pakistani national anthem. But Modi refused to intervene in the matter and thereby put the problem back onto Muftiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plate. Resultantly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesperson was forced to concede that the state governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decisions to arrest A Alam and register an FIR R against Andrabi were based on the procedure laid down in law, and had not been taken under political pressure from the Centre. So what is the status today, Sarvanand asks. Today, the PDP comes off as a party prepared to sell Pakistan and its agents if they are allowed to rule the state in peace for six years. And the BJP is the Good Samaritan, only interested in the welfare of the flood-hit people of Kashmir. Sarvanand is sore at the channels which project the riff-raff separatists as anti-national villains, who deserve to be condemned on prime-time television. Left to himself, Modi would have killed these non-entities not in encounters with the security forces, but just by ignoring them. What is the endgame that is being played out now, I ask Sarvanand. He has advised me to keep an alert, watchful eye on Modiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s schemes for promoting the welfare of individuals, subsidising the hotel and tourism industry, persuading film units to recreate the magic of the romantic 1960s,rehabilitating the displaced families and distributing munificent largesse to persons devastated by natural calamities and so on. He is just waiting for the Durbar move, when the government shifts to Srinagar, says Sarvanand. That will be the time for the final moves and checkmate! g MK Kaw is a former Secretary, Government of India

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

STOCK DOCTOR dr gs sood

Waning sentiments?

HEN analysts start talking of India as a good long-term story for five to 10 years, that itself is indicative of what lies in store for the market in the short-medium term. May I ask them if they can predict the political landscape of the country for such a long period, never mind the economy and the financial markets? The market has run up a lot purely on sentiment coupled with a fair bit of good luck—but both elements are seen to be waning fast. The market is gripped by both domestic and global worries that include the Chinese slowdown and escalating debt worries of Greece. The IMF has predicted a slowdown in US growth and a protracted period of low growth for the world economy. It has predicted that India’s GDP would not exceed 8 per cent right up to 2020 as against the Economic Survey forecasting it between 8.1 per cent and 8.5 per cent in the current fiscal year. It further says that oil prices have bottomed out and are set to rise from 2016 onwards. The net profit of 100 companies for the March quarter fell 9.23 per cent—their worst performance during the last 10 quarters. Even net sales dropped 4.12 per cent. Earnings are predicted to remain lowkey for another to to three quarters. Other indicators like sale of cars and FMCG too are turning dismal. Levying Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) retrospectively on Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) is hurting the sentiment for foreign investments. The rupee has declined to a month’s low against the US dollar due to capital outflows and fresh dollar demand

from banks and importers. Exports declined sharply in March by more than 21 per cent—the sharpest fall in over three years and the fourth fall in as many months. The Indian Meteorological Department has predicted below average rainfall for the year—the second consecutive poor monsoon in a row. This is after the recent unseasonal rains caused huge damage to the winter crops. Lower farm output will affect overall growth and rural demand, putting further pressure on corporate earnings. It will have fiscal and monetary implications as well since lower output will lead to higher food prices pushing up inflationary pressures. This will reduce the scope for further rate cuts by the RBI. The demand for loan waivers and higher support prices will become louder, having further fiscal and inflationary implications.

The financial sector is also disillusioned with the latest GDP numbers due to the change in methodology since the same is not getting reflected in the corporate earnings. The Modi government is facing a perception problem with a united opposition making things more difficult for the government that is yet to complete its first year in office. However, the promise of structural reforms, reduced bottlenecks and improved infrastructure, expansion of the manufacturing sector, rising GDP growth, lower inflation and interest rates and rising corporate earnings still make the Indian market attractive in comparative terms. The passage of the Goods and Services Tax Bill and permitting 15 per cent of EPFO corpus for investing in equities may amount to a whopping `90,000 crore, keeping the markets buoyant even in the event of some FIIs withdrawing. g

Stock Shop BY

RAKESH BHARDWAJ

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services (CMP `262)

HE company reported good growth in disbursement after four quarters of decline, with positive 7 per cent disbursement growth. Net profit witnessed a 9 per cent rise at `367 crore in the last quarter of 2014-15. For the full FY15, total income rose 14 per cent to `6,061 crore as against `5,301 crore in the same period last year. Continued investments by the company improved its future outlook with EPS expected to go up by 2 to

5 per cent. Asset quality indicators have considerably improved with growth of Gross Non Performing Assets (GNPA) slowing sharply to 45 per cent y-o-y from over 80 per cent a few quarters ago and provision coverage rising significantly. While seasonal volatility could push up NPA numbers in the coming quarters, the y-o-y trends appear to be firmly on an improving trajectory. The company is also well positioned to take advantage of the government’s increasing focus on rural development. Investors can get decent returns in a time span of 2-3 years with no downside risk.

The author has no exposure in the stock recommended in this column. gfiles does not accept responsibility for investment decisions by readers of this column. Investment-related queries may be sent to editor@gfilesindia.com with Bhardwaj’s name in the subject line.

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

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gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

PERSPECTIVE dimensions sadhguru

E live in times when the human intellect has been given a role utterly disproportionate to its intended function. This is due to the lopsided development of this aspect of the mind encouraged by modern education. On the one hand, it must be remembered that the intellect is crucial for human survival on this planet. You are able to discern a person from a tree only because your intellect is functional. You know that you must walk through the door, not through the wall, only because your intellect is functional. On more complex and sophisticated levels, the intellect has contributed immeasurably to human civilisation and culture. The problem is that it is the essence of the intellect to divide. So humanity has embarked on a journey of wholesale division, discrimination and dissection. People have split everything to a point where they have split even the invisible atom. Once you allow the intellect to dominate your life, it splits everything it encounters; it does not allow you to be with anything totally. It is a wonderful instrument for survival. At the same time, it is a terrible barrier that stands between you and your experience of the oneness of life. However, to counteract this, a whole barrage of dangerously misleading spiritual teachings has come into vogue. A common one is ‘Be in the moment’. The assumption is that you could be somewhere else, if you wanted. How is that even possible? The present is the only place that you can be. If you live, you live in this moment. If you die, you die in this moment. How are you going to escape it, even if you try? It is only your mind that can journey into the past and project into the future. And why is that wrong? If

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

Essence of intellect you are not identified with the mind, you can think a million years ago and a million years ahead. That is the fabulous faculty the mind is. Right now your problem is you suffer what happened 10 years ago and you suffer what may happen day after tomorrow. Both are not living truths. They are simply a play of your memory and imagination. This does not mean you must annihilate your mind. It simply means you need to take charge of it. Your mind carries the enormous reserves of memory and the incredible possibilities of the imagination that are the product of an evolutionary process of millions of years. If you can use it when you want and put it aside when you don’t, the mind can be a fantastic tool. It is those who have lost control of this wonderful faculty who tell you to shun the past and the future and ‘be in the now’. What is an existential reality is being delivered to you as a psychological restriction. ‘Do only one thing at a time’ is another popular teaching. Why would you do only one thing when the mind is a phenomenal multidimensional

gadget, capable of handling several levels of activity all at once? Instead of harnessing and learning to ride the mind, why would you want to obliterate it? When you can know the heady joy of mental action, why would you opt for brainlessness? The science of yoga offers us a way to harness the intellect without being enslaved by it. The intellect becomes a barrier only when you keep it constantly dipped in memory. When your mind is enslaved to your past, it means nothing new is ever possible in your life. But there is a deeper dimension of the mind—the awareness or what has traditionally been known as ‘chitta’. If you soak your intellect in this dimension, it can turn into a miraculous tool of liberation. When the intellect becomes unencumbered and razor-sharp, it can effortlessly slice through the true and untrue, the real and illusory, the existential and psychological, and deliver you to a different dimension of life altogether. g Sadhguru, a yogi, is a visionary, humanitarian and a prominent spiritual leader (www.ishafoundation.org)

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birthdays IAS officers’ birthdays May 16, 2015 — June 15, 2015

IAS officers’ birthdays May 16, 2015 — June 15, 2015

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Brij Kumar Agarwal

CADRE: MANIPUR-TRIPURA

CADRE: WEST BENGAL

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: HIMACHAL PRADESH

spravin@ias.nic.in

subbiaha@ias.nic.in

bathamvk@ias.nic.in

bkaggar@ias.nic.in

Shaila A

Ravindra Kumar Srivastava

Bhaskar Katamneni

CADRE: MAHARASHTRA

CADRE: JHARKHAND

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

shailabeevi@ias.nic.in

srkumar@ias.nic.in

bkatamneni@ias.nic.in

Sanjay Kumar

Jaffer PC

Shalini Rajneesh

CADRE: NAGALAND

CADRE: KARNATAKA

kumars4@ias.nic.in

pcjaffer03@ias.nic.in

rajnish1@ias.nic.in

16-05-1960

16-05-1969

17-05-1956

17-05-1969

18-05-1970

19-05-1974

19-05-1966

20-05-1971

20-05-1978

21-05-1960

22-05-1957

23-05-1975

24-05-1965

24-05-1970

25-05-1964

25-05-1959

26-05-1960

27-05-1968

27-05-1964

28-05-1974

29-05-1958

29-05-1959

30-05-1960

30-05-1963

31-05-1957

31-05-1976

01-06-1971

01-06-1959

01-06-1964

02-06-1958

02-06-1961

03-06-1971

03-06-1959

04-06-1966

04-06-1972

05-06-1961

05-06-1957

07-06-1965

07-06-1957

08-06-1957

09-06-1977

10-06-1969

10-06-1957

11-06-1981

12-06-1973

13-06-1957

14-06-1974

15-06-1961

06-06-1976

06-06-1967

For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com

www.indianbuzz.com

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

birthdays IPS officers’ birthdays May 16, 2015 — June 15, 2015

IPS officers’ birthdays May 16, 2015 — June 15, 2015

S Ravi

M Ravi

Naveen Arora

MK Chhabra

CADRE: KARNATAKA

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: ODISHA

sravi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

ravi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

naveenarora@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

mkchhabra@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

AK Pateriya

Prashant Kumar Thakur

Durga Pada Tarenia

Amrendra Kumar Singh

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: KARNATAKA

CADRE: WEST BENGAL

CADRE: SIKKIM

pateriya@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

prashankt@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

dpadat@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

amrend ra@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

PV Ramasashtry

T Senthilkumar

Manoj Abraham

Alikana S Murthy

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: KERALA

CADRE: KARNATAKA

pvramasashtry@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

senthilkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

manojabhraham@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

asmurthy@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Arvind Kumar

Rajiv Kumar Meena

R Rajasekaran

Girdhari Naik

CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: WEST BENGAL

CADRE: CHHATTISGARH

arvindkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

rkmeena@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

rrajasekharan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

giridhari@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

N Tamil Selvan

LV Antony Deva Kumar

C Sylendra Babu

Pradip Kumar

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: UTTARAKHAND

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: ASSAM-MEGHALAYA

tamilselvan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

lvadevakumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sylendra@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

pradipkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Subhash Yadav

Alok Kumar Vashistha

Shalin

Vivek Srivastava

CADRE: HARYANA

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

CADRE: BIHAR

CADRE: GUJARAT

syadav@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

vashistha@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

shalin@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

vivek@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Amardeep Singh Rai

SK Priyadarshi

Binita Thakur

Ashutosh Pandey

CADRE: PUNJAB

CADRE: ODISHA

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

amardeep@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

skpriyadarshi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

binitayadav@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

ashutoshpandey@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

HC Kishore Chandra

EJ Jayaraj

Nishit Kumar Ujjwal

Navdeep Singh

CADRE: KARNATAKA

CADRE: KERALA

CADRE: MANIPUR-TRIPURA

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

hckchandra@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

jayaraj@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

ujjwal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

nsingh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Chilumuri V Muralidhar

S Arunachalam

Vipulav Kumar

Arun Kumar - I

CADRE: WEST BENGAL

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: JAMMU & KASHMIR

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

chilumurivm@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sarunachalam@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

viplavkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

arun_kumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Hemant Priyadarshy

P Rama Krishna Naidu

V Varadaraju

Rajeev Kumar Sharma

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

CADRE: JHARKHAND

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

hemantp@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

prknaidu@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

vvaradharaju@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sharmark@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Mohinder Lal

Chimanlal R Parmar

PV Sunil Kumar

Anurag

CADRE: HARYANA

CADRE: GUJARAT

CADRE: ANDHRA PRADESH

CADRE: MANIPUR-TRIPURA

mohinder@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

crparmar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

pvsunilkumar@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

anurag@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

S Anantha Krishnan

Sujeet Pandey

NK Senthamarai Kannan

Dinendra Kashyap

CADRE: KERALA

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

CADRE: TAMIL NADU

CADRE: KERALA

aananthakrishnan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

sujeet@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

nkskannan@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

dkashyap@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

Alok Kumar

Smita Khare

Praveen Singh

CADRE: JAMMU & KASHMIR

CADRE: RAJASTHAN

CADRE: UTTAR PRADESH

alokk@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

smithakhare@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

p_singh@mail.svpnpa.gov.in

16-05-1967

17-05-1960

18-05-1965

19-05-1965

19-05-1961

20-05-1960

21-05-1968

22-05-1959

23-05-1960

24-05-1965

24-05-1956

24-05-1963

25-05-1970

25-05-1962

26-05-1967

26-05-1972

27-05-1968

28-05-1966

29-05-1975

29-05-1969

30-05-1961

31-05-1959

01-06-1960

01-06-1956

01-06-1968

02-06-1970

02-06-1971

03-06-1959

03-06-1971

04-06-1967

05-06-1962

05-06-1974

06-06-1969

06-06-1974

07-06-1971

07-06-1960

08-06-1966

09-06-1962

10-06-1963

10-06-1964

10-06-1962

11-06-1959

12-06-1957

12-06-1965

12-06-1967

13-06-1958

14-06-1961

15-06-1966

15-06-1971

10-06-1958

For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com

gfiles inside the government

vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

www.gfilesindia.com

birthdays Lok Sabha Members

May 16, 2015 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; June 15, 2015

Lok Sabha Members

May 16, 2015 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; June 15, 2015

Sunil Kumar Mondal

Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo

Sanjay Haribhau Jadhav

BJP (MP)

01-06-1967

jyoti.dhurve@sansad.nic.in

AITC (West Bengal)

BJD (Odisha)

SS (Maharashtra)

kalikesh.singhdeo@sansad.nic.in

jadhav.sanjay@sansad.nic.in

Anant Gangaram Geete

Nitin Jairam Gadkari

Ramsinh Patalyabhai Rathwa

SS (Maharashtra)

01-06-1951

geete@sansad.nic.in

BJP (Maharashtra)

BJP (Gujarat)

email@nitingadkari.org

ramsinhrathwa@yahoo.co.in

R Parthipan

Faizal PP Mohammed

Dharam Vira Gandhi

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

01-06-1951

r.parthipan@sansad.nic.in

NCP (Lakshadweep)

AAP (Punjab)

mohammed.faizal@sansad.nic.in

dharamv.gandhi@sansad.nic.in

Suresh Kodikunnil

Jose K Mani

Parvatagouda Chandanagouda Gaddigoudar

16-05-1958

HD Devegowda 18-05-1933

JD-S (Karnataka)

haradanahalli@yahoo.co.in

Faggan Singh Kulaste 18-05-1959

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

fskulaste@sansad.nic.in

Sudheer Gupta 19-05-1959

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

sudhirgupta.mp@sansad.nic.in

Anant K Dattatreya Hedge 20-05-1968

BJP (Karnataka)

anantkh@sansad.nic.in

Rekha Arun Verma 20-05-1973

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

Shivkumar C Udasi 20-05-1967

BJP (Karnataka)

udasi.shivkumar@sansad.nic.in

Bodh Singh Bhagat 21-05-1955

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

bodhsingh.bhagat@sansad.nic.in

Mehbooba Mufti 22-05-1969

PDP (Jammu & Kashmir)

Bhavana Gawali 23-05-1973

26-05-1974

27-05-1957

28-05-1975

29-05-1965 KC-M (Kerala)

josekmanimp@gmail.com

Jayakumar Jayavardhan 29-05-1987

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

Anupam Hazra 30-05-1982

AITC (West Bengal)

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

30-05-1955 BJP (Gujarat)

naranbhai.kachharia@gmail.com

M Udhayakumar 25-05-1968

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

www.indianbuzz.com

cn.wanga@sansad.nic.in

BJP (Gujarat)

Sadashiv Kisan Lokhande 01-06-1962

SS (Maharashtra)

sk.lokhande@sansad.nic.in

Dharmendra Kumar 01-06-1968

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

kumar.dharmendra@sansad.nic.in

Bhagwanth Khuba 01-06-1967

BJP (Karnataka)

bhagwanth.khuba@sansad.nic.in

01-06-1957

dintriv@gmail.com

05-06-1957

CPI-M (West Bengal)

md.salim@sansad.nic.in

05-06-1972

BJP (Uttar Pradesh)

yogi.adityanath@sansad.nic.in

Sultan Ahmed

md.vasava@sansad.nic.in

Krupal Balaji Tumane 01-06-1965

06-06-1953

AITC (West Bengal)

sultan.ahmed@nic.in

Purno A Sangma

SS (Maharashtra)

kb.tumane@sansad.nic.in

06-06-1973

NPP (Meghalaya)

pasangma@sansad.nic.in

Savitri Thakur 01-06-1978

Rayapati Sambasiva Rao

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

savitri.thakur@sansad.nic.in

Kamakhya Prasad Tasa 01-06-1975

07-06-1943

TDP (Andhra Pradesh)

sambasivaraorayapati@yahoo.co.in

SP Muddahanumegowda

BJP (Assam)

kamakhyap.tasa@sansad.nic.in

Jyoti Dhurve

AITC (West Bengal)

Yogi Adityanath

Dipsinh Shankarsinh Rathod

CPI (Kerala)

BJP (Gujarat)

01-06-1950

Mansukhbhai D Vasava

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

25-05-1955

raju.shetty@sansad.nic.in

chandulal.sahu@sansad.nic.in

01-06-1956

04-19-1950

Mohammad Salim

BJP (Maharashtra)

S Rajendran

Naranbhai B Kachhadiya

01-06-1967

Chandu Lal Sahu

CN Jayadevan

nk.premachandran@sansad.nic.in

suresh.angadi@sansad.nic.in

Chintaman Navsha Wanaga

BJP (Chhattisgarh)

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

Dinesh Trivedi

paresh.rawal@sansad.nic.in

01-06-1959

04-06-1962

rakesh.singh@sansad.nic.in

01-06-1955

SWP (Maharashtra)

BJP (Gujarat)

RSP (Kerala)

aa.vithoba@sansad.nic.in

Paresh Rawal

bhavanagawali0222@gmail.com

25-05-1960

Rakesh Singh

SS (Maharashtra)

Raju alias Devappa A Shetti

01-06-1952

NK Premachandran

spy.reddy@sansad.nic.in, spy.reddy19@sansad.nic.in

dalpat.paraste@sansad.nic.in

SS (Maharashtra)

24-05-1950

YSR-CONGRESS (Andhra Pradesh)

01-06-1947

BJP (Karnataka)

30-05-1950

04-06-1950

Anandrao Adsul

Dalpat Singh Paraste

04-06-1962

SPY Reddy

BJP (Karnataka)

Suresh C Angadi

04-06-1963

INC (Kerala)

01-06-1951

anupam.hazra@sansad.nic.in

02-06-1951

08-06-1954

INC (Karnataka)

muddahanumegowda@sansad.nic.in

02-06-1966

For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

Lok Sabha Members

May 16, 2015 — June 15, 2015

Rajya Sabha Members

May 16, 2015 — June 15, 2015

Choudhury Mohan Jatua

Bandaru Dattatreya

D Kupendra Reddy

Vayalar Ravi

(AITC) West Bengal

BJP (Telangana)

JD-S (Karnataka)

INC (Kerala)

bandaru@sansad.nic.in

kupendra.reddy@sansad.nic.in

vayalar@sansad.nic.in

Jhina Hikaka

Rajeev Chandrasekhar

K Keshava Rao

09-06-1938

12-06-1947

R Radhakrishnan 09-06-1971

27-05-1960

04-06-1937

AINRC (Pondicherry)

12-06-1975 BJD (Odisha)

IND (Karnataka)

TRS (Andhra Pradesh)

Uday Pratap Singh

jhina.hikaka@sansad.nic.in

rajeev.c@sansad.nic.in

keshava.rao@sansad.nic.in

Harinder Singh Khalsa

TN Seema

Prabhat Jha

V Panneer Selvam

AAP (Punjab)

CPI-M (Kerala)

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

harinders.khalsa@sansad.nic.in

tn.seema@sansad.nic.in

prabhat.jha@sansad.nic.in

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

P Nagarajan

P Rajeev

KR Arjunan

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

CPI-M (Kerala)

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

p.rajeeve@sansad.nic.in

kr.arjunan@sansad.nic.in

Mansukh L Mandaviya

B Jayashree

BJP (Gujarat)

Nominated

mansukh.mandaviya@sansad.nic.in

b.jayashree@sansad.nic.in

Alok Tiwari

Mahendra Singh Mahra

SP (Uttar Pradesh)

INC (Uttarakhand)

aloktiwari.mp@sansad.nic.in

ms.mahra@sansad.nic.in

KP Ramalingam

CM Ramesh

DMK (Tamil Nadu)

TDP (Telangana)

drkp.ramalingam@sansad.nic.in

cm.ramesh@sansad.nic.in

YS Chowdary

Piyush Goyal

09-06-1964

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

12-06-1947

10-06-1959

12-06-1961

Sher Singh Ghubaya 10-06-1962 SAD (Punjab)

Vijaysinh Mohite Patil

ss.ghubaya@sansad.nic.in

12-06-1944

NCP (Maharashtra)

Ram Swaroop Sharma

mpv.shankarrao@sansad.nic.in

10-06-1958

BJP (Himachal Pradesh)

Muthamsetti Srinivasa Rao

r.swaroop@sansad.nic.in

12-06-1967

TDP (Andhra Pradesh)

Aswani Kumar

ms.rao19@sansad.nic.in

11-06-1956 BJP (Haryana)

Narendra Singh Tomar

ashwanikumar.mp@sansad.nic.in

12-06-1957

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy

ns.tomar@sansad.nic.in

11-06-1944

YSR-CONGRESS (Andhra Pradesh)

Kapil Krishna Thakur

rajamohan.reddy@sansad.nic.in

14-06-1940

RK Bharathi Mohan 12-06-1967

01-06-1967

04-06-1961

01-06-1972

09-06-1950

12-06-1939

02-06-1954

12-06-1965

Hari Babu Kambhampati

TDP (Andhra Pradesh)

BJP (Maharashtra)

ys.chowdary@sansad.nic.in

piyush@bjp.org

D Raja

MS Gill

CPI (Tamil Nadu)

INC (Punjab)

May 16, 2015 — June 15, 2015

Thaawar Chand Gehlot

Gulam Rasool Balyawi

BJP (Madhya Pradesh)

JD-U (Bihar)

18-05-1948

04-06-1957

02-06-1961

BJP (Andhra Pradesh)

Rajya Sabha Members

01-06-1963

04-06-1939

AITC (West Bengal)

15-06-1953

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

31-05-1964

03-06-1949

13-06-1964

14-06-1936 msgill@sansad.nic.in

21-05-1969

tc.gehlot@sansad.nic.in

Naresh Gujral 19-05-1948 SAD (Punjab)

nareshgujral@sansad.nic.in

Chunibhai Kanjibhai Gohel 19-05-1955 BJP (Gujarat)

chuni.gohel@sansad.nic.in

Munquad Ali 20-05-1962

BSP (Uttar Pradesh)

munquad.ali@sansad.nic.in

Ishwarlal Shankarlal Jain 21-05-1946

NCP (Maharashtra)

jain.ishwarlal@sansad.nic.in

Ajay Sancheti 22-05-1965

BJP (Maharashtra)

ajaysancheti@sansad.nic.in

Sasikala Pushpa 22-05-1976

AIADMK (Tamil Nadu)

SEND YOUR GREETINGS… Want to wish someone best of luck for an important assignment or send a bouquet to an official or MP on his/ her birthday, anniversary or promotion? gfiles will do it for you. The service is available only in Delhi. Contact us at adv@gfilesindia.com *Conditions apply

sasikala.pushpa@sansad.nic.in

For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com

gfiles inside the government

vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

www.gfilesindia.com

Tracking

For a complete list of appointments & retirements, see www.gfilesindia.com

KAPIL DEV TRIPATHI

SUJIT GULATI

RAHUL KHULLAR

The 1980-batch IAS officer of the AssamMeghalaya cadre has been appointed Secretary, Petroleum and Natural Gas.

The 1985-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been appointed Principal Secretary, Primary & Secondary Education, GoI.

The 1988-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre has been appointed Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Haryana.

ALKA TIWARI

S APARNA

The 1988-batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre has been appointed Advisor, Niti Aayog, in the Government of India.

The 1988-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been transferred and appointed Principal Secretary to Chief Minister.

ALOK KUMAR-I

MANISHA PRASAD PANWAR

The 1988-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre has been appointed Development Commissioner, Handlooms under the Ministry of Textiles.

The 1990-batch IAS officer of the Uttarakhand cadre has been appointed Principal Secretary to the Uttarakhand Chief Minister.

ARUN KUMAR SOLANKI

RAJA SEKHAR VUNDRU

The 1990-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been transferred and appointed Principal Secretary in Agriculture & Cooperation Department, GOI.

The 1990-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre has been appointed Deputy Director General, UIDAI, in Government of India.

The 1980-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre has been appointed Secretary, Culture.

YASHPAL SINGH

ANOOP KUMAR SRIVASTAVA

ARVIND AGARWAL

The 1990-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been transferred and appointed Principal Secretary in Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Department, GOI.

The 1981-batch IAS officer of the AssamMeghalaya cadre has been appointed Secretary, Border Management in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The 1984-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been appointed Additional Chief Secretary to the Government, Industries and Mines Department, Secretariat, Gandhinagar.

V THIRUPPUGAZH

SK SATAPATHY

SHAILESH KUMAR SINGH

The 1986-batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre has been appointed Chief Vigilance Officer in the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi.

The 1991-batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre has been appointed Chief Vigilance Officer in the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), New Delhi.

ARUN JHA The 1981-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre has been appointed Secretary, Tribal Affairs.

SANJAY KUMAR SRIVASTAVA The 1980-batch IAS officer of the Union Territory cadre has been appointed Secretary, Official Language in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

SHYAM S AGARWAL The 1980-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre has been appointed Secretary, Scheduled Tribes in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

NARENDRA KUMAR SINHA

UMANG NARULA The 1989-batch IAS officer of the Jammu & Kashmir cadre has been appointed Chairman and Managing Director of India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), Ministry of Tourism.

The 1984-batch IAS officer has been appointed Chief Secretary of Tripura.

MANOJ KUMAR DAS

The 1991-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been appointed Director General of Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute, Ahmedabad.

Moving On: IAS officers retiring in May 2015 ASSAM

JHARKHAND

PUNJAB

ANDHRA PRADESH

JAMMU & KASHMIR

TAMIL NADU

BIHAR

KERALA

Jitesh Khosla (1979) D Kadmiel (1993)

Ramashish Paswan (2000)

GUJARAT

D Jagatheesa Pandian (1981) PL Darbar (1995)

HARYANA

Balraj Singh (2003)

www.indianbuzz.com

Sudhanshu B Barwar (1999) Mohammed Yousuf Dar (2002) LC Goyal (1979)

KARNATAKA

M Manjunath Naik (2001) Muddu Mohan (2002)

ODISHA

G Mohan Kumar (1979) Durga Prasad Behera (2000)

Mandeep Singh (1991) P Seetharaman (1998) T Soundiah (2001)

UTTARAKHAND

KN Desiraju (1978)

UTTAR PRADESH

Anoop Mishra (1978) Sudhir Kumar (1978)

UNION TERRITORY

TM Balakrishnan (1996)

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

Tracking

For a complete list of appointments & retirements, see www.gfilesindia.com

PIB

Prime Minister Narendra Modi having an informal interaction with the Secretaries to the Government of India, in New Delhi on April 1, 2015

ARVIND KUMAR CHAWDHARY

SANTOSH KUMAR MALL

The 1995-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre has been assigned additional charge as Secretary, Transportation Department, Patna, Bihar.

The 1997-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre has been appointed Commissioner, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Department of School Education & Literacy.

cadre has been appointed Chairman (JS level), Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) under the Ministry of Commerce.

MOHAN KUMAR

SONAL MISHRA

GULZAR NATARAJAN

The 1981-batch IFS officer, Ambassador of India to Bahrain, has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to France.

The 1997-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been appointed Managing Director, Gujarat Industrial Power Company Ltd., Vadodara

The 1999-batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, Director, DoPT, has been appointed Director in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

The 2000-batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre has been appointed Commissioner of Prohibition and Excise in Tamil Nadu.

SANJAY KAUL

GARIMA GUPTA

The 2001-batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre has been appointed Managing Director, Gujarat Informatics Ltd. Gandhinagar.

M DANA KISHORE

C SUDHARSAN REDDY

The 2004-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre has been appointed Additional Secretary, Health and Family Welfare in the Delhi Government.

The 1996-batch IAS officer of the Telangana cadre has been assigned full additional charge as Chairman & Housing Commissioner, Housing Board, Telangana.

The 2002-batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre has been appointed Private Secretary to Bandaru Dattaraya, Minister of State for Labour and Employment.

SHARMILA MARY JOSEPH

KRISHNA KUMAR

The 1997-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre has been appointed Member Secretary, National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA), Department of Pharmaceuticals.

The 1997-batch IAS officer of the Punjab

CN MAHESWARAN

SUDEEEP JAIN The 1994-batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre has been appointed Director General (Training), Election Commission of India.

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

THE FOLLOWING IAS OFFICERS HAVE BEEN APPOINTED DEPUTY SECRETARY IN THE PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE: SHRIKAR KESHAV PARDESHI of 2001batch, Maharashtra cadre; BRIJESH PANDEY of 2004-batch, Manipur-Tripura cadre; MAYUR MAHESHWARI of 2003-batch, Uttar Pradesh cadre.

RAJIV RANJAN VERMA The 1978-batch IPS officer of the Bihar cadre has been appointed Director General, Railway Protection Force (RPF) of the Railway Board.

SANJAY BHATTACHARYYA The 1987-batch IFS officer, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Arab Republic of Egypt.

RAHUL SHRIVASTAVA The 1999-batch IFS officer, Counsellor in the Embassy of India, Moscow, has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

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VINOD KUMAR The 1983-batch IFS officer has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Uzbekistan.

SANDEEP KUMAR The Joint secretary (WANA), has been appointed the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Croatia.

SK BHAGAT The 1982-batch IPS officer of the Uttarakhand cadre has been appointed Additional Director General in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

RAJIV RAI BHATNAGAR The 1983-batch IPS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre has been appointed Additional Director General in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

VH RAO DESHMUKH The 1986-batch IPS officer of the Jharkhand cadre has been appointed Inspector General in Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

KB SINGH The 1985-batch IPS officer has been appointed DG Vigilance in Odisha.

AK SHARMA The 1987-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been inducted in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as Joint Director.

AMRIT MOHAN PRASAD The 1989-batch IPS officer of the Odisha cadre has been inducted in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as Joint Director.

SHAIK DARVESH SAHEB The 1990-batch IPS officer of the Kerala cadre has been appointed Inspector General in Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D).

SITHARAMA ANJANEYULU The 1992-batch IPS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre is appointed Inspector General in Border Security Force (BSF).

RK RAI The 1992-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been appointed Inspector General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

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THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS HAVE BEEN APPOINTED ADDITIONAL SECRETARIES IN THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA AJAY KUMAR BHALLA 1984-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry; NILAM SAWHNEY 1984-batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, Central Vigilance Commission; NUTAN GUHA BISWAS 1983-batch IAS officer of the Union Territory cadre, Ministry of Women and Child Development; JALAJ SHRIVASTAVA 1984-batch IAS officer of the Union Territory cadre, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture; ASHOK M R DALAWAI 1984-batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture; ANURADHA MITRA 1982-batch IP&T A&FS officer as Financial Adviser (Acquisition) & Member (Defence Procurement Board) and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence; AMARJEET SINHA 1983-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, Department of Rural Development, Ministry of Rural Development; ALOK KUMAR 1984-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, in NITI Aayog. THE FOLLOWING OFFICERS HAVE BEEN APPOINTED JOINT SECRETARIES IN THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA RAJ KUMAR 1987-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, Department of Economic Affairs; RP GUPTA 1987-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, Ministry of Coal; ANU GARG 1991-batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre, Ministry of Textiles; PEEYUSH KUMAR 1997-batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, Department of Expenditure; GC MURMU 1985-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, Department of Expenditure; TARUN BAJAJ 1988-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, Prime Minister’s Office; DEBASHREE MUKHERJEE 1991-batch IAS officer of the Union Territory cadre, Prime Minister’s Office; PRAVEEN KUMAR 1987-batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, Department of Higher Education; SURESH KUMAR 1986-batch IAS officer IAS officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, Ministry of Defence; PK SARANGI 1986-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, Department of Rural Development; HUKUM SINGH MEENA 1992-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, Department of Land Resources; MANISH SINGH 1997-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, Department of Disinvestment; SELVA KUMAR 1997-batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre, Department of Economic Affairs; RAJESH SINHA 1994-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, Ministry of Coal; SUBHASHISH PANDA 1997-batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, Department of Food and Public Distribution; SASIDHAR K SRINIVAS 1997-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, Department of Agriculture and Co-operation; MANOJ KUMAR DWIVEDI 1997-batch IAS officer, Ministry of Food Processing; ANITA PRAVEEN 1989-batch IAS officer IAS officer, Department of Commerce; ASHOK DONGRE 1987-batch of the Tamil Nadu cadre, Ministry of Defence; NIHARIKA BARIK 1997-batch IAS officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre, Department of Food & Public Distribution; MANEESH GARG 1996-batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, Department of School Education & Literacy; DEVESH CHATURVEDI 1989-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, Department of Personnel & Training; RK AGRAWAL 1997-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, Ministry of Shipping; V VENU 1990-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre, Department of Sports; RAKHEE GUPTA BHANDARI 1997-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre, Ministry of Home Affairs; RAVNEET KAUR 1988-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (IPP); RASHMI SAXENA SAHNI 1984-batch IRS-IT officer, Ministry of Women and Child Development; VENKATA RAMANA MURTHY 1991-batch IDAS officer, Ministry of Corporate Affairs; ADITYA JOSHI 1989-batch IFS officer of the Manipur-Tripura cadre, Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries; SUNIL SHARMA 1985-batch IRPS officer in Department of Health and Family Welfare; MUKESH MITTAL 1987-batch IRS-IT officer, Ministry of Home Affairs; DINESH SINGH BIST 1987-batch IPS officer of the Bihar cadre, Ministry of Minority Affairs; SANJEEV SOOD 1984-batch IRSEE officer, Department of Atomic Energy; RAJESH K CHAUDHARY 1997-batch IFS officer of the Punjab cadre, Department of Public Enterprises; RASHMI SAXENA SAHNI 1984-batch IRS-IT officer, Ministry of Women and Child Development; VENKATA RAMANA MURTHY 1991-batch IDAS officer, Ministry of Corporate Affairs; ADITYA JOSHI 1989-batch IFS officer of the Manipur-Tripura cadre, Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries; SUNIL SHARMA 1985-batch IRPS officer, Department of Health and Family Welfare.

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

ALOK KUMAR MITTAL The 1993-batch IPS officer of the Haryana cadre has been appointed Inspector General in the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

SATVINDER ATWAL TRIVEDI The 1997-batch IPS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre has joined BSF as DIG.

VINAY KUMAR The 2004-batch IPS officer of the Bihar cadre has been appointed SSP, Purnia in Bihar.

SAVITA ANAND

SHIVENDRA MOHAN THE FOLLOWING JUDGES HAVE BEEN APPOINTED TO ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT: KARUNA NAND BAJPAYEE; MANOJ KUMAR GUPTA; ANJANI KUMAR MISHRA; MAHESH CHANDRA TRIPATHI; SUNEET KUMAR. THE FOLLOWING JUDGES HAVE BEEN APPOINTED TO GUJARAT HIGH COURT: RAJENDRA DHIRAJLAL KOTHARI and ABDULLAH GULAMAHMED URAIZEE.

The IRSME-officer has been posted as Executive Director, Mechanical Engineering (Environment & House Keeping) in the Railway Board.

JITENDRA GUPTA The 1989-batch IPoS officer has been appointed Post Master General (PMG), North Region, Bihar Circle, Muzaffarpur.

SHAILENDRA DASHORA The 1989-batch IPoS officer has been appointed Deputy Director General, Establishment, Postal Directorate in New Delhi.

The 1981-batch IFS officer of the Rajasthan cadre has been appointed Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) (Head of Forest Force) in Rajasthan.

TANUJA PANDE

KRISHNA BAHADUR SINGH

DEEPIKA POKHARNA

The 1995-batch IPoS officer has been appointed Director, Postal Service, Aurangabad region, Maharashtra circle.

The 1997-batch ITS officer has been appointed Director, Ministry of Culture.

NAVIN SINHA

PRAVIN RAWAL

The Justice has been appointed Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court.

The 1995-batch IFS officer of the Union Territory cadre has been appointed Director in the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Delhi.

KM GUPTA The 1981-batch IES officer has been appointed Senior Economic Adviser, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.

The 1987-batch IRAS officer has been appointed Deputy Director General, UIDAI.

The IRS-IT officer has been posted as Additional CIT (OSD) (CW) in the office of Principal CCIT (CCA), Delhi Region.

APARNA MITTAL

PRANAV KUMAR

NILU AGRAWAL The judge has been appointed Additional Judge of Patna High Court.

The IRS-IT officer has been posted as CIT (OSD) in the office of Principal CCIT (CCA), Mumbai Region.

SUDHIR SINGH

The 1982-batch IRTS officer has been appointed Additional Secretary (Joint Secretary level) in the office of Central Information Commission (CIC).

RC PANDEY

RATNAKER BHENGRA

The IRS-IT officer has been appointed Additional CIT in the office of Principal CCIT (CCA), Delhi region.

The judge has been appointed Additional Judge of Jharkhand High Court

ARUN KUMAR JHA

RAM MOHAN SINGH

SUNIL THOMAS

The 1985-batch IES officer has been appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Joint Secretary level in Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Mumbai under the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises.

The IRS-IT officer has been deputed to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), New Delhi as Assessor & Collector.

The judge has been appointed Additional Judge of Kerala High Court.

KALYANI CHADHA

The 2000-batch ITS officer has been appointed Director in the Department of Social Justice & Empowerment.

ACHLA SINHA

JP AGARWAL The 1988-batch CSS officer has been appointed Principal Commissioner, DDA under the Ministry of Urban Development.

SANJIV SWARUP The 1982-batch IRSEE officer has been appointed Chief Vigilance Officer in National Buildings Construction Corporation Limited (NBCC), Delhi.

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

The IRSME officer has been appointed Executive Director, Mechanical Engineering (Workshops), Railway Board.

PARAS MAL SANKHLA The 2008-batch IRS-C&CE officer has been appointed Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister.

RAVI KANT GUPTA The IRS-IT officer has been promoted to the grade of Joint Commissioner of Income Tax.

The judge has been appointed Additional Judge of Patna High Court.

KHAGESH GARG

RAMENDRA JAIN The judge has been appointed Additional Judge of Punjab & Haryana High Court.

RAJALAKSHMI DEVARAJ The 1998-batch IDAS officer has been appointed Director in the Expenditure Management Commission (EMC), Department of Expenditure.

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...by the way No family time

Khattar’s dual support

rime Minister Narendra Modi has advised bureaucrats to spend quality time with family as the government needs humans in offices and not robots but state governments seem to be disregarding his advice. A number mber of newly married civil servantt couples have been unable to get cadre transfer, and are living in separate states. Afsana Perveen, 2014 batch, J&K cadre, requested an inter-cadre transfer to the Kerala cadre on grounds of her marriage to Jafar Malik, 2013 batch. A letter intimating the present status of the case along with copies of the letters sent to the state government have been issued to Perveen. Dinesh Kumar, IAS, 2013 batch, ManipurTripura cadre, applied for inter-cadre transfer to the Andhra Pradesh cadre on the grounds of his marriage to his batchmate, Vijaya K. It is learnt that Kumar’s vigilance clearance was denied because of default in filing IPR for 2014. Similarly, U Swaroop, 2011 batch, West Bengal cadre, sought an inter-cadre transfer to Tamil Nadu while Dr Kadambari Bhagat, 2010 batch, Nagaland cadre, applied for inter-cadre transfer to the Maharashtra cadre on the grounds of marriage to Balkwade Shailesh Unmesh, a 2010-batch Maharashtra cadre IPS officer. Sources disclose that the request has been rejected as the officer sought transfer from the home state. Nidhi, 2013 batch, West Bengal cadre, IAS, sought an inter-cadre transfer to the AGMUT cadre on the grounds of marriage to Devesh Kumar, 2012 batch, AGMUT cadre, IPS. The comments of the state governments concerned have not been received. Swati Srivastava, 2012 batch, IAS, Chhattisgarh cadre, applied for inter-cadre transfer to the Uttarakhand cadre on grounds of marriage to Nitin Singh Bhadauria, 2011 batch, IAS, of that cadre. No approval from the government of Chhattisgarh has come as yet. Killu Siva Kumar Naidu, 2011 batch, ManipurTripura cadre, IAS, applied for an inter-cadre transfer from the Manipur-Tripura cadre to the Telangana cadre on the grounds of marriage to Chetana Mylabathula, 2013 batch, Telangana cadre, IPS. The state government is silent till now. Riju Bafna, IAS, 2014 batch, Chhattisgarh cadre, applied for an inter-cadre transfer to the Madhya Pradesh cadre on the grounds of marriage to her batchmate, Avi Prasad. The government of Chhattisgarh did not issue a No Objection Certificate to the officer on account of paucity of IAS officers. Surprisingly, the Chhattisgarh government conveyed a “No Objection” to the inter-cadre transfer of her spouse, Avi Prasad, to Chhattisgarh. g

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hen Manohar Lal Khattar took over as Chief Minister of Haryana, he had virtually no experience in governing. It was a peculiar situation as he had not even appointed a Principal Secretary. It is an important post in a state government, working like a bridge between the Chief Minister’s Office and the state. Sanjiv Kaushal, a 1986-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, has now been appointed to the position. The BJP has come to power for the first time since the inception of Haryana, so it was a new challenge all the way for everybody to run the state. The polite, humble and suave Kaushal is managing the show well. But it is really tricky to manage the state single-handedly and naturally there were murmurs. So Khattar brought in another sharp, intelligent and hardworking young IAS officer of the 1988 batch, Haryana cadre, as Additional Principal Secretary – Rajesh Khullar. The latter was working as a Joint Jo t Secretary Sec eta y in the t e Ministry st y of Finance. Now the state’s responsibilities are vertically divided between the two efficient secretaries. Politicians Politician and officers who were reluctant to approach Kaushal Kaush are approaching Khullar. Khattar is also happy as there are more inputs on the table from both sides. One definitely definite learns the art of ruling as time tim passes! g

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

...by the way Legal loopholes

The new boss

ivil Services Day, celebrated in April this year, was quite different from earlier celebrations. There were new faces and a new thrust. The Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms, Alok Rawat, and Special Secretary Arun Jha were in full command, managing the show with finesse. Being the seniormost among civil servants, Cabinet Secretary AK Seth was present most of the time and was seen observing and instructing wherever needed. Amitabh Kant, Secretary, DIPP, Navtej Sarna, Secretary, External Affairs, Saurabh Chandra, Secretary, Petroleum, Sanjay Kothari, Secretary, DoPT, and Madhav Lal, Secretary, MSME, were actively participating and interacting with fellow colleagues. The real power centre with the change of guard was PK Mishra, Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. A retired 1972-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, Mishra was sitting in the front row and closely observing the proceedings. Most of the top bureaucrats were seen whispering to him. Some of them were seen waiting quietly for their turn to just say hello or introduce themselves to the new boss in the set-up. Mishra politely listened and met everybody patiently. He kept a very calm, humble and low profile during the occasion. g

here is simmering tension between the judiciary and executive due to the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). There seems to be a deep-rooted disconnect within the new dispensation in its plan for NJAC. Some facts: The UPA1 and UPA2 regimes had a very cordial relationship with the judiciary. It has been a merit versus seniority debate for the appointment of judges. With the new Act in force, a six-member committee will have a final say for the selection of the judges. Political observers and analysts say this is possibly happening due to the country’s top realty tycoon, DLF. Soon after the new dispensation took over the reins of government, the Supreme Court on August 28, 2014, instructed DLF to pay a `630 cr fine. On February 26 this year, DLF and its non-independent directors—KP Singh, Rajiv Singh, Pia Singh, TC Goyal, Ramesh Sanka, GS Talwar and Kameshwar Swarup—were fined `26 crore each by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The fine has been imposed for non-disclosure of material information in the company’s offer documents during its Initial Public Offering (IPO). This is the same IPO which was challenged by an NGO in 2007. The ruling dispensation seems to be aware of the Machiavellian moves of DLF. g

ILLUSTRATIONS: ARUNA

gfiles inside the government vol. 9, issue 2 | May 2015

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Regn.No.DL(C)-14/1161/2013-15 Licence No. U(C)-03/2013-15, Li Licence tto postt without ith t prepaymentt P Posted t d on 7th th & 8th off every month th att SPM SRT N Nagar, Post Office, New Delhi 110055 R.N.I. No: DELENG/2007/19719. `200, vol. 9, issue 2 | Date of Publication: 5/5/2015 | Pages 56+4