mashelkar: re-assured p40
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Proposals
Proposed rules to tinker with Civil Services are trivial, knee-jerk reactions. Will they deliver good governance?
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Memory Clouds The Hon’ble Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on April 21, 2015, on Civil Services Day, gave a clarion call to record and upload the memoirs of senior and experienced civil servants. Hence...
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Featuring Prabhat Kumar BG Deshmukh MC Gupta Kripa Narayan Srivastava V Selvaraj Sushil Chandra Tripathi Romesh Bhandari Devi Dayal Reva Nayyar VP Sawhney SK Mishra Dr G Sundaram KC Sivaramakrishnan Nitish Sengupta Vishnu Bhagwan Gen Noble Thamburaj Baleshwar Rai
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From the Editor
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vol. 12, issue 3 | June 2018 Anil Tyagi | editor GS Sood | business editor Sheshadri Chari | roving editor Alam Srinivas | contributing editor Anish Gandhi | consultant, foreign affairs Narendra Kaushik | associate editor Rakesh Bhardwaj | editorial consultant Ramesh Sharma | bureau chief (north india) Ajit Ujjainkar | bureau chief (mumbai) Durvesh Singh | bureau chief (Lucknow) Mayank Awasthi | sub editor Pawan Kumar | production coordinator Nipun Jain | finance Gautam Das | legal consultant Bushchat Media | edit & design Madan Lal | webmaster Abhisshek Tyagi | director advertising & marketing Anil Sood | vice president, marketing +919811639632 PS Sural | vice president, marketing +919873243950 e-mail: asps@gfilesindia.com delhi: e-mail: adv@gfilesindia.com mumbai: 48/C-1, Areshwar, Mhada, S.V.P. Nagar, Andheri(W), Mumbai 400 053 Chandigarh: SCO 5- First Floor, Zirakpur-Shimla Highway, Zirakpur, District Mohali Punjab Contact — 0172-509368 e-mail: rameshsharmaemail@gmail.com Anil Tyagi, Printer & Publisher 118, 2nd floor, dda site 1, new rajinder nagar, new delhi – 110 060 +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 Polykam Offset, C-138, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase I, New Delhi 110028. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts in New Delhi only
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he PMO-driven proposals to tinker with the rules and sub-rules governing the Indian bureaucracy have stirred the hornet’s nest. It has whipped up a lively debate among working and retired civil servants, experts and the public. Most issues relate to the motives of the government, impact on the bureaucracy and the influence of the outsiders, 10 of whom may join as Joint Secretaries in key economic ministries. The inevitable questions are: Why now? Why only 10? In the central administration with several dozens of ministries, can less than a dozen people make any difference? The pro-lateral induction voices argue that in the 21st century, India needs domain experts, who can transform governance and make it efficient, deliverable and transparent. Moreover, in the post-reforms era, one needs to invite outsiders, who wish to contribute to governance and offer their services. However, almost 200 years of modern bureaucratic history in India teaches us two crucial lessons. One, the aim of the civil services was to ensure public good and public welfare. The pursuit of socialistic goals, not profits, governed the decisions and actions of the bureaucrats. They were judged by efficient public expenditure to deliver the best results to the hundreds of millions of poor. For seven decades in post-Independent India, the civil servants were never allowed to gain domain expertise. They were shuttled across geographies, across ministries and departments on a regular basis to achieve the stated objectives. If expertise is the key, lateral induction should be simultaneously combined with critical changes in the working of the bureaucrats and allow them to become experts over a 10-15 year period. The two steps have to move in a synchronised manner. Critical ministries like agriculture, oil and gas, telecom, finance and defence needs dozens of experts and not just one JS, who comes from the outside. Given their dismal minority, a clash between the insiders and outsiders is inevitable. The former may decide to non-cooperate with the latter. Lateral induction is like the introducing of a new organ to replace an existing organ in the body-politic of bureaucracy. Sometimes, the system can assimilate the newcomer; but most times the body can reject it. At the same time, for the new JS to understand the intricacies of the ‘green paper’ process, which is crucial to the drafting of policies and initiated by a JS, can take a year or so, or a third of their three-year tenure. Although it may not be evident, the outsiders, like the insiders, will be monitored by the fearless system of 4Cs and one R – CAG, CBI, CVC, Courts and the Right to Information Act. In an era, when Secretaries and Ministers have been put behind bars, will the so-called domain experts be ready for such scrutiny and punishment, even years after they have quit their posts? To look at it from another perspective, can the governments that have allowed Vijay Mallya or Nirav Modi to escape from the country assure the citizens that they will not let the guilty outsiders get away with illegalities? More importantly, lateral induction can open up the Pandora’s Box in the states. If outsiders can join the Centre, they can surely enter the state administrations. The Chief Ministers will get the opportunities to inculcate their favourites into the system and, possibly, corrupt it further. Hence, the implications of such decisions need to be thought through completely. If started, they can gain a momentum of its own, further disrupting governance. Finally, we need to ask one overriding question: Will lateral induction help improve the lives of the poor? Anil Tyagi editor@gfilesindia.com
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CONTENTS BJP is staring down the twin barrels of a revitalised Congress under Kamal Nath and strong anti-incumbency, which will test the party’s famed organisational capability and Amit Shah’s formidable electoral muscle pg 14
State Scan: Maratha Paradox
Maharashtra, which has been at the forefront of the progressive movement and women’s upliftment, is yet to appoint a woman to the post of Chief Secretary in 58 years since its formation pg 32
Governance: Poisoned Morsels
The problem of food adulteration is fast acquiring endemic proportions in the absence of strong laws, raising serious concerns about its extreme effects
Cover Story
pg 36
Trivial, knee-jerk A PMO proposal to allocate cadre of civil servants after taking into account their performances in the Foundation Course has raised eyebrows. Experts believe that the ill-conceived decision-in-the-making will have an adverse impact on the overall morale
pg 20 Cover Story: Treading on dangerous ground
Governance: One step forward, two steps backwards
SEBI’s decision to keep the equity derivative market open for almost 15 hours will take a toll on traders and other stakeholders. Higher volatility will enhance the mindset of excessive speculation, and the resultant greed in the society. pg 38
Governance: An ASSURED way to enrich lives
How many exams should civil servants go through to determine their services and cadres? The PMO wants to add one more, and there is little clarity on what it will achieve pg 26
Dr. RA Mashelkar, Chairman, National Innovation Foundation, maintains that social inequality can be bridged through innovation that’s ASSURED – Affordable, Sustainable, Scalable, Universal, Rapid, Excellent, and Distinctive pg 40
Cover Story: Lateral Entry, Big Deal
Governance: Flying at cruising altitude
It is ingrained within the administrative system, and is an integral part of it. Recruitment in Police and Judiciary has several levels of entry. But a Magistrate can never become a Supreme Court judge, nor a Sub-Inspector a Police Commissioner pg 29
Bric-a-brac
Pranab: The Prez-PM; Bad Communicator; Arrogant Princes; New Colors of Bihar pg 7
The global aviation industry is in the pink of health, but it faces multiple air pockets, including wafer-thin margins, increasing fuel cost and the threat of trade wars that might lead to serious turbulence in the future says, Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO, IATA pg 46
Book Extract: The case of the missing girl child Despite governments’ effort, studies show that adverse sex ratio remains a dark spot in 21st century India. It requires a comprehensive gender-sensitive strategy and multi-pronged approach to tackle the menace of sex-selective abortion
pg 50
Book Review: Spies who came in from the cold
The Spy Chronicles brings the former spy masters of two hostile, nuclear-armed, and neighbouring nations together, who give an insider’s account on several contentious issues. However, after building up the anticipation, the book falls short on facts and relies more on gossip pg 10
State Scan: Beware! The Lotus eaters are on the prowl
In the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections later this year, the
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By the Way
No Trust, No Respect; Perturbed UP Civil Servants; Strengthening the NSA’s Office; Modi’s foreign visit…. pg 61
Plus... Birthdays of MPs, Civil Servants Tracking: Transfers & Postings
pg 54 pg 57
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LETTERS editor@gfilesindia.com
India should play hardball While I agree with all the arguments put forth in favour of India joining the BRI, thereby leveraging its interests in the region. The CPEC within the OBOR violates the key essential aspect of sovereignty of the Indian state by passing through POK and Aksai Chin area now under Pakistan and China. Therefore, if India joins it, it would entail ceding its sovereignty forever over these Indian territories. The consequences of it within the country for the ruling political party in eyes of common man will be devastating. If, India was to agree with China’s persistent proposal to join the CPEC or the OBOR initiative, then for India’s ruling dispensation to survive the internal consequences, it will have to show substantial amount of geostrategic benefits and gains in terms of resolution of disputed areas. That will entail China forcing its client state, Pakistan, to end terrorism on Indian soil and China agreeing to India’s entry into UNSC and recognition of Arunachal Pradesh as quid pro quo. Amitabh via Email
the North, it’s not the preferred language in the East, North East and South India. In fact, proceedings at an important function like the Civil Services Day, which celebrates India’s best-performing bureaucrats, should be conducted in English—the most widely accepted working language of India. Also, I would like to point out that this year’s awards centred around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet schemes, overlooking other areas of national importance such as renewable energy, health, food security, environmental conservation etc. These are the areas that have a direct impact on the lives of a large number of people. Hope in the next year’s Civil Services Day celebrations these anomalies are addressed by adopting a more holistic approach. Sujith Ranganathan via email. The EVM conundrum Over the past couple of years, several political parties and civil society activists have raised serious concerns about the integrity of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). Reports of EVMs malfunctioning have surfaced regularly, which have cast a shadow of doubt on the sanctity of elections. Free and fair elections are the lifeblood of a democracy. The petition to the Election Commission, Replace paperless EVMs with VVPAT EVMs (gfiles, May 2018), raises several pertinent points. In the recent byelections in UP hundreds of EVMs were reported to have malfunctioned. The EC didn’t cover itself in glory by saying that the EVMs
malfunctioned due to “extreme heat”, further shaking the confidence of the voters about the legitimacy of voting process. Despite the Supreme Court’s 2013 order to move to 100 percent VVPAT EVMs, the EC has continued to drag its feet. Not only that, the EC’s insistence on verifying VVPAT paper slips in only one randomly selected polling station in each assembly constituency defeats the very purpose of installing VVPATs in all EVMs. It should be noted that the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany in its 2009 judgement held that EVMs are unconstitutional as long as there is no provision for additional verifiable physical record of every vote cast. It’s even more disconcerting that the media, which is supposed to play the role of the watchdog, has scoffed at the idea that EVMs can be tampered with. At the 2016 DEF CON, the world’s largest convention of hackers that’s held in Las Vegas every year, hackers from around the world demonstrated comprehensively, and beyond doubt, that EVMs can be hacked. The EC, on the other hand, has steadfastly refused to conduct a hackathon, where security experts and hackers are given access to EVMs. The only hope for restoring the confidence of the voters in the entire electoral process is that the EC should conduct the 2019 general election with 100 percent VVPAT enabled EVMs. It should take concrete steps to conclusively put all doubts to rest. Satya Prakash via Facebook
A more holistic approach needed It’s interesting to note that this year’s Civil Services Day marked a departure from the norm. However, it’s disconcerting to note that this year the speeches were in Hindi. While Hindi is spoken and understood by a large segment of the population, especially in
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Bric-a-brac words & deeds
Pranab: The Prez-PM Omita Paul driving force
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he former President, Pranab Mukherjee’s participation in the RSS’s convocation ceremony – Sangh Shiksha Varg: Tritya Varsha – at Nagpur kicked off a political firestorm. He has now emerged as a future Prime Ministerial candidate. It seems like a far-fetched idea, but to paraphrase an old tag line from Nike ads: impossible is nothing in politics. His daughter, Sharmistha, and son, Abhijit Mukherjee, both of whom are active in the Congress party, have denied that their father is joining politics. But Pranabda doesn’t care much about his children’s political loyalty. He reportedly follows the advice of his former secretary, Omita Paul, whose husband, KK Paul, the former Commissioner of Delhi Police, and now the governor of Uttrakhand, is close to the ailing BJP politician, Arun Jaitely. Speculations abound the motives of the RSS and Pranab. Observers feel that the RSS has realised that the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah team may not be able to muster the desired majority in the 2019 national elections. Political pundits, who understand the mindset of the Sangh, argue that individuals don’t matter for the RSS. What matters is the organisation’s
grip on power. RSS doesn’t wish to lose power, which it got back after a decade. If not Modi, then Pranab is the most suitable face for it. The latter has impeccable credentials and expertise in political management. If the BJP is unable to garner a majority in 2019, Pranab can emerge as an ideal poster boy. The former President has friends in all the political parties. Imagine a scenario in which Sharad Pawar, Udhav Thackeray, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Deve Gowda, Lalu Yadav, Mamta Banerjee, Mayawati, Prakash Singh Badal, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Sitaram Yechury, Chandrasekhar Rao, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitely and Rajnath Singh agree to give a new shape to Indian polity and government. Despite hiccups, they would want to gang up to form the government in 2019. The beauty of the scenario is that Pranabda knows the Congress well. Resources can prove to be an uphill task. But hang on: Pranab is the ‘uncle’ of a Mumbai-based industrial house, whose coffers are always open for the patriarch of Indian politics. It’s interesting to note that the Pranab Mukherjee Trust received `180 crore as donation recently. g
The ill-tempered communicator Lurching from one controversy to another
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mriti Irani has not understood the dynamics between the BJP and RSS. She forgot that she is an outsider, and in the ruling framework, the RSS prevails upon the BJP. Had she not been a confidant of Narendra Modi, the RSS would have pulled out the red card, showing her the exit door from the government. Her bitter battle with Surya Prakash, CEO, Prasar Bharti, laid the foundation for her exit from the allpowerful Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Her behaviour is weird; even in the Parliament’s Central Hall, she took on journalists and claimed that she would teach them a lesson. It’s something that has never happened before. The corridors of Shastri Bhavan are rife with rumour that she committed her latest gaffe
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was over the invitation to President Ramnath Kovind for the annual National Films Awards. It is learnt that Irani used formal channels, as she should have, to write to the President. But she had the audacity of not handing over the invitation personally to Kovind, which has been the norm for decades. The President House reportedly took affront at this arrogant behaviour and duly informed the Prime Minister’s Office. One of the officials claimed that this was the reason why the President’s Office decided to limit Kovind’s presence at the award ceremony for only an hour. This further added fuel to the raging fire within the intellectual and film community, embarrassing the government even more. g
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Bric-a-brac words & deeds
Arrogant Princes The clash of egos
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olitical relationships need to be nurtured and handled with care and affection. There is no place for arrogance. This dictum isn’t present in the books of the opposition leaders. Former Chief Minister of UP, Akhilesh Yadav and Congress’s Rahul Gandhi are out of power, but they behave like ruling princes. The duo went Bengaluru for the oath-taking ceremony of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. The event should have brought them closer, but reports indicate that the gap between the two has widened. In fact, Tejashwi Yadav, Sitaram Yechury and Arvind Kejriwal were staying in the
same hotel. Akhilesh personally held long discussions with them. Sources disclosed that Rahul’s man Friday, Kaushal Vidyarthi, called on Akhilesh and conveyed his boss’s wish for a meeting at the former’s hotel. Akhilesh, who normally controls his anger, was miffed: “Bhaiya (Rahul) wants to meet me and then issues an order. After all, I am also the President of my party, so why can’t Bhaiya come over to my hotel?” Rahul, who thinks he is the President of a larger, national party, could not digest such a reply from a junior partner. Since then, there is an eerie silence between the two leaders. g
Of kings, kingmakers and pawns Nitish’s opening gambit in Bihar
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ushashan Babu, Nitish Kumar, is the most unpredictable species in Bihar politics. BJP’s Bihar unit has tried to rein him, but the disciple of Karpoori Thakur changes his track – and tack – each time. Now, Nitish Babu has reportedly told the BJP’s state leadership that the 2019 national election in Bihar will be fought in his name, and not Narendra Modi’s. The demand has baffled the BJP. Former Chief Minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi, tested the political waters with BJP, but returned back to the Rastriya Janta Dal (Lalu ) and Congress front. Another wicket may fall— Upendra Kushwaha, Minister of State in HRD ministry. At present, he is weighing the pros and cons. His party only won two out of the 23 assembly seats allocated by BJP in the last assembly elections, but won three parliament seats in the 2014 elections. Kushwaha met Lalu Prasad Yadav at AIIMS recently, and received an open invitation to join the RJD.
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Another tricky issue is the distribution of the Parliamentary seats in Bihar in 2019. JD (U) has demanded the implementation of the old formula, under which it will get 25 seats, even as the BJP will fight on 15. However, the family-run party of Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother has demanded seven parliamentary seats. Kushwaha is not ready to give up his three parliamentary seats. If everyone sticks to their stances, the BJP may be able to fight on five seats. The current coalition, led by Nitish, hosted a dinner, which BJP President Amit Shah and Kushwaha did not attend. It is reported that a new formula of 15-15-7-3 is being discussed: JD (U) and BJP will fight on 15 seats each, Paswan family will get seven and three will go to Kushwaha. BJP wants to keep the alleged mafia don, Pappu Yadav, in the coalition. There is chaos and confusion. BJP and Amit Shah are unable to guess which party will support which one in 2019. Finally, the chess board will be drawn by Nitish Babu and not by Saheb or Amit bhai. g
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Book Review
spy versus spy shubhabrata bhattacharya
Spies who came in from the cold T
The Spy Chronicles brings the former spy masters of two hostile, nuclear-armed, and neighbouring nations together, who give an insider’s accounts on several contentious issues. However, after building up the anticipation, the book falls short on facts and relies more on gossip
he book, jointly authored by India’s former Indian Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Amarjit Singh Dulat and the Pakistan’s former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, Lt. Gen. Muhammad Asad Durrani, was released amidst fanfare by a galaxy of Indian leaders. The august gathering included former Vice-President Hamid Ansari, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, and leading politicians and former ministers from different political parties such as Kapil Sibal, Yashwant Sinha and Omar Abdullah The co-author from Pakistan could not be present as he did not get an Indian visa (later, travel restrictions were imposed on him by his home country). Published by Harper Collins and edited by journalist Aditya Sinha, who moderated the discourse between the authors, The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace, eludes any startling revelations. It is a compendium of gossip between the two former spy chiefs conducted over three sessions held at Istanbul, Bangkok and Kathmandu. They couldn’t have obviously met on their respective home turfs. The book throws light on the careers of the co-authors, but is opaque about
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Title: The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace Author: A.S. Dulat / Asad Durrani Edited by: Aditya Sinha Publisher: Harper Collins Price: `799.00 Pages: 344
their exploits. It does, however, chronicle their perceptions about the RAW, ISI and other agencies such as the CIA (US), MI6 (Britain), BND (Germany), Mossad (Israel) and the erstwhile KGB (former Soviet Union). The dialogue, which emerged as a book, was facilitated by the Track-II effort sponsored by Canada’s University of Ottawa, in which former Canadian diplomat, Peter Jones, acts as the pivot. This
Track-II initiative has three compartments: nuclear, military and intelligence. It is the last component which brought Dulat and Durrani together in the process named Chao Praya dialogue (named after a river in Thailand). In this, the former top functionaries met at picturesque locations to seek the illusive peace between the two South Asian neighbours, whose post-Independence histories are a saga of confrontation. Twenty-four sessions have been held so far. The date of the 25th is not yet fixed. The trust deficit between the two governments extends to these extra-government sessions too. In a recent article, retired Lt. Gen. Syed Ata Hasnain, who commanded the Indian Army in Kashmir, commented that the trust deficit in TrackII dialogues makes the participants noncommittal. Parallely, a Track-I dialogue between the National Security Advisors (NSAs) of the two nations is attempting to break the deadlock. While the NSA-level talks yield some results (though they don’t prevent a Pathankot or Uri-kind of incidents, or cause cessation of hostilities across the LOC), the tangible result of Track-II is yet to emerge. The official establishments on both sides have taken a dim view of
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the Dulat-Durrani joint-venture. While Pakistan reacted openly and put restrictions on Durrani, the Indian establishment choose to keep mum. However, former sleuths that this reviewer spoke to were critical of the book. They felt that it was mere gossip and not generous on facts. The current Indian NSA, Ajit Doval, figures in the discourse. Durrani, recalling Doval’s stint in Pakistan, is not very comfortable with his persona. But Dulat heaps praises on Doval. However, Intelligence Bureau (IB) hands, who worked with Doval and Dulat, do not recall any great chemistry between the two. Former RAW hands recall that when Dulat headed the agency, after a lifetime in IB, he had hinted that he would prefer if Doval, who handled Kashmir in IB those days, be kept out of the loop on some operations in Kashmir, especially centring around the Hurriyat.
I
n the book, while talking positively about Doval, Dulat confesses that he has not met the former in his present NSA days. Apparently, while Dulat was pow-wowing with Durrani in Istanbul, Bangkok and Kathmandu, he did not feel the necessity to brief Doval in New Delhi. Dulat is open about discussing the Indian security establishment, including fissures between the IB and RAW. Durrani remains defensive about the Pakistani establishment and does not divulge much in his guarded answers. Dulat has no reason to worry in India as he is respected for the work he did in Kashmir and for his book, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years, in which he has emphasised that “empathy is the key to understanding Kashmir”, which is echoed in this book as well. Durrani had reasons to be guarded. He is being probed in Pakistan for what is known as “Mehrangate”. It’s alleged that the ISI chief, along with the then Army chief, Mirza Aslam Beg, used funds procured from Mehran Bank to influence the
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Amarjit Singh Dulat and Lt. Gen. Mohammad Asad Durrani
The official establishments on both sides of the border have taken a dim view of the Dulat-Durrani jointventure. While Pakistan has reacted openly and put restrictions on Durrani, the Indian establishment has chosen to keep mum 1990 election to the detriment of the late Benazir Bhutto. As in India, the judicial process in Pakistan moves at its own pace. In 2012, the Pakistan Supreme Court held the duo guilty in the case filed by retired Air Marshal Asghar Khan in 1996. It was alleged that Rs 14 crore was spent by the Army and ISI to influence the 1990 elections in which Nawaz Sharif ousted Bhutto. The book has given the Pakistan establishment a reason to look at the case closely now, and led the Pakistan GHQ to summon Durrani. Sharif ’s revelation that the ISI had a hand in 26/11 has put Pakistan on the back foot. The Durrani-Dulat book is the
last straw on the camel’s back. Ironically, nowhere in the book Mehrangate finds a mention. Post-launch, Dulat hogged the headlines, but he was silent on Mehrangate. Incidentally, he admits that money was used in Kashmir when he worked for the IB. But, unlike Durrani, there are no charges against his probity. While being critical of this book, his former colleagues in IB and RAW vouch for his straightforwardness. The ISI was formed soon after independence in 1947, while the RAW was bifurcated from IB in September 1968. The ISI has been referred to as Pakistan’s “Deep State”—Dulat prefers to call it “a State within a State”. RAW, though looked at with awe and suspicion in India, has not been ever accused as a “Deep State”. Unlike the ISI, which is controlled by the military, RAW is a civilian setup, and reports to the Cabinet Secretary. In its formative years, as the 1969 Congress split followed within a year of its formation, the opposition in India viewed the RAW as Indira Gandhi’s Praetorian Guards. This led Morarji Desai to cause irretrievable damage to the organisation when he became PM in 1977.
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Book Review
spy versus spy shubhabrata bhattacharya
Tashkent Agreement
1965 War
In the book, Durrani admits that while in 1965, Pakistan had intelligence on the Indian Army, in 1971 the ISI was taken by surprise at the outbreak of war in the erstwhile East Pakistan, which was won by the joint forces of India and Bangladesh liberation fighters. Perhaps, the 1971 war was the finest chapter for any intelligence organisation in the world. Led by RN Kao, Shankaran Nair and IS Hassanwalia, RAW in its third year of its existence, outwitted the CIA and its ally, ISI, in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
U
nfortunately, while Durrani admits ISI’s lapses, Dulat does not flag this singular achievement of RAW, of which he was the only “outsider” head, having been seconded from the IB in 2000, where he served for 18 months. Durrani was the ISI head a decade earlier, after a stint as the head of Military Intelligence. Dulat was a career sleuth; Durrani was an artillery officer deputed to spying. The dialogue recorded in the book therefore is not between two counterparts but two spy chiefs who had brief tenures separated by a decade. Throughout the dialogue Dulat is reverential, referring to Durrani as “Sir”. Durrani, who worked closely with the CIA, feels that the American agency
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Former RAW hands recall that when Dulat headed it, after a lifetime in IB, on some operations in Kashmir, especially centring around the Hurriyat, he had hinted that he would prefer if Doval, who handled Kashmir in IB those days, be kept out of the loop
Ajit Doval
is “overrated”. He cites the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, when ISI had more specific information compared to the CIA. He feels the CIA depends too much on technology and less on Humint (human intelligence gathering on the ground). “They set the place on fire, bombed it,” he says, and is sceptical of the CIA’s discovery of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Saddam Hussain’s arsenal. “They only provided excuse for US military action,” he laments. He asks where were the US satellites, which spotted WMDs in Iraq, when India carried out its nuclear tests in 1998. Dulat echoes the importance of Humint. “You may listen in but unless you have people on the ground you can’t interpret the context. Often, you land with misinformation.” He has a good word for the British MI6, which analyses the technical inputs assiduously and they “talk the least, do their jobs quietly,” he says. As for the CIA, Dulat recalls his conversation with an American operative during his posting in Kathmandu in 1979. The latter was certain that Babu Jagjivan Ram would emerge as PM in India, while Indira Gandhi was sweeping back to power. “They often back the wrong horse,” he says. Dulat feels the Russians are crude but tough. Vladimir Putin’s days as the KGB head shaped his style and he is trying
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Kargil War
1971 War
to push Russia back to the days when Moscow was a dominant power. Durrani recalls that once the Mossad had warned the US on the futility of hostilities with Iran. He praises the German BND, but points out that the BND failed to predict the collapse of the German economy post reunification. The unrest in the Kashmir valley sparked off during Durrani’s tenure as the ISI chief. He says Islamabad did not anticipate that the disquiet will last this long. They were expecting it to subside within “six months”. However, both the spies are full of praise for Farooq Abdullah. They feel he could be the best interlocutor in the valley. Durrani even says that Abdullah could make a good foreign minister for India. But they overlooked the fact that the youth turned towards militancy in the valley after Abdullah’s failure in the late 1980s. He carried the reputation of being a “Disco CM”, and his golfing and motorcycle rides with a Bollywood starlet caused much humour to the chagrin of the local people. In a recent book, retired Jammu & Kashmir cadre IAS officer, Sonali Kumar, recalled her experiences in J&K. She says that all elections in the valley prior to 2002 were unfair. Abdullah lost the 2002 poll as the Chief Minister.
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Durrani makes a revelation about the cause of the Kargil intrusion. He says the then Pakistan Army chief, Pervez Musharraf, was keen to regain the Kargil heights from India, which it had claimed in 1965, but had withdrawn after the Tashkent pact was signed between Lal Bahadur Shastri and Ayub Khan Durrani makes a revelation about the cause of the Kargil intrusion. He says the then Pakistan Army chief, Pervez Musharraf, was keen to regain the Kargil heights from India, which it had claimed in 1965, but withdrew after the Tashkent pact was signed between Lal Bahadur Shastri and Ayub Khan (as it did in Haji Pir pass). In 1971, India again captured the heights, which are of strategic importance, but Musharraf wanted to recreate the 1965 situation. The infamous wiretap on Musharraf regarding Kargil also features in the dialogue. Dulat laments that as India rushed to the media with the
story, an important source of intelligence gathering was lost forever.
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he book refers to an incident in which Dulat went out of his way to ensure that Durrani’s son, Omar, a tech professional based in Germany, who had strayed from his visa routine while on a visit to Kerala and was held up by immigration in Mumbai, was allowed to board a flight back to Germany. Dulat, then retired, sought the help of his former IB and RAW colleagues, who were happy to help saying, “After all he (Durrani) is a colleague.” This bonhomie between the spymasters across the borders is highlighted throughout the book. However, the solutions suggested in the book are utopian. At one point it is suggested that a South Asian Union on the lines of EU should be formed with New Delhi as its headquarters. The experience of the SAARC, perhaps, does not augur well in this context. Akhand Bharat too figures in the discourse. Durrani suggests that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) be allowed to open branches in India to facilitate trade, since the SBP is the counterpart of the Reserve Bank of India. The wakefulness of this and, many other suggestions made in the book, need closer scrutiny. g The writer is the former Editor of Sunday
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State Scan elections mp
Beware! The lotus eaters are on the prowl In the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections later this year, the BJP is staring down the twin barrels of a revitalised Congress under Kamal Nath and strong anti-incumbency, which will test the party’s famed organisational capability and Amit Shah’s formidable electoral muscle by Rakesh Dixit
I
t’s tempting to project the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections to be held later this year as a Kamal vs Kamal contest—the BJP’s party symbol versus the MP Congress Committee president, Kamal Nath. It is also being perceived as a three versus one fight. The three MP Congress bigwigs, Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijaya Singh, have buried their differences to take on the three-time Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of the BJP. Interestingly, none of the three have been projected as Congress’s chief ministerial candidate. Instead, the party has
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fielded the three heavyweights in the state in various capacities to take on the might of the BJP. The BJP, on its part, is not banking on Chouhan this time to deliver the goods. Sensing a strong antiincumbency sentiment against the sitting chief minister, BJP president Amit Shah told party workers on May 4 in Bhopal that the next election in MP would be fought by the organisation. The battle lines are already drawn in this three versus one contest, even though the assembly polls are five months away. The Congress troika has got down to the urgent business of reviving the moribund Congress organisation. Their main rival,
the Chief Minister, too has got into full election mode, showering bonanzas on different sections of the voters with an eye on the upcoming elections. The pivot of Congress’s strategy revolves around tapping into the accumulated public anger against the 15-year rule of the BJP. Chouhan, on the other hand, is relying on government resources, the party’s
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formidable organisational network in the state and the heft of its electoral muscle under Shah. Neither the Congress nor the chief minister is leaving anything to chance in pursuit of their goal. After being out of power for 15 years, it is a do-or-die battle for the Congress in the state. The BJP is also acutely conscious of the fact that defeat in three states—MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan—could sound the death knell for the party’s dream to recapture Delhi in the 2019 parliamentary election. In the run-up to the high-stake election, each of the four players is grappling with different fault lines. For Nath, the most formidable challenge is to acclimatise himself with the rough and tumble of street politics as MPCC President. Although, he is the senior most Congress leader in the state, he carries the reputation of a fun-loving king of his citadel—Chhindwara—who is more comfortable in Delhi’s air-conditioned drawing-room strategies.
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he Guna Lok Sabha member, Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is the head of the party’s campaign committee, too carried a similar cross until a couple of years ago. But the scion of the erstwhile Gwalior family has worked hard to shed that image by reaching out to the Congress workers across the state. Still, the satrap of the Gwalior-Chambal region needs to work harder if he wants to emerge as a pan-Madhya Pradesh leader. Digvijaya, who has been tasked with coordinating with all the committees that the MPCC has formed to win the election, has endured the humiliation of being described as the chief destroyer of the party for a long time. But, thanks to his arduous Narmada circumambulation that kept him away from active political and social life for six month until April this year, the former Chief Minister has
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regained his prestige to a great extent. He is the only pan-Madhya Pradesh leader of the three. All through his famous Narmada Yatra with his much younger second wife, Digvijaya was welcomed by party workers. The yatra has contributed immensely towards his image makeover. He is no longer trolled on social media as an irresponsible, anti-Hindu leader, who is more of a liability than an asset for the party. Of the four players, Chief Minister Chouhan is dealing with the worst image crisis. He is now likened to Digvijaya of the 2003 vintage. In the run-up to the 2003 assembly elections, the BJP had invented ‘Mr. Bantadhar” as a sobriquet for the former chief minister. The damage it caused was so deep that the Congress’s tally in the election shrunk to 38 seats in an assembly of 230. In 2018, Chouhan, more or less, stares at a similar fate. His stock within the party has fallen so much that BJP MLAs say they would rather not have him in their constituency for campaigning for the fear of losing.
A
n ABP-CSDS opinion poll confirms that Digvijaya’s fate in 2003 awaits Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the next election. Anti-incumbency against his 14 years of uninterrupted rule is so massive that the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) poll predicted a staggering 15 percent vote share difference between the BJP and the Congress. According to the Mood of The Nation survey conducted by the CSDS for the ABP news channel, the Congress is likely to get 49 percent vote share, while the BJP might secure just 34 percent of votes if the elections to the 230-member assembly were held in May. The survey was conducted in the third week of May, nearly six months ahead of the assembly elections in the state. Political observers and poll pundits say that the trend is not only irrevers-
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Sensing a strong antiincumbency sentiment against the sitting chief minister, BJP president Amit Shah told party workers on May 4 in Bhopal that the next election in MP would be fought by the organisation ible, but is likely to intensify in the months ahead, further increasing the gap between the ruling party and the main opposition. Translated into seats, the 15 percent vote share difference could get the Congress 160 to 170 seats, while the BJP’s tally could shrink from the present 166 to 40 or 50 seats. Significantly, the opinion poll did not factor in the possibility of pre-poll alliances between the Congress and other small opposition parties. Both the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) could improve their seat tally in a big way by entering into a pre-poll alliance in the forthcoming elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
A pre-poll alliance between the Congress and BSP could be the game changer in these elections. The BSP has a solid vote share of nearly seven percent. Should the Congress and BSP agree to join hands, the combined vote share of the alliance could go up to as high as 56 percent, translating into a seat share of 180. The BJP high-command is not oblivious to Chouhan’s unpopularity. Shah has denied him the opportunity to become the chief ministerial candidate again. Shah came to Bhopal on May 4 primarily to convey this bad news to the chief minister. Sensing deep anguish among the party workers against the chief minister, the BJP president declared that the high-command would prefer the organisation rather than rely on the chief minister for campaigning. The announcement came as a huge shock to Chouhan and his staunch supporters. Recently, Chouhan tacitly acknowledged his exclusion from the chief ministerial race by reasoning that elections are won on performance and not on the projected chief minister’s face. It’s noteworthy that he claimed exactly the opposite in the run-up to the two previous assembly
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elections in 2008 and 2013. But the million dollar question is whether the anti-incumbency factor against the Chouhan is strong enough for the voters to ignore all the weaknesses of the Congress? Are the voters so angry with the BJP that they will prefer anybody over a ruling party candidate? These two questions are crucial, since the election outcome hinges on them. Organisationally, the Congress is still weak, though the new MPCC chief and his team are making serious efforts to revive it at all levels. The shape of the state Congress has undergone a sea change since Nath took over as the MPCC president. Known for his lavish lifestyle, the businessman-politician has infused his characteristic panache in the organisation’s office too. The MPCC headquarters located in the posh Shivaji Nagar area of Bhopal looks livelier and swankier than it used to be even when the party was in power in the state until 2003. Within weeks of assuming charge, the new state Congress president transformed the look of the office from being a typically listless outpost to a buzzing corporate workplace. This was the first major decision he
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The BJP is also acutely conscious of the fact that defeat in three states—MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan—could sound the death knell for the party’s dream to recapture Delhi in the 2019 parliamentary election took after taking charge on May 1. The millionaire high-flyer, and owner of two private jets, has ushered in other changes too that are not merely cosmetic. The office hosts regular meetings of Congress workers from across the state; media briefings have become more business like; a large number of spokespersons and TV panellists have been drafted in; new office bearers in their respective rooms diligently attend to calls and representations duly received from party workers from across the state. Most important, no one in the office cribs about resource crunch that plagued its functioning earlier. At the organisational level too, the Congress has taken some swift and
drastic decisions in its attempt to remove the perception that its Madhya Pradesh body is too faction-ridden and dormant to take on the BJP.
I
n a rare show of unity, the three top leaders expressed happiness with the tasks they have been entrusted with. The old guard, who felt they were sidelined all these years, have also been accommodated in various committees to make them feel a part of the campaign to oust the BJP. The appointment of District Congress Committees (DCCs) chiefs, which remained in limbo for years, has been made. All offices of the Congress, from the block to the state level, are buzzing with activity. A senior Congress leader said that he is seeing the revival of the Dabra spirit. Dabra is a small town, 45 km north of Gwalior, where the late Madhavrao Scinidia hosted a conclave of all senior Congress leaders in the run-up to the 1993 assembly election. The leaders in Dabra vowed to bury the hatchet for the sake of party’s victory. The show of unity paid off as the Congress won the assembly poll. Since then, Dabra is remembered in
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State Scan elections mp
the state as a metaphor for unity. While cherishing the Dabra spirit, the Congress, however, realises that much water has flowed down the Narmada since 1993 when the party had a strong base down to the village level. The 15 years of BJP rule has seen continuous disintegration of the organisation.
T
hat’s the reason all Congress leaders in the state are unanimous that the party must align with other smaller political outfits, especially the BSP to ensure a convincing victory. The Karnataka assembly result has also acted as a catalyst for the leadership group’s resolve to join hands with the BSP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) ahead of the assembly elections. The Congress learnt useful lessons from the fractured mandate in the southern state. It could have been a clear majority, had the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) entered into a pre-election pact. That the two parties still managed to cobble together a post-poll alliance to form
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According to the Mood of The Nation survey conducted by the CSDS for the ABP news channel, the Congress is likely to get 49 percent vote share, while the BJP might secure just 34 percent of votes if the elections to the 230-member assembly were held in May a rag-tag government is a poor consolation for what could have been achieved. Like the Janata Dal (S) in Karnataka, the BSP could prove to be a spoiler for the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, unless they agree on seat sharing before the elections. The vote share distribution from the 2013 assembly elections, however, indicates that the ruling BJP has an edge over the combined strength of the Congress and the BSP. The BSP polled 6.29 per-
cent; the Congress polled 36.38 percent, while the BJP enjoyed a 44.88 percent vote share. The combined strength of the Congress and the BSP was 42.67 percent, which was two percent less than the ruling party. The BSP won four seats and finished number two or three in 29 seats. The Congress had to be content with 58 seats in the 230-strong assembly. But Congress leaders say these numbers don’t reflect the ground reality. “The two percent gap in last election makes no sense today. The BJP is facing the strongest anti-incumbency in the 15 years of its rule, which could translate into losing as high as eight percent votes in the 2018 election,” says Manak Agrawal, MPCC chief media incharge. The BSP has consolidated its base in districts adjoining Uttar Pradesh such as Bhind and Morena in the Chambal region as well as Rewa and Satna in the Vindhya region. In other districts too, the party has its cadre base, which though not very strong, can mar the Congress’s chances of victory. The BSP is banking
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everybody. The BJP wins because of fragmentation of the opposition votes and that will be stopped. The pre-poll arrangement won’t be just based on arithmetic. It will be arithmetic plus politics,” says Nath. On the other hand, the organisation is the BJP’s biggest strength in Madhya Pradesh, where the party from its erstwhile avatar as the Jansangh grew from strength-to-strength since early 1950s, even when the Congress citadel looked impregnable. But galvanising the organisation and motivating the workers, mostly from the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) cadres, in support of the sitting BJP MLAs is a formidable challenge for the leadership.
on Dalit angst against the BJP to increase its vote and seat share. In April this year, Bhind and Morena districts witnessed violent Dalit agitation, which resulted in the death of eight persons in police firing. The agitation was against the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling that is viewed as dilution of the SC/ST act. Scheduled castes, which comprise 21 percent of the state’s population, have 37 seats reserved for them. The BJP won 25 of them in the previous polls, primarily due to the fact that the Congress and the BSP contested separately. When the BSP opted out of electoral race in Chitrakoot (Satna) and Ater (Bhind) assembly byelection in 2017, the Congress defeated the BJP by a significant margin. The twin victories convinced the Congress that reaching out to the BSP was imperative to prevent the BJP from regaining Madhya Pradesh for a fourth time in a row. The Congress party is also holding discussions with other likeminded parties such as Samajwadi Party (SP) and Gondwana Gantantra Party
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Within weeks of assuming charge, the new state Congress president transformed the look of the office from being a typically listless outpost to a buzzing corporate workplace (GGP), a political outfit of the tribals. MP has 47 seats reserved for tribals. The SP is a fringe player in Madhya Pradesh, mainly confined to Bhind and Morena districts adjoining Uttar Pradesh. But it has chipped away enough votes in successive elections in the past two decades to harm the Congress in at least a dozen seats. Congress sources say the party might be inclined to offer 25 to 30 seats to the BSP and five to SP. However, formal discussion with either BSP supremo Mayawati or SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is yet to begin. “We are holding discussions with
P
arty workers have been voicing their anger against the sitting lawmakers for years at all possible forums, within and outside the party, but their anguish remained largely unaddressed. Their main grouse is that while MLAs are busy feathering their own nest, the loyal rank and file often gets a raw deal from the government. The cadre is also unhappy because in its view the Chief Minister has allowed himself to be surrounded by a coterie of chosen bureaucrats, who are completely cut off from the ground realities. At the root of their disenchantment is the all-pervasive corruption in the government. The Vyapam scam, India’s biggest job-cum-admission racket, of course, is the most notorious manifestation of organised swindle that the Chouhan government is accused of. The government’s tentative and ever changing policies aimed at providing remunerative prices to farmers have done more harm than good due to their shoddy and corruption-ridden implementation. Most of these policies have ended up enriching the traders, middlemen and bureaucrats at the expense of the farmers. g
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COVER STORY
civil services prabhat kumar
Trivial, knee-jerk A PMO proposal to allocate cadre of civil servants after taking into account their performances in the Foundation Course has raised eyebrows. Experts believe that the ill-conceived decision-inthe-making will have an adverse impact on the overall morale
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here is a consensus among the scholars and public administration professionals that the Indian Civil Services in the state and union governments need an urgent overhaul. Hundreds of committees and commissions have addressed the issues in the past, and made
considered recommendations, which have generally been overlooked by successive governments. The feeling is that politicians and even bureaucrats are not interested in such administrative reforms. On May 17, various ministries and departments were asked to examine “if
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service allocation or cadre allocation to probationers selected on the basis of Civil Services examination be made after Foundation Course. Examine the feasibility of giving due weightage to the performance in the Foundation Course and making service allocation as well as cadre allocation based on the combines (sic) score.” As is explicitly stated in the circulatory letter of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the idea did not originate from the department. We are told that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) asked for examining of the proposal. Since it has been desired by the highest authority of the land, it merits immediate examination. However, instead of getting it examined by domain experts, it has been referred to all the departments, including telecommunications among others. The rationale is difficult to fathom. And to make it even more intriguing, it has been done in a very cryptic manner, without even mentioning the context, as if it was a routine matter of little significance. It appears that the issue has been conveyed in the form it
was received. In my view, at least a short explanatory note on the subject should have been provided; elucidating the present position with possible ramifications should have been attached to the missile. I believe that Civil Service reforms are not synonymous with sprucing up the civil servants. That’s the least part of it. Civil Service reforms should be seen as an integral component of administrative reforms and not isolated from them.
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t should also not be forgotten that good politics is essential for good governance. I remember Somnath Chatterjee, then Speaker of the Lok Sabha, saying at a national convention that good governance cannot be conceived without good politics. Now, let us assume that the present political executive unreservedly wants to initiate steps for good governance. Then, the first priority for effective reforms should be to ensure that the institutions deliver public goods to the citizens, rather than to tinker with the recruitment process of the primary delivery agents of public goods.
As is explicitly stated in the circulatory letter of the Department of Personnel and Training, the idea did not originate from the department. We are told that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has asked for examining the proposal
Trainee bureaucrats at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie
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COVER STORY
civil services prabhat kumar
Somnath Chatterjee, former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, felt good governance was impossible without good politics
Ideally, good administrative decisions should evolve through a process of negotiation between the state and the recipients of reforms. The wishes of the people could be ascertained through organised groups in the society
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Another hypothesis of administrative reforms, according to us, is the emphasis on reforms on the demand side. It has been the practice of most political leaders to decide on reforms with a notion of being a guardian. It pre-supposes that the people in government are the best judge of the needs of the people. The concerns and aspirations of the people as felt by them are of no consequence, because it is presumed that the people do not know what is good for them.
I
deally, good administrative decisions should evolve through a process of negotiation between the state and the recipients of reforms. The wishes of the people could be ascertained through organised groups in the society. Therefore, any significant proposal for administrative reforms should be placed in the public domain for people’s responses. “Understanding the interplay
between public institutions and the surrounding social context is fundamental to developing a reform strategy,� says a credible expert. Most reforms in government fail. They fail not because once implemented, they yield unsatisfactory outcomes, but because, they never get past the implementation stage. Sometimes they fail because the wishes of the people have not been taken into consideration while making the decision. What should be the approach to reforms often is more important than the content of the reform. What approach is likely to maximise the chances of success? One of the main determinants of the success is the leadership of change. Sometimes there is a perception of failure that causes the reform to fail. Successful reforms require a combination of political commitment, technical capacity and gradual implementation,
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office has pushed for changes in bureaucrat’s allocations and cadre; another subjective layer may be added to such decisions in the near future. This has prompted criticism from several quarters
aided by high dedication of the civil servants. The commitment of the civil servants is essential for introducing any change in Civil Service. The leadership of change is, therefore, responsible for developing this dedication with repeated public announcements of respect and admiration for them.
S
ome common challenges for Civil Service reforms include: enhancing capabilities for innovation and implementation; introducing ethical conduct in service delivery; developing transparency and accountability; and promoting responsiveness to people’s needs. Meeting these challenges requires strategic thinking and thoughtful training. At the turn of the century, the government of United Kingdom prepared a White Paper entitled “Modernising Government”. In this document, they identified seven areas for reforming in the British Civil Service,
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which seem equally apposite in the Indian case with minor variations. These were: • More openness in the Civil Service. • Greater efficiency and effective policy delivery. • Better business planning. • More women and ethnic minorities in senior Civil Service positions. • Flexible pay and fast-track promotions to attract the best into the service. • More extensive use of Information Technology. • Better co-ordination of public services and policy-making. Against this backdrop, the proposal to change the rules for allocating services and cadres to candidates who have cleared the Civil Services exams conducted by the Union Public Services Commission appears to be too trivial and knee jerk. Curiously, the reaction of the main opposition party came in great haste
The commitment of the civil servants is essential for introducing any change in Civil Service. The leadership of change is, therefore, responsible for developing this dedication with repeated public announcements of respect and admiration for them
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civil services prabhat kumar
accusing the government of tampering with the UPSC structure in order to appoint officers of choice of the RSS in central services. There couldn’t have been a more absurd criticism of a plain legitimate statement. Others too joined the chorus. “Changes in allocation of services and cadres after the Foundation Course is a dangerous move by the PMO and must be nipped in the bud,” an elder politician said. “It is PMO’s move for a loyal bureaucracy,” said an eminent former civil servant. Before going into the merits of the proposal, let me state that I fail to see any infirmity or perverse motive in initiating (either inter-ministerial or public) deliberation on the issue of how to select candidates best suited to various services and state cadres by refining the selection process for higher levels of the Civil Service. It might be untenable or may in the process lead to other better ideas on improving the existing system.
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hat possible calamity can hit the country if a seemingly outlandish proposal is subjected to a thorough examination? Several commentators have jumped the gun in giving their verdict one way or the other, unmindful of its possible implications. In fact, I am glad that the idea has been shared with multiple disciplines, representing a variety of professions instead of being shoved down their throats with limited consultation. As it is, the relative ranking, and therefore inter-se seniority, of those selected through UPSC examination for a particular All India Service (say IAS) undergoes minor changes on account of the assessment in the Foundation Course. Even the first position in the IAS has occasionally altered. Extending the argument further to determine the cadre within a particular service on the basis of final grading seems feasible, if not desirable. The service allotment in an analogous
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Alice in wonderland hen I, along with my boss, first met the late Dhirubhai Ambani, who was with his eldest son, Mukesh, over three decades ago, the Ambani patriarch excitedly explained how he could solve the India-Pakistan problem within months. “Make me the textile minister, and I will use manmade fibres (polyester and blends) to destroy Pakistan’s cotton sector. It will ruin the neighbour’s economy,” he said. Ironically, the meeting was in the waiting room in an office in the corridors of power. Alas, Dhirubhai never got the opportunity during his lifetime, at least not officially. But you can! If you are interested in public policy, excited to change the lives of 1.3 billion people, and have out-of-the-box ideas, welcome to the Wonderland of Government of India. Recently, GoI took out an advertisement to recruit 10 “talented”, “motivated” and “outstanding” potential nation-builders to join it as Joint Secretaries. Don’t get disheartened
by the designation. Even if you won’t be a minister, a JS is a “crucial level of senior management”, and leads “policy making as well as implementation of various programmes and schemes”. However, this lateral induction of outsiders – from public sector to private one, MNCs to state-owned autonomous bodies, civil society to academia – sparked off debates among existing and retired civil servants. There is a lack of clarity about the status of the new Alices in Wonderland. Some feel that all government posts are cadre-based (i.e. the specific state cadre that a bureaucrat belongs to). Hence, “can a noncadre or a non-member of AIS (All India Services) be appointed on cadre posts is a question of law”. Does it require an amendment to the AIS Act, 1951? Others contend that since JS comes from both AIS and CS, it “will not violate an established law”. Other contentious issues are involved. When they retire, or resign, there is a cooling-off period for the civil servants, before they can pick up other jobs. This is clearly a safety clause – a bureaucrat can know a number of
manner, however, appears completely untenable. Different training institutions with diverse methods of assessment, risk of favouritism and eclectic groups of probationers are likely to generate avoidable antagonism among the probationers when we need equally intellectually intense and effectual civil servants in every service. Besides, just think about the persons who have qualified through the most rigorous examination system being demoted
to a lower position after the Foundation Course. I am not even talking about the obvious risks of questionable assessment by the authorities at the Lal Bhadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) and other training institutions conducting the foundation programmes. The examination of the PMO’s proposal notwithstanding, the moot question is why has this tinkering with a time-honoured process become relevant at this juncture. Another question is how
by Alam Srinivas
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1. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Vice Chairman, Niti Aayog, 2. Raghuram Rajan, RBI Governor 3. Sam Pitroda, Technocrat, 4. Nandan Nilekani, Former UIDAI Head
it would result in better selection for various services than the present structure. Some see this proposal as another measure for demoralising civil servants at the policy making levels in government. They ask whether we haven’t done enough already in successive governments. Hasn’t our efforts been to weaken the bureaucracy consistently. Finally, we would like the Department of Personnel and Training to find answers to the following questions in the course of
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the examination of the proposal. • Whether there is some urgency in tinkering with the established system without considering numerous recommendations of hundreds of committees and commissions? • Is it likely to result in better selection for services? • Is it part of a larger reform package or an isolated idea? • Did any research paper produced by a think-tank associated with the ruling
secrets, which can be useful to the corporate sector, even other governments. Will there be such rules for the new incoming-outsiders? If not, how will the government ensure secrecy? The tenure of the lateral entrants is three years, which can go up to five. This is sufficient period for a person to collect classified information that can benefit others. In essence, this brings in the question of loyalty. Who will be these new JSs be faithful—to their old employers, the new ones after leaving GoI, or to the government? Imagine a senior manager from the Reliance Group, or Tata Group working for the government for five years, and immediately joining back his old employer. What if someone from the US revenue service joins the finance ministry, or from a powerful foreign think-tank joins the environment ministry? Both while in government service, and after it, who will she be devoted to? How can the government trust anyone? At the end of the day, we will need to see who the new recruits will be – Indians, Non-Resident Indians, or foreigners? If they are Indians, which states and communities will they hail from?
party form the basis of the present idea? • Has the idea been considered in the past and rejected? • Instead of simplifying things, why are we bent upon introducing more complications? Endpoint: The difficulty with a proposal of reforms is that people do not appreciate that the problem is not to demonstrate whether it’s possible or not, but whether it’s going to work or not. g The writer is former Cabinet Secretary
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Cover Story
civil services tn pandey
Treading on dangerous ground How many exams should civil servants go through to determine their services and cadres? The PMO wants to add one more, and there is little clarity on what it will achieve
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news report of May 21 noted that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) wanted a major change in the policy regarding allocation of services and cadres for 1,000-odd candidates selected every year through the All India Civil Services Examination. It suggested that their cadre and services should be allocated only after a three-month Foundation Course. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) sent a note at the behest of the PMO to all the cadre-controlling authorities and ministries and sought their comments on the possibility of probationers being allocated their cadres after taking into account their performance in the
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Achievers of 2017 Civil Services Examination; but lives of future bureaucrats may transform if PMO has its way
Foundation Course along with their scores in the Civil Services Examination. The change is considered necessary because it might provide a better assessment of the candidates and their suitability to various cadres or services. The current practice is that cadres and services are allocated before the start of the Foundation Course. This prima-facie shows that the PMO wishes to introduce subjectivity instead of objectivity that the current system for cadre allocation follows. There are currently approximately 24 services, including the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), the Indian Police Service (IPS) and other central services such as Indian Revenue Service, Indian Postal Service, Indian Civil Accounts Service etc., for which the selection exercise is done at three levels. First, lakhs of candidates are required to go through, and I say with great respect to the UPSC, a most haphazardly designed grilling, preliminary test for which no guidelines have been prescribed. In two hours, the candidates have to mark one of the various alternatives given in 100 questions from limitless disciplines. This test is apparently intended to examine the “warehousing” capacities of the candidates, not their intelligence or suitability for any service. The questions asked do not have any relevance in the functioning
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of the persons taking the examinations. For example, the first question in the preliminary exam of 2017 was: “Q-1: Which one of the following was a very important seaport in the Kakatiya kingdom? [a] Kakinada [b] Motupalli [c] Machilipatnam (Masulipatnam) [d] Nelluru The question relates to an historical aspect, which doesn’t have any relevance in the present context and raises the issue as to what is the objective in asking such questions?
I
t seems the only objective is to cut down the number of aspirants drastically by such arbitrary, meaningless and irrelevant questions and by deciding cut-off marks unilaterally. This is obviously, unjust and unfair. It would be more appropriate if such a test is designated as ‘elimination test’ rather than a ‘preliminary test’. This is followed by CSAT test. The marks obtained in this test are not added for determining seniority. Only pass marks is necessary for this test. Those who qualify in preliminary test have to appear for written examinations by choosing one of the optional subjects prescribed along with compulsory subjects.
‘‘
There was a suggestion to this effect, which has been followed up by eliciting the views of all stakeholders. At present, the issue is still in the consultation stage. There is nothing more to it
Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, DoPT
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Cover Story
civil services tn pandey
If the present system for allocating services and cadres is being done on a well-settled premise and has been working well, then there is no reason to change it. It would be a sheer waste of time and energy to change a system, which has been working well in the past. These can be better utilised in other areas where change is badly needed. The proposal, apparently, has no merit and needs to be dropped
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Candidates clearing the written test are called for interview by boards, comprising the UPSC Chairman and members and experts from various fields. After the interviews, a list of successful candidates is drawn up (in order of merit) by the UPSC, which is sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for issuing appointment orders to the successful candidates in the order of merit, keeping in view their preference for services given in their applications and cadres (in case of IAS aspirants). This is done before the successful candidates are required to report for the Foundation Course at various institutes at Mussorie, Hyderabad and Bhopal. The Foundation Course starts after the allocation of cadres and services and the candidates are well informed about these. This arrangement is proposed to be changed as it might provide a better assessment. A communication sent by the DoPT to the cadre-controlling authorities states that “the PMO has desired to examine if service allocation/ cadre allocation to probationers selected based on the examination be made after the Foundation Course”. The departments concerned have been asked to examine the feasibility of giving due weightage to performance in the Foundation Course and make service as well as cadre allocation to All-India Services based on the combined score obtained in the Civil Services Examination and the Foundation Course, the communiqué said. Against this background, the first issue is how many examinations the aspirants of Indian Central Services need to undergo. After been screened through three tests (supra) by an independent body, why should the successful candidates be asked to undergo yet another test for determining their services and cadres through subjective tests set by the directors of the Foundation Course, which can differ from one institution to another? Is it not unfair
to make changes in the cadres or services of those, who objectively, without knowing any outsider or inter-se knowing each other, have been evaluated in an objective manner by an independent body like the UPSC and assigned positions on the merit list? Why such positions be changed based on the assessment of the directors of the Foundation Course, granting them superior evaluating power to the UPSC? The next issue is what the proposed change intended to achieve? All that the Minister of State, DoPT, Jitendra Singh, said: “There was a suggestion to this effect, which has been followed up by eliciting the views of all stakeholders. At present, the issue is still in the consultation stage. There is nothing more to it.” The next issue is what is the purpose of changing and disturbing a well-settled system? This has not been made clear either in the PMO’s communiqué or in the statement issued by the minister.
I
f the present system for allocating services and cadres is being done on a wellsettled premise and has been working well, then there is no reason to change it. It would be a sheer waste of time and energy to change a system, which has been working well in the past. These can be better utilised in other areas where change is badly needed. The proposal, apparently, has no merit and needs to be dropped. If implemented, it would further lead to ‘brain drain’ in the Indian Civil Services for which anxiety has been expressed quite frequently, demoralise the people in service, introduce uncertainty in areas where the position is well-settled and working well. It would bring subjectivity to a system, which hitherto has been working well based on objective considerations and UPSC’s assessment of candidates on merit will be upset by the assessment of some Foundation Course directors. This should not happen. g The writer is former Chairman, CBDT
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COVER STORY
civil services amit khemka
Lateral Entry, Big Deal It is ingrained within the administrative system, and is an integral part of it. Recruitment in Police and Judiciary has several levels of entry. But a Magistrate can never become a Supreme Court judge nor a Sub-Inspector a Police Commissioner
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ateral Recruitment in Senior Positions in Government’ is the headline of the advertisement by which Central Government has invited 10 ‘outstanding individuals’ who have minimum educational qualification of a ‘graduate’ with expertise in the areas of (i) Revenue (ii) Financial Services (iii) Economic Affairs (iv) Agriculture, Cooperation &
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Farmers’ Welfare (v) Road Transport & Highways (vi) Shipping (vii) Environment, Forests and Climate Change (viii) New & Renewable Energy (ix) Civil Aviation and (x) Commerce. The only criterion for short listing is through a ‘personal interaction’. It has become the topic of discussion at almost every social gathering and TV studios. What is the problem? We have so
many appointments made laterally in our administrative set up like the IAS, IPS, IRS, PCS and all other administrative services in which one gets inducted into the Government laterally. Take example of the Police Services where there are broadly three levels of entry; Constables, Sub-inspectors/ Asst. Sub-inspectors and IPS Officers (at the level
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COVER STORY
civil services amit khemka
just above Inspector). The result is that most meritorious of Constables rarely become Inspectors and most meritorious of subinspectors never become Commissioner of Police and it doesn’t stop there, as no IPS Officer has ever become a Cabinet Secretary in the history of independent India. That is a post most civil servants would dream of occupying but which has always been occupied only by IAS Officers to the exclusion of best of the civil servants from other services. Why shouldn’t the most outstanding of IPS Officers or for that matter an IRS officer be allowed to become the Cabinet Secretary or at least compete for the same? Similarly we have huge lateral entries in the Judiciary. The lowest entry point is a Judicial Officer at the post of Civil Judge/ Magistrate. The first lateral entry is at the level of Addl. District & Sessions Judge. Neither an officer appointed at the level of Civil Judge/ Magistrate nor the one appointed as Addl. District & Sessions Judge, ever dreams of becoming a Supreme Court Judge. It is because a huge percentage of judges, who are appointed laterally to High Court and now more frequently, to the Supreme Court, are so appointed that the most laudable of lower court judges would never reach Supreme Court or become the Chief Justice of a High Court. Though these lateral entries have proved to be a big dampener and have discouraged the merit for long in the lower cadres, they have been happening since time immemorial, so what is the big deal now? What is the problem? Take the example of a sub-inspector who might have repeatedly put his life at risk and worked hard for years just to earn some promotions, regularly gets young IPS officers who might be half his age and having nil experience, as his boss. This young officer has full opportunity to maltreat or at the least, domineer this senior inspector. This senior Inspector, after having worked in police for few decades, is bound to be treated as a junior by this young officer. Do we really believe that such officers who have
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risen through the ranks after toiling hard would really feel satisfied and content being controlled by a young boy of their son’s age? We meet many of these senior officers, who would boast of their vast experience, contacts with informers, knowledge of ground situations as compared to this young IPS officer who becomes their boss and who virtually possesses no experience of the on ground situations. Hon’ble Supreme Court has held in many judgments that provision of promotional avenues is a must to keep the forces in high spirits. They must have a hope to be able to reach the sky, if they work hard.
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imilarly a Civil Judge who works for almost two decades almost in all domains such as civil, criminal, revenue, labour and so on to earn his first promotion, suddenly finds that a lawyer, who had been appearing in his court only in one particular type of cases/ domain and had been addressing the former as ‘your honour’ suddenly became a High Court judge and consequently his boss and colloquially his ‘My Lord’. What no one gives a thought to, is how must this judge, who
has slogged for decades, be feeling on such lateral appointments. So lateral entry is not new to our country and in my humble view it has had its dampening effect on the whole system. One of the biggest reasons for corruption is that junior officers don’t get credit for their work and the same is normally grabbed by senior officers, most of whom come into services via the lateral entry route. Majority of the cadre which came in to services at the lowest level also can’t hope to reach high levels in the administration and feel choked and suffocated. This feeling of injustice and resultant frustration provide an excuse to such officers to morally legitimize their corruption as well. It is routine to see junior level officers saying, “However hard I work, it is not going to give me the high position, so why not earn some money and make my family’s life better financially at least?” “We are not given credit for our hard work, so why should we work hard?” The hope of attaining the highest of offices can actually work as one of the best methods to eradicate corruption and an impetus to promote hard work. Therefore unless we seek the scrapping
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of lateral entry system in all the services or at least a holistic review, we cannot justifiably object to present case in isolation. Having accepted in principle that there could be and there are numerous instances of lateral entry in Government, a fair question to ask would be, “What is it which the Government wants to achieve by the present move?” There is nothing in public domain except the statements of Niti Ayog CEO and some BJP party spokespersons about the aim and object of this move. It would be best if the Government comes out with a policy document specifying the aims and objective of the move. The advertisement only says it is seeking applications from ‘outstanding individuals’. Who is an ‘outstanding individual’? How does one decide who is outstanding? Is the Government seeking ‘outstanding individuals’ or ‘outstanding professionals’? Presuming the Government is seeking outstanding professionals and not individuals, wouldn’t the qualifications of the professionals for revenue; Financial Services; Economic Affairs; Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare; Road Transport & Highways; Shipping; Environment, Forests
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and Climate Change; New & Renewable Energy; Civil Aviation and for Commerce, be different from one another? There cannot be any quarrel with the idea that the Government must have the benefit of the best brains in the field. But would it not be better to specify more detailed and higher minimum qualifications than just a ‘graduate’ and more specific character qualities in the individual than a vaguely defined parameter, ‘outstanding’ for all the posts? It certainly gives a very wide discretion in the appointments, that too when the only mode for short listing is by ‘personal interaction’.
F
or instance, an outstanding individual in the field of finance could be a person who has headed a particular type of organization for a minimum number of years, or had taught at specified category of universities for a minimum number of years or had a minimum number of papers published in particular standard of publications. Government could actually have invited vision documents from such people proposing the ways to make the system better. Not adopting any objective and transparent criteria, would certainly
invite criticism and the opposition would be doubtful of the intentions. As I said earlier, it would have been better if the advertisement was based on some pronounced policy by which the selection committee was also predetermined. After all, selection committees for every field will have to be different. For all services in the Government, it’s a must to have Recruitment Rules. It would definitely be better to have the same for these appointments as well. The nomenclature used, for posts advertised, might be that of a ‘Joint Secretary’, but I doubt whether existing Recruitment Rules will be able to serve. Using existing rules might create even more complications. To conclude, I feel that, in principle, there cannot be any criticism of such lateral entries as not only almost all administrative services are lateral in nature only (with its shares of negatives and of criticism), but we have them even in judiciary. Though, in my humble opinion, there should only be one level of entry into the Government and then Seniority-cum- merit must guide the career path and the Government must provide all assistance to the meritorious ones to acquire latest knowledge with continued training and an opportunity to reach the highest positions. This alone can create hope. But till that is done, one can not oppose lateral entry. In fact all Ministers have had “Officers on Special Duty” (OSD) and “Advisors” for time immemorial in keeping with the wide “discretion” the Ministers enjoy in our “Democracy”. I personally feel all this discretion is bad and excessive, but we can’t single out one appointment till we do away with this whole defective and inefficient system, which only creates corruption in the name of ‘discretion’. More the discretion, more are the chances of corruption and misuse of power in the Government. After all, history is the witness that testifies, “Power Corrupts & Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.” g The writer is an advocate, expert in Constitutional Law
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State Scan
maharashtra bureaucracy
The Maratha Paradox
Gender Imbalance Maharashtra, which has been at the forefront of the progressive movement and women’s upliftment, is yet to appoint a woman to the post of Chief Secretary in 58 years since its formation
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by K Subramanian
T
he senior bureaucracy in Maharashtra is up in arms after Additional Chief Secretary (ACS Finance) D K Jain (1983 batch) was appointed as the new Chief Secretary, superseding four other senior bureaucrats from the same batch. It has peeved them so much that two of the senior most bureaucrats of the 1983 IAS batch, Medha Gadgil (ACS Relief and Rehabilitation) and Sudhir Shrivastava (ACS Home), have proceeded on a month long leave after
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Jain took charge on the state’s formation day on May 1, which is celebrated as the Labour Day and is a holiday. One of the two senior bureaucrats, who have proceeded on leave while speaking to gfiles on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that they intend to drag the matter to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) once they finalise the draft of the petition challenging Jain’s elevation. If they place their grievances before the CAT, it would be the first instance in Maharashtra’s history that the appointment of a Chief Secretary would be challenged before the tribunal. Besides, Gadgil and Shrivastava, the other two bureaucrats in the seniority list
This time the controversy has acquired a political undertone. Gadgil despite being the senior most bureaucrat of the 1983 batch was overlooked in favour of Jain for the post of Chief Secretary are Sunil Porwal (ACS Industries) and UPS Madan, (ACS and Metropolitan Commissioner), Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). This time, however, the controversy has acquired a political undertone. Gadgil, despite being the senior-most bureaucrat from the 1983 batch, was overlooked in favour of Jain. Among the reasons that are being bandied about, the one that her architect husband Anant Vitthal Gadgil is the sitting Congress Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) in the upper house of the state legislature in the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis went against her has gained maximum traction.
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H
owever, sources in senior bureaucratic circles seem to suggest that a powerful non-Maharashtrian lobby, both in the state and in New Delhi, pushed hard for the appointment of Jain as the new Chief Secretary. Another rumour doing the rounds is that the non-Maharashtrian lobby wanted Jain at the helm of affairs as the land acquired for a mega oil-refinery in Nanar in Ratnagiri district of the Konkan region is mostly owned or belonged to non-Maharashtrians. This is not the first time that the government of the day has bypassed the seniority rule. In May 2007, Johny Joseph (1972 batch) was appointed as the
Medha Gadgil went on leave
Chief Secretary by the ruling CongressNationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance government, superseding senior women IAS officers that included the then Chairman of the Mumbai Port Trust Rani Jadhav (1970 batch), Charusheela Sohoni, Secretary GoI, Animal Husbandry Department, A K Dua and Chitkala Zutshi, all from the 1971 batch. It also overlooked the seniority of the then ACS Home, A P Sinha (1970 batch). The second instance was in 2009, again during the Congress-NCP led government, when J P Dange (1973 batch) was elevated to the post of Chief Secretary superseding the then ACS Home, Chandra Iyengar. But what has agitated many in administrative, political and social circles
is that in 58 years since its formation, a progressive state like Maharashtra has not had a woman Chief Secretary. More than that, many find it disturbing that Maharashtra, which has a long history of women’s emancipation, women’s rights and women’s education, has not found a worthy, meritorious and capable woman bureaucrat to head the state administration. Zutsi from the 1971 batch is the only woman bureaucrat to have come closest to being appointed to the top administrative post before she lost out to her junior peer Joseph. Politicians of all shades, whether they belong to the ruling party or the opposition, never miss a chance to show reverence
Zutsi from the 1971 batch is the only woman bureaucrat to have come closest to being appointed to the top administrative post before she lost out to her junior peer Joseph in 2007 to the great social reformers such as Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj and others, and take great pride in pitching Maharashtra as a progressive state. In 1994, the Maharashtra government led by Chief Minister Sharad Pawar, became the first state in India to come out with a policy specifically aimed at empowering women. It had mooted the policy for reservation for women in body politic. Even the current BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Fadnavis has come out with a policy aimed at encouraging women entrepreneurs with soft loans to start business enterprises. It is 170 years since Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule started the
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State Scan
maharashtra bureaucracy
Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule
first school in the country exclusively for girls at Bhide Wada in Pune in 1848. Since then, social reformers from Maharashtra have shown the way for woman’s upliftment. One of India’s first female physicians was Anandibai Gopal Joshi (18651887), who studied medicine in the US. Unfortunately, she died when she was just 21. Ramabai Ranade (1863-1924), wife of social reformer Mahadev Govind Ranade, was a prominent women’s rights activist.
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aptain Saudamini Deshmukh was the second woman in India to command a Boeing 737 in 1988 and Airbus A320 in 1994. Not to forget, Pratibha Rao Patil, who also hails from Maharashtra, became India’s first woman President in 2007. Yet, Maratha politicians on either side of the political divide, who call the shots in state, have not been able to overcome their conservative mindset when it comes to dealing with women administrative officers. The argument that has been usually put forward is that they find it difficult to
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It is 170 years since Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule started the first school in the country exclusively for girls at Bhide Wada in Pune in 1848. Since then, social reformers from Maharashtra have shown the way for women’s upliftment summon women officers for work at late hours or find it uncomfortable in dealing with them over administrative matters. On the other hand, state’s like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Jharkhand, Manipur and Rajasthan have had women Chief Secretaries. A few notable examples include K Ratna Prabha (1981 batch), who was appointed as the Chief Secretary of Karnataka in November 2017, Minnie Mathew became the
second woman bureaucrat after Sathi Nair to be appointed as the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh in 2002. Even a state like Haryana appointed Meenaxi Chaudhary as its first woman Chief Secretary in 2005. She was followed by Shakuntala Jakhu, who became Chief Secretary in 2014. Nalini Netto (1981 batch) is currently the Chief Secretary of Kerala. Others on the list include: Padma Ramachandran, Kerala (1991), Sheela Balakrishnan, Tamil Nadu (retired in 2014), Kushal Singh, Rajasthan (2009), S Malathi, Tamil Nadu (2010-11), Sathi Nair, Andhra Pradesh (2002), Rajbala Verma (retired in 2018) and Girija Vaidyanathan (1981) and Rajani Ranjan Rashmi (1983) in Manipur. It is not only women IAS officers who have been sidelined or overlooked for top bureaucratic postings in Maharashtra. Dr. Meeran Chadha Borwankar, the 1981 IPS batch officer, was not considered for the top post of the Director General of Police (DGP) in 2017. Borwankar was overlooked despite supervising the high-
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profile hangings of Ajmal Kasab and Yakub Memon and was the chief investigator in the infamous Jalgaon sex scandal in July 1994. Maharashtra politicians have often cited various Supreme Court of India judgements such as the TSR Subramanian case, the Prakash Singh case (April 2014), J C Jetli (IAS, 1990 batch) or the Vineet Narain case (December 1997) to put forward their arguments while justifying the practice of superseding. If nothing else works, they fall back on the old argument how the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1973 appointed Justice A N Ray as the Chief Justice of India, superseding Justices I M Shelet, Justice K S Hegde and Justice A N Grover.
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s one woman bureaucrat pointed out that when it comes to promotions for top bureaucratic postings the rule book is thrown at them, overlooking competence, merit and seniority. To this day, the politicians who never miss any opportunity to project Maharashtra as a progressive state are yet to shed their conservative mindset when it comes to appointing a woman bureaucrat at the helm of affairs in the state. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has taken a note of the gender imbalance that exists in Civil Services and has tried to address the issue head on. A notification issued by the UPSC in March 2017 for the Civil Services Exams (CSE) said: “The government strives to have a workforce which reflects gender balance and women candidates are encouraged to apply.” It seems the skewed ratio of one woman officer for 20 male officers compelled the UPSC to acknowledge gender imbalance in Civil Services. According to available statistics, the number of women clearing the CSE and getting commissioned into various services steadily increased between 2001- 2010. In 2001, out of the 455 women candidates
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Sharad Pawar (left) and Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister
In 1994, the Maharashtra government led by Chief Minister Sharad Pawar, became the first state in India to come out with a policy specifically aimed at empowering women. It had mooted the policy for reservation for women in body politic. Even the current BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Fadnavis has come out with a policy aimed at encouraging women entrepreneurs with soft loans to start business enterprises who appeared for the CSE Mains Exams, 179 qualified for interview and 88 were recommended for induction into various services. By 2010, the total number of
women candidates appearing for the CSE Mains Exams increased to 1,418, out of which 449 made it to the interview stage and 203 were selected for commissioning into services. It appears that there has been a perceptible change since 2012 when Vandana Chauhan claimed eighth rank in the All India Rank (AIR) in the CSE. The 2015 CSE results marked a watershed moment when the top four AIR were claimed by women candidates. Ira Singhal, Renu Raj, Nidhi Gupta and Vandana Rao topped the AIR rankings that year. In 2016, Tina Dabi was the CSE topper. Experts and sociologists believe that for progress, equitable development and a balanced workforce, gender equality in Civil Services is equally important, because women represent 50 percent of the population. Some have been lucky to enjoy the support of their families, but others like Chauhan, hailing from a poor famer’s family in Uttar Pradesh, had to overcome the conservative mindset of the society to reach where she is today. g
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Governance health adulteration
Poisoned Morsels The problem of food adulteration is fast acquiring endemic proportions in the absence of strong laws, raising serious concerns about its extreme effects
by Anil Rajput
I
ndia’s consumer-driven economy has unleashed a large number of brands. They meet top-quality standards and requirements that are laid out by the Indian food regulator, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Normally, they carry a higher price as they have to deliver on multiple benchmarks. However, this has provided an opportunity to unscrupulous players to either produce cheap products or indulge in counterfeiting. Such is the greed for money that those indulging in food adulteration knowingly refuse to see the unabashed disregard for human life. What makes this problem more complicated is that there are a host of cheap, easily available and life-threatening options at the disposal of the adulterators. Hence, it’s difficult to pinpoint the most effective strategy to counter this situation. It’s a hydra-headed monster that we are dealing with. Economically, adulteration cuts costs and boosts profit margins, but from the health and safety perspective, it plays a deadly game with those it comes into contact with. The travesty of justice is evident from the fact that no matter what the health damage is, the adulterators literally go scot free under the existing laws. While there is a provision for life imprisonment, the police doesn’t have the power to invoke the FSSAI Act. This can be done only by the food safety
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authorities in the states. The net result is that in most cases the offender receives a maximum imprisonment of six months, or a fine of `1000. The FSSAI, which is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through regulation and supervision of food safety, has collected a total of 84,537 adulterated food samples in 2014-15, 77,941 in 2015-16 and 80,463 in 2016-17. However, the convictions stood at 1,402 in 2014-15, 540 in 2015-16 and 1,591 in 2016-17. To my mind, this has to skyrocket in the times ahead and could be a vital part in dealing with the complex maze of adulteration. The commonly adulterated items in India include milk, pulses, rice, local sweets, vegetable oils and ghee, honey, liquor, and medicine, among others. According to the National Survey on Milk Adulteration 2011, states such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Mizoram witnessed adulteration up to 100% against the national average of 68.4%. The adulterants of choice were found to be urea and detergent. Pulses are consumed by a large number of people, and adulterants such as asbestos (polishing), metanil yellow (colour) and soluble coal tar (shine) are added. These are all carcinogenic products and compromise the health of the consumers. Rice, which is a staple food in India, has become a favourite with the adulterators, who till recently were adding marble chips, mixing sand, chalk and brick powder, have now started a synthetic replication
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of rice called ‘plastic rice’. Experts warn that this form raises the risk of cancer by 15-20 per cent and wreaks havoc with the digestive and reproductive systems. Since the rural folks predominantly consume pulses and rice, the damage to health is exacerbated in the rural areas due to lack of proper medical care. Local sweets are a rage across the country. However, sulphur dioxide in excessive amounts, starch, aluminium and more adulterants are added to them. These can cause severe allergies, and in worst cases, fatality. Vegetables oils and ghee are necessities that are exploited by the adulterators. In mustard oil, argemone seeds and papaya seeds, which are mixed to add bulk and weight, can cause epidemic dropsy and severe glaucoma. People have lost their eyesight by consuming sub-standard edible oil. The young, old and those with immunity issues are particularly vulnerable.
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n article in the Business Standard in April 2018 carried a report about a fake ghee factory that was busted in Uttar Pradesh. It contained packets of prominent dairy brands such as Amul, Paras, Sanskar and Madhav. It was found that they were using a combination of Dalda (vegetable ghee), refined oil and essences to make desi ghee. Officials say that this combination was like poison and played havoc with the lives of the people. These were sold at cheaper prices and the nexus with local wholesale traders ensured its penetration in the markets. Honey, which is known for its overall health benefits, is being denatured with the addition of corn syrup, which is imported from China and invert sugar, which is locally available. The net result of all this according to the experts is that 85 per cent of the honey sold in India is adulterated. I have limited my scope to the very basic and essential items sold across the
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Apart from marble chips, sand, chalk and brick powder, adulterators use a synthetic replication of rice, called “plastic rice”. This raises the chances of cancer by 15-20%, and destroys the person’s digestive and reproductive systems. The dangers are higher among villagers, who predominantly consume rice and pulses length and breadth of our country. The situation is no better in spices, ice creams, liquor, medicines and bottled water. Last year, acknowledging the gravity of the situation, the Law Commission recommended a set of stringent measures. It recommended that Sections 272 and 273 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) be amended to make adulteration a serious crime. The commission also said that the fine on adulterators be increased
from `1000 to `10 lakh, and jail term from six months to imprisonment, till death. To their credit, states such as Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha have implemented the second point. However, more needs to be done and more states have to follow suit. The government needs to intensify its efforts for creating large-scale awareness campaigns that educate the consumers about the ill-effects of buying counterfeit products and the consumers on their part need to be aware that a small saving that is made by purchasing counterfeits can have life-threatening results. The need of the hour is to set up systems for regular monitoring through a large number of accredited laboratories. These will check, verify and satisfy that the products available in the marketplace are meeting the quality and safety standards and that are genuine. Such a mechanism should be fast-tracked so that examples are made out of such unscrupulous elements so that it acts as a strong deterrent for those who break the law. g The writer is Chairman FICCI – CASCADE and Sr. VP, ITC Ltd.
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GOVERNANCE stock market timing
One step forward, two steps backwards SEBI’s decision to keep the equity derivative market open for almost 15 hours will take a toll on traders and other stakeholders. Higher volatility will enhance the mindset of excessive speculation, and the resultant greed in the society. The regulator should have looked at such concerns, and followed the US system of dividing the timings into three parts – pre-market, regular market, and after-market by Ramesh Sharma
A
few weeks ago, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued a circular in which it mentioned that, over a period of time, the derivative segment of the Indian stock market would be required to do physical settlement. This means that the volumes in the derivative segment would come down. Also, the SEBI asked the exchanges to increase the margins, which are paid by traders to exchange, before they can take exposure to any derivative trade, so that excessive speculation by paying a small amount of margin money is curbed. To make a further dent on speculative activity in the markets, the SEBI asked brokers to collect income tax returns (ITR) of investors who trade in derivative market so that it can judge whether an individual trader has the financial strength to deal with derivative instruments or not. This is being done so that there is some relationship between the income and exposure, which a trader
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undertakes in derivative instruments. All these steps were undertaken with the intention of reducing speculative volumes on Indian bourses. The market regulator allowed the exchanges to extend the trading window in the derivative segment from 9 AM to 11.55 PM from the current time limit of 9 AM to 3.30 PM. The extension of the trading window, however, appears to be at cross purposes with the steps taken by the
SEBI to curb speculative trading, On one hand, every effort is being made to ensure that only those who have the ability to take risks should enter the derivative segment, on the other, the time limit for derivative markets is being extended. This extension of the time window means doubling the derivative market duration from the current seven and a half hours to 14 hours and fifty-five minutes. If the market remains open for a longer duration, speculative volumes in the derivative segment are bound to increase and not going to come down. In real life, traders would be tempted to take positions around the time when the US market is about to open and also around midnight when trading would be coming to close in India. Now, most of the times, those positions would be taken for the next day’s trade, but even after extended timings, the Indian market would be closing for trading one and a half hour before the US market finishes its business for the day. Many times in the past, the colour of the US market changed from
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In real life, traders would be tempted to take positions around the time when the US market is about to open and also around midnight Bombay Stock Exchange
Why introduce another element that might lead to greater volatility in the markets, especially when it is known that lower volatility is better New York Stock Exchange
green to red or red to green in the last one and a half hour of trading.
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n that case, what happens to all the trade that is taken under the impression that what is happening in the US market at night would be repeated in the Asian and Indian markets next morning? What if the trend in the US market is not repeated in the Indian market? It’s happening regularly these days. It would lead to a situation where volatility in the Indian market would increase sharply when the market opens for trading the next morning. So, extension in timing means speculative volumes and also an increase in volatility. Why introduce another element that
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might lead to greater volatility in the markets, especially when it is known that lower volatility is better for every stakeholder in the capital market. Markets which are less volatile tend to get higher valuations. In fact, exchange trade funds which follow the Nifty or Sensex as their benchmark, this volatility would hurt them a lot. Our policy makers should not forget that a large part of domestic money, which is coming into market is coming to index funds, and if the index becomes volatile, flow to these funds would come down, which in the long term will have a negative impact not only on the Indian capital market, but also the economy as well. The argument that Indian investors
and traders would be in position to react to any major global development when the US markets open for trade is a flawed one. Yes, it would help foreign investors, who would be able to trade in Indian indices as per their own convenience, instead of placing overnight orders to their Hong Kong or local desks in India. Also, it will probably help some large brokerages, who in any case, keep a part of their offices open till midnight for commodity traders. Surely, stock exchanges will earn more money with the increase in volumes as their collections from transaction fee will increase. But, would it bring anything to the table for the investors? The answer is no. Stock markets are primarily for investors and not for traders. g
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Governance kr narayanan lecture
An assured way to enrich lives Speaking at the 2018 KR Narayanan memorial lecture at the Australian National University, Dr. RA Mashelkar, Chairman, National Innovation Foundation, maintained that social inequality can be bridged through innovation that’s ASSURED – Affordable, Sustainable, Scalable, Universal, Rapid, Excellent and Distinctive
K
ocheril Raman Narayanan was the 10th President of India, and one of our most accomplished civil servants, distinguished diplomats and stellar academicians. I met him for the first time in 1982. He was visiting the National Chemical laboratory. I had the unique opportunity to demonstrate an innovation of a super absorbing polymer— the Jalshakti, which could absorb water over hundred times its own weight. I still remember the probing questions that President Narayanan asked me about the potential use of Jalshakti in agriculture in rain-starved areas in India. In fact, we both even share the turning
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point of our academic lives. Both of us were Tata scholars. We both left India, only to return when we were fairly young with zeal to do more for our homeland. He, at the age of 27, and I, at the age of 32. President Narayanan once said, “I see and understand both the symbolic as well as the substantive elements of my life. Sometimes I visualise it as a journey of an individual from a remote village on the sidelines of society to the hub of social standing. But at the same time I also realise that my life encapsulates the ability of the democratic system to accommodate and empower marginalised sections of society.” You can see how right he was. I would have had to leave studies despite standing 11th among 135,000 students in Maharashtra in the matriculation exam in 1960. But it was the Tata Scholarship of Rs 60 per month for six years that helped me study. In 1960, when I used to go to Bombay House, Tata headquarters, to collect that Rs 60 a month, if someone would have said that you and Ratan Tata, the head of the Tata family, will be among the only seven Indians from the time of establishment of American Academy of Arts & Science in 1870, who would be elected as Foreign Fellows of the Academy, or that both will sign the Academy’s Fellows book one after the other on the same page on 15 October 2011, I would not have believed it.
CSR 1.0: Doing well and doing good
Tata Scholarships that President Narayanan and I received were a direct result of the sense of corporate trusteeship that the Tatas had always demonstrated. Perhaps, it is not widely known that world’s first ever charitable trust was set up by Jamsetji Tata in 1892, long before the Andrew Carnegie Trust (1901), the Rockefeller Foundation (1913), the Ford Foundation (1936) and the Lord Lever
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CSR 1.0 was about “doing well and doing good”. You did well, i.e. become wealthy, and then did good through charities. CSR 2.0 will complement CSR 1.0, and entails “doing well by doing good”. You become wealthy by doing good Hulme Trust (1925). The establishment of these trusts was driven by the Tatas’ belief in giving back to the people what came from the people.
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he meaning of such philanthropy has changed over the years. What was considered as corporate trusteeship is now being called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).The Tatas did CSR since they considered it to be their moral responsibility. The Government of India has recently legislated that 2% of the net
profits earned by the corporates must be spent on CSR. I would call this as CSR 1.0. Here, part of the surplus wealth goes back to people, either by free will or because of the need to comply with government legislation. So I would consider CSR 1.0 as “doing well and doing good.” This means after one has done “well” by amassing wealth, one turns to doing “good”, by setting up charitable trusts or foundations. What I wish to propose is CSR 2.0; not replacing CSR 1.0, but complementing it and bringing a far greater impact by touching the lives of millions. I call this as “doing well by doing good”. This means “doing good” itself becoming a “good business.”
What do Indian businesses need to do to achieve CSR2.0?
I propose that private sector can do well by doing good, if they adopt an ASSURED innovation strategy. For me, ASSURED stands for: A (Affordable) S (Scalable) S (Sustainable)
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ECG machine, which can provide reports immediately and that too at the cost of eight cents a test? • Can we make an eye imaging device that is portable, non-invasive and costs three times less than conventional devices? • Can we make a robust test for mosquito-borne dengue, which can detect the disease on day 1 at the cost of $2 per test?
U (Universal) R (Rapid) E (Excellent) D (Distinctive) Affordability (A) is required to create access for everyone across the economic pyramid, especially the bottom. For the 2.6 billion people in the world earning less than US $2 per day, such affordable products cannot just be low cost but must be ultra low cost. Scalability (S) is required to make real impact by reaching out to every individual in the society. Depending on the product, the target population may only be a few hundred thousand, or a few million, though in some cases, it may reach hundreds of millions.
S
ustainability (S) is required in many contexts; environmental, economic and societal. In the long term, ASSURED innovation must promote affordable access by relying on basic market principles with which the private sector works comfortably, and not on continued government subsidies or procurement support. Universal (U) implies user friendliness, so that the innovation can be used irrespective of the skill levels of an individual citizen across the economic pyramid. Rapid (R) means speedy movement from mind to market place. Acceleration in inclusive growth cannot be achieved without speed of action matching the speed of innovative thoughts. Excellence (E) in technological as well non-technological innovation, product quality and service quality is required, not just for the elite few but for everyone in the society. Distinctive (D) is required, since one does not want to promote copycat products and services. Achieving all the individual elements of ASSURED innovation looks seemingly impossible but not necessarily so as we show now. Let us ask some challenging questions:
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Amazingly, all this has been achieved in India, not only by using technological innovation but also non-technological innovation.
ASSURED Indian Innovation
Jamshedji Tata
The meaning of such philanthropy has changed over the years. What was considered as corporate trusteeship is now being called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).The Tatas did CSR since they considered it to be their moral responsibility • Can we make high-speed 4G internet available at 10 cents per GB and make all voice calls free of cost, that too in a large and diverse country like India? • Can we make high-quality but simple breast cancer screening available to every woman, that too at the extremely affordable cost of $1 per scan? • Can we make a portable, high-tech
An exemplar in ASSURED innovation has been recently very successfully demonstrated by Indian private sector. One of India’s early successes was the mobile revolution. In the two decades from 1995 to 2014, about 910 million mobile phone subscribers were added. The numbers are incredible in themselves, but especially so if you consider that this was 18 times the number of landline connections in 2006 when landline subscriptions peaked at 50 million. Competition in the Indian telecom sector reached a fever pitch in 2016 with the entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. Today, millions of Indians enjoy the benefits of free voice calling and extremely affordable (10 cents per GB) high-speed 4G internet using their Jio connections. One incredible example is that of speech and hearing-impaired people using video calls to communicate with each other in sign language. One of the most important innovations was Jio’s greenfield LTE network is the first countrywide deployment of voice over LTE (VoLTE). Jio has a 4G LTE network with no legacy 3G or 2G services, making it the only network in the world with this configuration.
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Young Innovators Doing Well by Doing Good
Let me illustrate the point by talking about some winners of the Anjani Mashelkar Inclusive Innovation Award— an award I instituted in my mother’s name for innovations that will do good to the society at large. In 2015, breast cancer replaced cervical cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in India. Almost 200 million women aged 35 to 55 do not undergo necessary annual breast exams, which could potentially save their lives. So how can we ensure that women in every corner of India undergo breast cancer screening? UE LifeSciences led by Mihir Shah has developed a handheld device that is used for early detection of breast tumours. It is simple, accurate, and affordable. It is painless because it is non-invasive. Screenings are safe, pain-free and private. They have also deployed an innovative pay-peruse model, which can empower doctors in every corner of the country to start screening women for breast cancer at the earliest. The device is US FDA cleared and CE marked. It is operable by any community health worker. And it only costs an amazing Rs 65 ($1) per scan.
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UE Lifesciences is not only doing good, it is also doing well. In the last year or so, the device has earned nearly $1 million in revenue and received purchase orders totalling nearly $2 million. The company has also entered into a strategic partnership with GE Healthcare for marketing and distribution of iBreastExam across more than 25+ countries in Africa, South Asia and South-East Asia and benefit more than 500 million women.
UE LifeSciences led by Mihir Shah has developed a handheld device that is used for early detection of breast tumours. It is simple, accurate, and affordable. It is painless because it is noninvasive. Screenings are safe, pain-free and private
C
ardiovascular diseases are predicted to be the largest cause of death and disability in India by 2020. There is a pressing need to affordably, speedily and accurately monitor the heart health of Indians. This has been achieved by another awardee, Rahul Rastogi, who created a portable match box size 12- lead ECG machine. The cost is just Rs 5 (8 cents) per ECG test. His company created a disruptive high-tech innovative solution for personal cardiac care—the ‘Sanket’ electrocardiogram (ECG) device. Sanket is a credit card-sized heart monitor, which acts like a portable ECG machine, making it possible to monitor the heart condition, making it as simple as monitoring the body temperature. The high-tech 12-lead ECG recorder connects to a smartphone wirelessly, and displays and records ECG graphs on a smartphone. The ECG report can be shared instantly with a doctor via e-mail, Bluetooth or message. The affordable device marks a dramatic shift in the way we approach cardiac care. Then there is the third Anjani Mashelkar Inclusive Innovation awardee, 3nethra, an eye screening device. Eighty percent of all blindness is avoidable or curable. India is home to the largest number of vision impaired individuals. Eye screening device 3nethra provides a portable and cost-effective solution. It is an intelligent, portable, non-invasive, non-mydriatic low cost device that helps
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in pre-screening of five major eye diseases, namely, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, defects in the cornea and refractive errors with a powerful, inbuilt auto detection software.
I
t is a combination of robust hardware with cloud based computing and sophisticated image analysis solutions. The unique feature of the product is its versatile functionality—detection of five common eye problems in a single screening, automated analysis and report generation; and cloud based storage of individual data, all rolled into a single, compact machine. Today, they have 1,700 device installations across 26 countries and have touched two million lives.
Public Procurement Policy for ASSURED Innovation
I have shared with you a few examples of ASSURED innovations, but India is
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home to dozens, perhaps hundreds of such innovations, which could have been ASSURED innovations. But it is a sad fact that in terms of ASSURED innovation, from supply side, they managed the elements of A, U, R, E and D but missed on S & S, meaning they could not achieve
The three-inone ‘Dengue Day 1 Test’ can detect dengue fever within minutes on day one of the fever, affordably in resource-poor settings. It can differentiate between primary and secondary dengue virus infections
scale and sustainability. One was a near miss. Another was a total miss. Let me talk about the near miss first. The winner last year was Navin Khanna dealing with the challenge of Dengue detection. Dengue incidence has increased by more than 30-fold in the past 50 years. Currently, half of the global population lives under dengue threat. At the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in India, Dr. Navin Khanna developed a test that can help address this problem. The threein-one ‘Dengue Day 1 Test’ can detect dengue fever within minutes on day one of the fever, affordably in resource-poor settings. It can differentiate between primary and secondary dengue virus infections, which is so vital for clinical management of dengue infected individuals. Interestingly, it can also detect the presence of the virus in a mosquito. The test kit is now being exported to
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other countries too. Despite having a high-performing rapid dengue test that could detect both primary and secondary dengue virus infections in a reliable manner, it was still an uphill task to get it accepted by the end-users. It was 2013, and many cities in India witnessed a large number of dengue cases. Three companies from USA, Australia and South Korea sold their yearly stock of dengue test kits within a few weeks and no test kit was available for use in the Indian market. When the India-made kit was offered to them, it was met with a great resistance. Because of the extensive paperwork required for import of these tests, companies from USA and Australia were unable to make the next shipment of dengue kits to India, however, a South Korean company was able to ship a new consignment to India. This shipment landed up in Africa by mistake instead of reaching India. It was at this stage that the endusers relented and tried the Indian kit. When stocks of imported kits finally showed up in India, there were no takers. In this case, serendipity and not a system played the biggest role. So the near miss was Navin Khanna’s Dengue Day 1 test.
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he total miss was Simputer. It was designed to be a low cost and portable alternative to PCs. The idea was to create shared devices that permit truly simple and natural user interfaces based on sight, touch and audio. Simputer prototypes were launched by the Simputer Trust on April 25, 2001. It was hailed for its ‘radical simplicity for universal access’. Before the arrival of the smart phone in 2003, Simputer had anticipated some breakthrough technologies that are now commonplace in mobile devices. One of them was the accelerometer, introduced to the rest of the world for the first time in the iPhone. The other was doodle on mail, the ability to write on
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a phone, that was later a major feature on the Samsung Galaxy phones. Despite having achieved the elements of A, U, R, E & D in ASSURED, what went missing was S & S, namely scale and sustainability. This was because of the absence of innovation-friendly public procurement policy despite many ruralspecific demonstrations.
Role of Strong Public Policy
Here is an example of how a hard and strong public policy can work. Just over a year ago, I would have said that we stand
on the cusp of a digital revolution. Today, I can say without any ambiguity that we are right in the midst of it. Our nation created history in 2014 when under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna 18,096,130 bank accounts were opened in India in just one week, creating a Guinness World Record. It will provide access to various basic financial services for the excluded— basic savings bank account, need-based credit, remittance facility, insurance and pension. JAM combining J (Jan Dhan), A (Aaadhar identification and authentication) and M (mobile telecommunications) created the fastest and largest financial inclusion in the world, with 300 million plus bank accounts opening up in record time. It is glaringly obvious that the tide of exponential technology, where performance is rising exponentially and costs are falling exponentially, will make many things previously considered impossible possible in entirely unbelievable ways and timelines making the goal of achieving ASSURED innovation easier. g
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Board of Governors: IATA
Flying at cruising altitude T
Global aviation is in the pink of health, but it faces air pockets, like wafer-thin margins, high fuel cost and trade wars, says Alexandre de Juniac, DG and CEO IATA
he positive impact of globalisation is undeniable. Since 1990, 1.1 billion people have been lifted from poverty. The world is growing richer and trade, empowered by connectivity, is a leading force in development. But the forces of protectionism are gathering strength. Sanctions, tariffs, and geopolitical conflicts are the mainstay of daily news. The spectre of a trade war looms. Debates on migration and immigration rage. And trust among nations is showing its fragility. Facts show that aviation has created immense value by bringing people, products and business together. The 4 billion passengers who boarded planes in 2017 demonstrate the human desire to explore, connect, learn and collaborate across great distances. And the 60 million tonnes of cargo delivered by air accounted for a
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third of the value of goods traded globally. Every day, goods, people, investment and ideas are connected by aviation. That directly supports 63 million jobs and improves the quality of life for all. Aviation has a purpose. It spreads prosperity and
Alexandre de Juniac
enriches the human spirit. That truth lays the foundation for a very important message. Everyone is better off when borders are open to people and to trade. And, our hard work as an industry has primed aviation to be an even stronger catalyst for an even more inclusive globalisation. Aviation’s financial foundation is stronger than ever. Airlines will make $33.8 billion this year. Passenger demand is expected to grow seven percent and cargo by four percent. Airlines are creating jobs, paying-down debt and rewarding investors. Our nine-year run of profitability began in 2010. Return on invested capital will exceed the cost of capital for four years in a row. At long last, normal profits are becoming normal. This is hard won through major changes—to the structure and its operations.
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Don’t bank on privatisation by Anil Tyagi
and
Anish Gandhi
from
Sydney
S
ydney — a coastal metropolis whose five million residents make it the largest city in Australia — is famous for its glittering harbour, complemented by landmarks like the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The delegates at the 74th IATA AGM could have enjoyed the city’s fabulous weather, as well as these sites, but the leaders of the $90 billion dollar aviation Industry were more engrossed in serious affairs, i.e. deliberations on illicit trafficking, rising oil prices, privatisation of airports, safety and security, open border policies, and environment impacts. For example, look at these insightful comments on airport privatisation. “We are in an infrastructure crisis. Cash-strapped governments are looking to the private sector to help develop much needed airport capacity. But it is wrong to assume that the private sector has all the answers. Airlines have not yet experienced an airport privatization that has fully lived up to its promised benefits over the long term. Airports are critical infrastructure. It is important that governments take a long-term view focusing on solutions that will deliver the best economic and social benefits. Selling airport assets for a short-term cash injection to the treasury is a mistake,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO. It is ironical that these concerns come from the powerful aviation sector, which is the loudest votary of capital formation by the private players. The clock, it seems, is turning anti-clockwise. IATA is a confederation of 292 airlines, which carry 4 billion passengers a year, earn $7.76 per passenger, and operate in an environment of cut-throat competition with average profit margin of 4.1%. It’s alarming that it is urging governments not to sell their airport assets, merely to feed cash-starved treasuries. Sadly, IATA’s AGM did not elaborate on the issue. The IATA CEO made another telling comment. He
But success is not evenly spread. Almost half the industry’s profits are generated in North America, while better financial returns remain elusive for many. The goal is for the entire industry to operate in solid financial health.
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vigorously defended global standards that have guided the safe and efficient development of the sector. “We must take governments to task. It is unacceptable that global standards are being ignored by the very governments that created them,” he explained. He noted several examples: India taxes tickets in contravention of ICAO resolutions States are planning new environment taxes even as the ICAO-brokered Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) is about to commence as the global market-based measure for managing emissions. Nearly two decades after the Montreal Convention 1999 was agreed, it is not universally ratified. Its important modernizations apply in only 130 states. There is not a 100% compliance with Chicago Convention Annex 13 requirements for complete accident investigations. Of the approximately 1,000 accidents over the last decade, only about 300 accident investigations have been concluded with published reports. Annex 17 of the Chicago Convention sets baseline security requirements. Yet ICAO audits reveal that 28% of the states meet them; 37% fail on security resolutions. Diversity, specifically the lack of it, was a resonant theme – even before the storm when the board chairman, Akbar Al Baker, responded to a question on gender equality, by saying that “Of course”, his own carrier Qatar Airways, “has to be led by a man because it is a very challenging position”. His Excellency Al Baker assumed his duties as Chairman of the IATA Board of Governors (BoG) for a oneyear term. He is the 77th chair of the IATA BoG, and the first CEO from Qatar Airways to hold the position. He has served on the BoG since 2012. He succeeds Goh Choon Phong, CEO of Singapore Airlines. Korean Air will host the next IATA AGM and World Air Transport Summit from 2-4 June 2019. Book your tickets, tighten your belts, see you in Seoul.
Low-cost long-haul is providing great value to consumers. Protectionism could derail successful international joint-ventures. Jet fuel costs are expected to be up 25% on 2017. But, $7.76 is our only buffer against future shocks. That’s the average
profit per passenger that airlines will make this year—a thin 4.1% net margin. Aviation’s new-found financial health is rewarding consumers. With money to invest in new aircraft, the global network has grown to over 58,000 routes. Airlines
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have invested to develop options that meet every travel budget, shipping requirement, or business need.
Safety
We are also making progress on safety. In 2017 for the second time in three years, there were no passenger fatalities in accidents on jet operations. The recent Cubana crash, however, was a human tragedy that sharpens our determination to make our safe industry even safer. That’s why our Global Aviation Data Management program (GADM) is so important. The vision is to use data to mitigate risks before they can become accidents. Predictive analysis tools we are developing with the Singapore government will make this possible.
Security
Working effectively with regulators is more demanding when the subject is security. After some challenges over the last year, our partnership with governments has deepened. It helped the US Transportation Security Administration to replace its PED ban with measures that have improved security globally.
Environment
Sustainability is also central to our future. From January 1, 2019, all airlines must report fuel consumption in preparation for the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). This scheme will keep our promise to cap net emissions, achieving carbon neutral growth from 2020. But the commitment to sustainability must be shared by governments. The 73 governments already signed on to CORSIA cover 88 percent of aviation. We want more to join. It’s not just about signing-up. Under the leadership of ICAO, governments agreed to CORSIA as a universal measure to address aviation’s carbon footprint. We also want governments to step
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gfiles inside the government vol. 12, issue 3 | June 2018
Jeffrey Goh, Ceo, Star Alliance
up on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Challenges
On aviation’s core mission to deliver safe, secure, accessible and sustainable connectivity, the state of our industry is strong and getting stronger. And with “normal” levels of profitability we are spreading aviation’s benefits more widely. Looking to the future, I will highlight three key challenges: • Avoiding creeping re-regulation • Maintaining the integrity of global standards, and • Finding sufficient capacity to affordably accommodate growth
Re-Regulation
We are working in partnership with governments to ensure that “smarter regulation” principles are at the core of regulations. This common-sense approach asks them to align with global standards, take into account industry input and analyse the costs of regulation against the benefits. Flying is more accessible. In 1978, when deregulation began, the average person flew once every 6.6 years. Now the average is more frequent than once every two years. But a worrying counterpoint of creeping re-regulation cannot be ignored.
Global Standards
As part of promoting smarter regulation, we must vigilantly defend global standards. The Chicago Convention set global operating standards that have fostered
aviation’s amazing success story. We could not safely operate on the scale of today if each country made up its own rules. Global commercial standards are the backbone of a distribution network enabling passengers to buy a ticket at any accredited agent, pay in a single currency, and travel the world with confidence.
Infrastructure
While the Worldwide Slot Guidelines are great at managing scarce capacity, they are not an alternative solution for building more airports. We are in a capacity crisis. We don’t see the required airport infrastructure investment to solve it. Governments struggle to build quickly. With cash-strapped finances, many are looking to the private sector for solutions. Our message: we need airport capacity. But be cautious. Expecting privatisation to be the magic solution is a wrong assumption.
Trafficking
We are the business of freedom. There should be no tolerance for those who use our networks nefariously. Our decision a few years ago to take a stand on the illicit trafficking of wildlife is bearing fruit. IATA’s Eyes Open campaign is now raising awareness on human trafficking.
The Business of Freedom
There are challenges. We will meet them head-on. By building partnerships and understanding needed to expand the benefits of the amazing industry. g
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June’18
www.indianbuzz.com
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gfiles inside the government vol. 12, issue 3 | June 2018
49
Book Extract
sex-selective abortion and the state bijayalaxmi nanda
The case of the missing girl child Despite governments’ efforts, studies show that adverse sex ratio remains a dark spot in 21st century India. It requires a syncretic feminist perspective and multi-pronged approach to tackle the menace of sex-selective abortion
A
cknowledging sex-selective abortion as gender discrimination and its countering through various interventions and initiatives have become common in policy articulation and execution pertaining to a range of local, regional and global bodies, both in India and elsewhere. One of the most important actors in this arena is the state. The state in India, which includes both its central and state government machineries, has been seen to be engaged with confronting the practice of sex-selective abortion. The ‘add gender and stir approach’ has been severely critiqued for assuming falsely that gender discrimination can be effectively tackled through strategies and crafty interventions without substantially questioning the dynamics of power and inequity in society. What needs to be critically examined here is the fundamental understanding of gender discrimination in the various
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policies, interventions and initiatives which claim to be ‘gender-sensitive’ and the potentiality of mobilising them for the countering of sex-selective abortion and the possible emancipation of women in India.
Defining the problem
Sex-selective abortion became a concern for the state with the noting of the declining sex-ratio, especially in the 0-6 age group in its decennial census. This concern led to a varied perception of the problem; and the strategies to counter it were based on these perceptions. These perceptions can be broadly divided into three categories. The first perception of this problem for the state has been its leading to a demographic imbalance; the second association of it has been in terms of gender discrimination, and the third is the misuse of reproductive technology amounting to an
illegal practice or crime. Based on these three pre-dominant modes of understanding it, the state has outlined policies, programmes and strategies to counter it. As Martha Nussbaum points out, all public policy formulation unavoidably reflects normative positions and so should be subjected to critical philosophical reasoning (Martha Nussbaum quoted in Fukuda-Parr 2007: 331). Although the approaches of the state are said to be ultimately concerned with human well-being, their evaluation needs to examine whether they have been focussed on rights, freedom and agency. Gender analysis enriched by feminist theorising contributes to this evaluation, providing it the lens and flexibility to encompass issues of inequality that would otherwise go unnoticed. A syncretic feminist perspective with an inter-sectionality approach provides a framework to evaluate the approaches of the state. It broadens the concern with countering gender discrimination and with the policies necessary to achieve that goal.
Revisiting the Debate
Sharp regional variations in sex ratio have been a subject matter of a long debate in India beginning with the first population Census in 1872 (Agnihotri 2001: 37). It continues to be a perplexing problem even today. The exercise of census taking began in colonial times. A census is not a passive account of statistical tables, but also engages in reshaping the world through categories and their definitions.
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Bhagat in his study of census taking in colonial times points out to how the exercise of census taking differed between the imperial state and its colonies. The census taking in colonial India was due to the desire of the colonial government to learn as much as it could about the people and the land under its control. In Great Britain census was largely a secular institution; in colonial India, the government emphasised on the questions of religion, caste, race and community. The main principle behind this exercise was to project the social cleavages that existed in colonial society so that the colonial rule is sustained. Enumeration and categorisation for reasons of the colonial state had a deep social impact. It is in this context that the very concept of majority and minority in religious terms emerged as an outcome of a modern consciousness of population numeracy (Bhagat 2001). In a similar way the issue of declining sex ratio became a concern for the colonial regime due to various reasons which had to do with caste and community interconnections. Another such interconnection is pointed out in Oldenburg’s work on dowry. Oldenburg argues that dowry murders and female infanticide received a sharp fillip by the decisions of the British to create individual peasant ownership as the centre piece of their revenue policy. Dowry, which served as a woman’s safety net in pre-colonial times, was transformed into a deadly institution during the days of the Raj. Before the British arrived in India, land was not seen as a commodity which could be bought and sold. The land belonged notionally to the king and the produce of the land were shared by all villagers. When land was put exclusively in male hands, it made them responsible for the payment of revenue and also made the Indian male, the dominant legal subject. The first evidence of female infanticide was found in December, 1789, by
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Title: “Sex-Selective Abortion and the State: Policies, laws and Institutions in India” Author: Bijayalaxmi Nanda Publisher: Har-Anand Publications, 2018 Price: `795
Jonanthan Duncan, the British Resident at Benares, among Rajkumar Rajputs in Jaunpur district of Benares Division. The Rajputs in north, west and central India which means undivided Punjab, Rajasthan, U.P. Malwa and Saurashtra, as per the colonial records, are identified as a caste which resorted to extensive female infanticide. In 1817, British officials observed that female infanticide was so extensive among the Jadejas, a Rajput clan in peninsular Gujarat that whole taluks inhabited by the clan were without any female children. Perhaps alarmed by these figures, in 1856, an official who investigated the phenomenon of female infanticide in Benares Division, found that Rajput female children were deficient in 308 out of 418 villages in which census was taken; of these, 62 villages, nearly one-fifth, had no Rajput female children below 6 years. The other castes, which the colonial records observe, killed their female children were the Lewa Kanbis and Patidars of central Gujarat and Jats, Ahirs, Gujars, Khutris and Moyal Brahmins in north India. When the census enumerations were launched in the last quarter of the 19th
century, it reconfirmed the observations in the archival records. According to Vishwanath’s elaborate study, perhaps taking the cue from the records, the authors of more than one census reports refer to the Rajputs and Lewa Patidars as having a ‘stigma’ or ‘a tradition’ of female infanticide since ‘olden times’ (Census 1901, 1921). Vishwanath further explains that the 1921 census report classifies castes into two categories, namely castes having ‘a tradition of female infanticide’ and castes without such ‘a tradition’ (Vishwanath 2007: 270-2). This census provides figures from 1901 to 1921 to show that in Punjab, United Provinces and Rajputana castes such as Hindu Rajputs, Hindu Jats, and Gujars with ‘a tradition’ of female infanticide, had a much lower number of females per 1,000 males compared to castes without such ‘a tradition’ which included: Muslim Rajputs, Muslim Jats, Chamar, Kanet, Arain, Kumhar, Kurmi, Brahmin, Dhobi, Teli and Lodha.
H
owever, Vishwanath maintains that it is difficult to conclude from this that the lower castes will not or will never practise female infanticide because sanskritisation, acquisition of assets, modern education and dowry adoption can push the lower castes towards female neglect and infanticide. As a confirmation, recent data for the Chamars and scheduled castes in U.P. suggest that the dalit castes are moving in the direction of deficiency of females and possibly female infanticide or foeticide. Thus, in 1901, the Chamars in U.P. had a female to male ratio of 986; but by 1981 the female to male ratio among Chamars in the same ratio among SCs in U.P. was 970; by 1981, it was down to 892. Drawing attention to these figures Dreze and Sen note that ‘So far as gender relations are concerned, the scheduled castes in Uttar Pradesh are now more like the higher
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51
Book Extract
sex-selective abortion and the state bijayalaxmi nanda
castes than they used to be.’ The records provide evidence of the lower castes getting influenced by the higher, so far as female infanticide is concerned. The Female Infanticide Act, 1870 was enacted and enforced on 17 April 1871. It provided for a system of compulsory registration of births, deaths, marriages, and remarriages by a registrar appointed for this purpose by the Government. However, the pre-colonial logic for female infanticide was strengthened by imperial and land ownership policy even though the British had outlawed the practice.
T
he Infanticide Act of 1870 was repealed in 1906. The claim that infanticide was no longer practiced was patently untenable. If anything, the British knew well from their own careful monitoring and enumeration that sex ratios continued to worsen in Punjab. Political exigency probably forced the repeal of the Act of 1870. It was only during the tenure of Ashok Mitra (195868) as Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India that a broad range and themes which had not been till then included as a part of the census operations were included. For Mitra the steadily dete-
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riorating sex ratio was an obsessive concern for more than six decades. Presiding over the 1961 Census, he publicised the influential work of Pravin Visaria, which was the first major effort to understand the worsening deficit of females in the Indian population (Visaria 1971).
Historical trend Interestingly, census classification from 1901-1921 shows that Muslim Rajputs and Muslim Jats in Punjab had a better sex ratio compared to their Hindu counterparts. Hindu Rajputs: 822* (Census 1901), 756 (Census 1911) and 796 (Census 1921) Muslim Rajputs: 883* (Census 1901), 841 (Census 1911) and 864 (Census 1921) Hindu Jats: 795* (Census 1901), 774 (Census 1911), and 789 (Census 1921) Muslim Jats: 859* (Census 1901), 807 (Census 1911) and 820 (Census 1921)
* Per 1000 males
This study put an end to earlier speculations about undercounting of females across several age groups, as the prime reason for low female sex ratios. Ashok Mitra returned to the question of worsening female deficits, after reading the results of the 1971 Census. He wrote what is perhaps the most comprehensive review of the social malady covering all that is relevant. He discussed at length the possibility of undercounting of females in the different censuses and went on to examine the nature and extent of higher female mortality under normal conditions and under famines. The sex ratio continued to decline steadily in the 1980s producing the lowest ever ratio of that time period both in the adult as well as in the juvenile population. The 1991 Census counted 927 females to every 1000 males in the Indian population and 945 (from 962 in 1981 Census) in the 0-6 age group. The phantom of underenumeration, raised by some demographers, was to be deservedly put to rest by the accuracy of the data. As reliable data accumulated, it became increasingly clear that female deficits at birth and early childhood were responsible for this decline. The well-established preference for the male-child and its nexus with the misuse of reproductive technology leading to sex determination and followed by sex-selective abortion became attributed as the primary cause of the female deficit in India. Amartya Sen’s spectacular observation of 100 million missing women in the world and 30 million in India paved the ground for numerous articles and research on the issue. The census office’s data was made available to Sen in the late 80s and in the 1990s, for making of his two seminal works on the issue: 100 Million Women Missing (Sen 1990) followed by Inequality Re-examined (Sen 1995). Interestingly, while demographers continued to raise the bogey of under-
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enumeration of females and the overcounting of males, the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India of that period, A. R. Nanda, writes this as an interpretation of the data: ‘The main reason for the declining sex ratio has been identified as the gap in the rate of mortality decline between males and females. While both male and female mortality has declined over the years, the decline has been faster in cases of males compared to females’ (Nanda 1991). The declining sex ratio of the population can be examined better when the age distribution of the census is available by the end of 1993. The population aged 0-6 has so far been tabulated in the 1991 Census. While the sex ratio has declined from 935 to 927 during the last decade the sex ratio of the population aged 0-6 has declined sharply from 962 to 945, i.e. by 17 points. It may be seen that during the previous decade, i.e. 1971-1981 the sex ratio of the 0-6 population had declined by 2 points only. During the decade 1961-71, the decline in the sex ratio was more or less the same for the total population and the population aged 0-6 years (Nanda 1991). The gender dimensions of declining sex ratio were noted in 1991 Census. The women’s movement at this time was also raising questions about women’s work and its definition in the census. The under-enumeration of women came up for discussion and debate. It was now not enough to just recognise that women were under enumerated and that their work underestimated. The under-enumeration of women was theoretically taken up for research and papers by well-known researchers like Leela Visaria, Amartya Sen and others revealed that this was not under-enumeration but a problem of missing women who were not present due to female infanticide, sex-selective abortion, girl-child neglect, etc. The underestimation of women’s work also came up at this stage. It was the voices from the
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women’s movement that challenged this and a continuous pressure was built up on the state to address the underestimation of women’s work. The 1991 census operation gave special visibility to gender issues, the result of a cumulative effort of various women’s groups, women’s movements, feminist academia, UN bodies and a sensitised bureaucracy heading the operation. It focussed on the declining sex ratio and its link with sex-selective abortion and it emphasised on the under-enumeration of women’s work.
T
he 2001 Census drew its reference on gender issues from the 1991 census operations and the recommendations, planning and policy implementation that followed it. The buzz on the declining sex ratio, especially in the 0-6 age group declining from 945 to 927, became a major rallying ground for noting the rampant practice of sex-selective abortion which led to it. The Census Commissioner of that time, J. K. Banthia, highlighted this issue inviting attention from the women’s groups and other organisations working on it (Banthia 2005). The office also instituted the position of a ‘Gender Head’ who would be involved in disseminating
this information to all and focus mainly on the issue of how sex-selective abortion was contributing to this slide in numbers. The 2011 Census again revealed a further lowering of the child sex ratio (CSR). It stands today at 919, which is lower than the CSR of 927 in 2001. This decline is noted in all regions defying the earlier clear divide between the North and the South. The urban-rural divide has also lessened. Tribal regions which were considered to be egalitarian are now manifesting deficit of girls in their community. This decline has been attributed to the widespread availability of new reproductive technologies and its facilitation by medical providers who are reaping the benefits of such misuse through huge monetary gains. The total fertility rate (TFR) stands at 2.3 in India (SRS Statistical Report 2013). So while there is a decrease in population growth rate, the deficit of females in the population has increased. The reports clearly pointed to the male-child planning along with misuse of reproductive technologies which had brought about the worst ever female deficit. However, pressures to provide for a caste census and the National Population Register did not allow the space or time to the census office for a critical focus on the issue. g
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53
birthdays IAS officers’ birthdays June 20, 2018 — July 19, 2018
IAS officers’ birthdays June 20, 2018 — July 19, 2018
Rajnarayan Kaushik
Brijesh Pandey
Ajay Kumar Dwivedi
Babu A
cadre: Haryana
cadre: Tripura
cadre: UTTAR Pradesh
Cadre: ANDHRA Pradesh
rajnarayankaushik.ias2010@ias.nic.in brijeshpanday@ias.nic.in
ak.dwivedi@ias.nic.in
ababu@ias.nic.in
V Shankar
Asheemkumar S K Gupta
Randhir Kumar
Ganesh Shankar Mishra
cadre: Karnataka
cadre: Maharashtra
cadre: WEST Bengal
Cadre: Madhya Pradesh
v.shankar@ias.nic.in
guptaas@ias.nic.in
randhir.ias@ias.nic.in
gsmishra.ias2010@ias.nic.in
Pramod Kumar Das
LS Changsan
Niraj Verma
Sujata Sharma
cadre: Madhya Pradesh
cadre: Assam - MeghAlaya
Cadre: Assam - Meghalaya
Cadre: Andhra Pradesh
daspk2@ias.nic.in
changsan@ias.nic.in
verman@ias.nic.in
sujata.ias@ias.nic.in
Partha Sarathi Mishra
Reeta Harish Thakkar
Pratyaya Amrit
Vandana Gurnani
cadre: Odisha
cadre: Tamil Nadu
Cadre: Bihar
Cadre: Karnataka
parthas.mishra@ias.nic.in
reeta.ht@ias.nic.in
pratyaya91@ias.nic.in
gurnaniv@ias.nic.in
Akash Tripathi
Arun P Vidhale
Sanjay Kumar Alung
Niraj Kumar Bansod
cadre: Madhya Pradesh
cadre: Maharashtra
Cadre: Chhattisgarh
Cadre: Chhattisgarh
takash@ias.nic.in
arun.p@ias.nic.in
sk.alang@ias.nic.in
nk.bansod@ias.nic.in
Om Prakash Bakoria
S Prabhakar
Kundan Kumar
Ajay Mishra
cadre: Maharashtra
cadre: Tamil Nadu
Cadre: Chhattisgarh
cadre: Telangana
opbakoria.ias@ias.nic.in
s.prabakharan@ias.nic.in
kundan.kumar14@ias.nic.in
mishraa@ias.nic.in
Sumer Singh Gurjar
Govekar Mayur Ratilal
Owais Ahmed
Ananya Das
cadre: Punjab
cadre: Tripura
Cadre: Jammu&Kashmir
Cadre: gujarat
gurjarss@ias.nic.in
mayur.govekar@ias.nic.in
owais.ahmed@ias.nic.in
ananya.das@ias.nic.in
Mohinder Pal
Rajesh Kumar Singh
Sriram Taranikanti
Vikas Singh
cadre: Punjab
cadre: Uttar Pradesh
Cadre: Tripura
Cadre: Tripura
m.pal@ias.nic.in
singhrk7@ias.nic.in
s.taranikanti@ias.nic.in
vikassingh.ias2010@ias.nic.in
J Jayakanthan
Amit Gupta
Prakash Bindu
Raja Sekhar Vundru
cadre: Tamil Nadu
cadre: Uttar Pradesh
Cadre: Uttar Pradesh
Cadre: Haryana
jeyakanthan.ias@ias.nic.in
guptaa1@ias.nic.in
prakashbindu.ias09@ias.nic.in
vundrurs@ias.nic.in
D Ronald Rose
Anoop Kumar Aggarwal
C Ravi Shankar
Sachin Kumar Vaishy
cadre: Andhra Pradesh
cadre: WEST Bengal
Cadre: Uttarakhand
cadre: Jammu&Kashmir
d.ronaldrose@ias.nic.in
akaggar@ias.nic.in
cravishankar.ias09@ias.nic.in
Sachin.kv@ias.nic.in
Mallikarjuna A
Chittaranjan Kumar Khetan
Manuj Goyal
Arti Dogra
cadre: Andhra Pradesh
Cadre: Chhattisgarh
Cadre: UTTARAKHAND
Cadre: Rajasthan
mallikarjuna.a@ias.nic.in
khetanck@ias.nic.in
manuj.goyal@ias.nic.in
artidogra.ias@ias.nic.in
Dinesh T Waghmare
Balkar Singh
Akanksha Bhaskar
cadre: Maharashtra
cadre: Uttar Pradesh
Cadre: West Bengal
waghmare@ias.nic.in
balkarsingh@ias.nic.in
a.bhaskar@ias.nic.in
Usha Sharma
Ajay Shankar Pandey
Kamini Chauhan Ratan
cadre: Rajasthan
cadre: UTTAR Pradesh
Cadre: Uttar Pradesh
sharmau@ias.nic.in
ajaishankar.pandey@ias.nic.in
ratankc@ias.nic.in
20-06-1980
20-06-1959
21-06-1961
21-06-1962
22-06-1975
22-06-1973
23-06-1973
23-06-1966
24-06-1967
24-06-1980
25-06-1980
26-06-1965
26-06-1963
27-06-1977
27-06-1970
27-06-1971
28-06-1966
28-06-1959
29-06-1972
30-06-1990
01-07-1967
01-07-1976
01-07-1971
02-07-1961
02-07-1975
03-07-1962
04-07-1984
05-07-1978
06-07-1969
07-07-1967
08-07-1964
09-07-1984
10-07-1988
11-07-1966
11-07-1975
12-07-1981
12-07-1986
14-07-1975
14-07-1983
15-07-1976
15-07-1966
16-07-1978
16-07-1960
17-07-1990
17-07-1981
18-07-1966
18-07-1992
18-07-1979
13-07-1990
13-07-1971
For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com
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gfiles inside the government vol. 12, issue 3 | June 2018
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IPS officers’ birthdays June 20, 2018 — July 19, 2018
IPS officers’ birthdays June 20, 2018 — July 19, 2018
A Srinivas
SB Fulari
Lalit Das
Devesh Chandra Srivastava
CADRE: Kerala
CADRE: Maharashtra
CADRE: Odisha
CADRE: AP, Goa, Mizoram, Union Territories
spcbcidhq.pol@kerala.gov.in
srpf@mahapolice.gov.in
ldas@svpnpa.gov.in
dcsrivastava@svpnpa.gov.in
M Srinivasulu
Dilip Kumar
Sukhwinder Singh
Roopa D
CADRE: Telangana
CADRE: Uttar Pradesh
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: Karnataka
msrinivasulu@svpnpa.gov.in
dilip.kr1961@ips.gov.in
sukhwinder.s@svpnpa.gov.in
digp-prisons-kar@gov.in
Kamal Pant
Anil Subhash Paraskar
PS Salunkhe
Ravindra Kumar Pandey
CADRE: Karnataka
CADRE: Maharashtra
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: AP, Goa, Mizoram, Union Territories
adgpksrp@ksp.gov.in
iasanil@yahoo.com
ps.salunkhe@svpnpa.gov.in
rkpandey@svpnpa.gov.in
Ashok Awasthi
Kuldeep Kumar R Jain
S Praveen Kumar
Sudhansu Sarangi
CADRE: Madhya Pradesh
CADRE: Karnataka
CADRE: Odisha
CADRE: Odisha
aawasthi@svpnpa.gov.in
spchn@ksp.gov.in
spraveen@svpnpa.gov.in
ssarangi@svpnpa.gov.in
S Senthil Kumar
Reeta Rai
Surendra Singh Yadav
A Arun
CADRE: Andhra Pradesh
CADRE: Uttar Pradesh
CADRE: AP, Goa, Mizoram, Union Territories CADRE: Tamil Nadu
ssenthilku@ap.gov.in
sp-agra@uppolice.gov.in
jtcp-ap-dl@delhipolice.gov.in
igp- thiruchirappalli@tnpolice.gov.in
Sunil Kumar Vishnoi
Virendra Kumar Mishra
Mrinalini Shrivastava
Indra Chakravorty
CADRE: Rajasthan
CADRE: Uttar Pradesh
CADRE: Sikkim
CADRE: West Bengal
skumar@assampolice.gov.in
sp-kaushambi@uppolice.gov.in
mshrivastava@svpnpa.gov.in
dc-hq@wbpolice.gov.in
Isha Pant
Kapil Garg
AG Babu
Ramesh
CADRE: Madhya Pradesh
CADRE: Rajasthan
CADRE: Tamil Nadu
CADRE: Uttar Pradesh
sptkr@ksp.gov.in
director.scrb@rajpolice.gov.in
dcp.traffic@tn.gov.in
ramesh@svpnpa.gov.in
Vikas Sahay
Vaibhav Tiwari
Ajay Pal Lamba
Lal Tendu Mohanti
CADRE: Gujarat
CADRE: west bengal
CADRE: Rajasthan
CADRE: Jammu&Kashmir
dydg@rakshashaktiuniversity.edu.in
vtiwari@svpnpa.gov.in
sp-jodhpur@rjpolice.gov.in
adgp-armed@jkpolice.gov.in
M Abdulla Saleem
Mekala Suresh Kumar
Om Prakash Meena
Manoj Kumar Lal
CADRE: Karnataka
CADRE: Maharashtra
CADRE: Tamil Nadu
CADRE: AP, GOA MIZORAM, UT
masaleem@svnpa.gov.in
srpf@mahapolice.gov.in
sp-cb@tnpolice.gov.in
manojlal@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
VN Jadhav
Bhupendra Sahu
Satya Narayan
Anita Roy
CADRE: Maharashtra
CADRE: Rajasthan
CADRE: MAHARASHTRA
CADRE: AP, Goa, Mizoram, Union Territories
jadhav@mahapolice.gov.in
srmgu.fci@nic.in
s.narayan@svpnpa.gov.in
anitaroy@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Chandrashekhar Solanki
VH Rao Deshmukh
Damodar Goutam Sawang
Pawan Deo
CADRE: Madhya Pradesh
CADRE: Jharkhand
CADRE: Andhra Pradesh
CADRE: CHHATTISGARH
sp.radio@mp.gov.in
ig@uppolice.gov.in
cp@vza.appolice.gov.in
pawandeo@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
Anurag Agrawal
Navin Agarwal
Ajay Kumar Sahni
Ganji Anil Srinivas
CADRE: Assam-Meghalaya
CADRE: Jammu&Kashmir
CADRE: UTTAR Pradesh
CADRE: WEST BENGAL
igp-border@assampolice.gov.in
dg.nada@nic.in
ak.sahni@svpnpa.gov.in
gasrinivas@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
C Mageswari
Dhruv Dahiya
Raja Babu Singh
UC Sarangi
CADRE: Tamil Nadu
CADRE: Punjab
CADRE: Madhya Pradesh
CADRE: MADHYA PRADESH
sp-vig@tamilnadupolice.gov.in
adcp.ldh.police@punjab.gov.in
igwaw@itbp.gov.in
sarangi@mail.svpnpa.gov.in
20-06-1981
28-06-1967
20-06-1967
28-06-1961
21-06-1964
29-06-1981
21-06-1964
29-06-1984
22-06-1980
30-06-1960
23-06-1964
30-06-1961
23-06-1984
01-07-1959
24-06-1965
02-07-1984
25-06-1966
03-07-1969
25-06-1959
03-07-1972
26-06-1975
27-06-1975
04-07-1960
04-07-1961
27-06-1971
05-07-1987
05-07-1964
06-07-1965
06-07-1970
07-07-1976
07-07-1975
07-07-1978
08-07-1970
08-07-1978
09-07-1978
10-07-1976
10-07-1963
11-07-1981
11-07-1967
12-07-1971
12-07-1975
13-07-1962
13-07-1968
14-07-1972
14-07-1972
15-07-1962
15-07-1963
16-07-1963
16-07-1966
16-07-1968
17-07-1971
18-07-1962
For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com
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55
birthdays Lok Sabha Members June 20, 2018 — July 19, 2018
Lok Sabha Members June 20, 2018 — July 19, 2018
Renuka Butta
Heena Vijaykumar Gavit
Riti Pathak
Ram Vilas Paswan
YSR CONGRESS PARTY (ANDHRA PRADESH)
BJP (MAHARASHTRA)
BJP (MADHYA PRADESH)
LJSP (BIHAR)
butta.renuka@sansad.nic.in
gn.vijaykumar@sansad.nic.in
riti.pathak@sansad.nic.in
ramvilas.p@sansad.nic.in
Prathap Simha
A Anwhar Raajhaa
Babulal Chaudhary
Gowdar M Siddeshwara
BJP (KARNATAKA)
AIADMK (TAMIL NADU)
BJP (UTTAR PRADESH)
BJP (KARNATAKA)
prathap.simha@sansad.nic.in
anwhar.raajhaa@sansad.nic.in
babulal.mp@sansad.nic.in
gm.siddeshwara@sansad.nic.in
Jayshreeben Patel
Banshilal Mahto
Ganesh Singh
CS Puttaraju
BJP (GUJARAT)
BJP (CHHATTISGARH)
BJP (MADHYA PRADESH)
JD(S) (KARNATAKA)
jk.patel@sansad.nic.in
banshilal.mahto@sansad.nic.in
sganesh@sansad.nic.in
cs.puttaraju@sansad.nic.in
Sajda Ahmed
Supriya Sadanand Sule
Bhagirath Prasad
Satya Pal Singh
AITC (WEST BENGAL)
NCP (MAHARASHTRA)
BJP (MADHYA PRADESH)
BJP (UTTAR PRADESH)
sajdamp@gmail.com
supriyassule@gmail.com
dr.bhagirathprasad@sansad.nic.in
satyapalsingh.mp@sansad.nic.in
Sanjeev Kumar Balyan
Kalraj Mishra
SS Ahluwalia
Vijay Sampla
BJP (UTTAR PRADESH)
BJP (UTTAR PRADESH)
BJP (WEST BENGAL)
BJP (PUNJAB)
sanjeevkumar.balyan@sansad.nic.in
kalraj.mishra@sansad.nic.in
ssa@sansad.nic.in
vijay.sampla@sansad.nic.in
Murali Mohan Maganti
Nandi Yellaiah
TDP (ANDHRA PRADESH)
INC (TELANGANA)
muralimohan.maganti@sansad.nic.in
nandiy@sansad.nic.in
Prabhas Kumar Singh
ET Mohammed Basheer
21-06-1971
21-06-1976
22-06-1959
22-06-1962
23-06-1972
24-06-1940
25-06-1964
28-06-1987
29-06-1949
30-06-1940
30-06-1969
01-07-1941
01-07-1977
02-07-1948
02-07-1962
03-07-1947
04-07-1951
05-07-1946
05-07-1952
05-07-1964
05-07-1973
06-07-1961
01-07-1942
01-07-1946
Rajya Sabha Members June 20, 2018 — July 19, 2018 KVP Ramachandra Rao
Abdul Wahab
21-06-1948
01-07-1950
BJD (ODISHA)
IUML (KERALA)
INC (TELANGANA)
IUML (KERALA)
prabhas.singh@sansad.nic.in
basheeret@gmail.com
ramachandra.rao@sansad.nic.in
wahab.pv@sansad.nic.in
Ashok Gajapathi R Pusapati
Raj Kumar Saini
Raj Babbar
V Vijayasai Reddy
26-06-1951
01-07-1953
23-06-1952
01-07-1957
TDP (ANDHRA PRADESH)
BJP (HARYANA)
INC (UTTARAKHAND)
YSR CONGRESS PARTY (ANDHRA PRADESH)
agajapathiraju.p@sansad.nic.in
rajkumar.saini@sansad.nic.in
rajbabbars@yahoo.in
venubaka.vr@sansad.nic.in
AP Jithender Reddy
Ramcharan Bohra
Narendra Kumar Swain
Rajaram
26-06-1954
01-07-1956
25-06-1939
01-07-1968
TRS (TELANGANA)
BJP (RAJASTHAN)
BJD (ODISHA)
BSP (UTTAR PRADESH)
jreddy@sansad.nic.in
ramcharanbohra@gmail.com
Narendra.swain@sansad.nic.in
rajaram.mp@sansad.nic.in
Jitendra Chaudhury
Manoj Kumar Sinha
Dharmendra Pradhan
Ram Chandra Prasad Singh
27-06-1958
01-07-1959
26-06-1969
06-07-1958
CPI (M) (TRIPURA)
BJP (UTTAR PRADESH)
BJP (MADHYA PRADESH)
JD (U) (BIHAR)
jitendra.chaudhury@sansad.nic.in
manojsinha.mp@sansad.nic.in
d.pradhan@sansad.nic.in
ram.chandra@sansad.nic.in
Sushil Kumar Singh
Kamalbhan Singh Marabi
Ram Gopal Yadav
Vandana Chavan
27-06-1963
01-07-1963
29-06-1946
06-07-1961
BJP (BIHAR)
BJP (CHHATTISGARH)
SP (UTTAR PRADESH)
NCP (MAHARASHTRA)
sushilkumar.singh19@sansad.nic.in
kamalbhans.marabi@sansad.nic.in
ramgopal.yadav@sansad.nic.in
vandana.chavan@sansad.nic.in
Harivansh
Suresh Prabhu
Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi Ashok Mahadeorao Nete 28-06-1952
01-07-1968
BJP (KARNATAKA)
BJP (MAHARASHTRA)
JD (U) (BIHAR)
BJP (ANDHRA PRADESH)
bijapur.mp@gmail.com
ashok.mahadeorao@sansad.nic.in
hari.vansh@sansad.nic.in
cimoffice@nic.in
Prahlad Singh Patel
Satish Kumar Gautam
Bhupender Yadav
Vishambhar Prasad Nishad
28-06-1960
01-07-1972
30-06-1956
30-06-1969
11-07-1953
18-07-1962
BJP (MADHYA PRADESH)
BJP (UTTAR PRADESH)
BJP (RAJASTHAN)
SP (UTTAR PRADESH)
prahladp@sansad.nic.in
satish.gautam@sansad.nic.in
bhupender.yadav@sansad.nic.in
vp.nishadmp@sansad.nic.in
For the complete list, see www.gfilesindia.com
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gfiles inside the government vol. 12, issue 3 | June 2018
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Tracking Subhash Chandra Khuntia The former 1981 batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre has been appointed Chairperson, Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI).
Dipak Kumar The 1984 batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre has been appointed Chief Secretary of Bihar.
Amit Khare The 1985 batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre has been appointed Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
Vipin Kumar Saxena The 1985 batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre has been appointed Principal Resident Commissioner, Government of Odisha, New Delhi.
Sameer Sharma The 1985 batch IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre has been appointed Director General, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA).
Sanjeev Nandan Sahai The 1986 batch IAS officer of the Union Territory cadre has been appointed Additional Secretary, Ministry of Power.
Rakesh Kumar Gupta The 1986 batch IAS officer of the
Reshuffle of IAS officers in Punjab Satish Chandra has been appointed Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Medical Education and Research; DK Tiwari has been appointed Secretary, Technical Education and Industrial Training; Hussan Lal has been appointed MD, Punjab Infrastructure Development Board; Vikas Garg as Secretary, Agriculture. Reshuffle of IAS officers in Bihar Shashi Shekhar Sharma has been appointed Development Commissioner with additional charge of DG, Bihar Public Administration and Rural Development Institute; Tripurari Sharan has been appointed Principal Secretary, Environment and Forest; Amrit Lal Meena has been appointed as Principal Secretary, Road Development; Anshuli Arya has been appointed Principal Secretary and Commissioner, Mining; T N Bindheshwari as Commissioner, Magadh Division, Gaya; Harjot Karu Bamhara as Principal Secretary, Science and Technology; Jitendra Shrivastava as Secretary, PHE.
Jammu & Kashmir cadre has been appointed Secretary, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), with the rank and pay of Additional Secretary.
Rajni Sekhari Sibal The 1986 batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre has been appointed Additional Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs.
RK Chaturvedi The 1987 batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre has been appointed Member Administration in National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
M Lakshminarayana The 1987 batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre has been appointed Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister of Karnataka.
Vijay Kumar Dev The 1987 batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre has been appointed as Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), NCT of Delhi.
Satya Gopal The 1988 batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre has been appointed Chief Secretary of Arunachal Pradesh.
Rakesh Sarwal The 1988 batch IAS officer of the Tripura
Moving On: IAS officers retiring in June 2018 Assam-Meghalaya
Maharashtra
Uttar Pradesh
Kapil Dev Tripathi (1980) Chohan Doley (2000) Barun Bhuyan (2002)
RG Kulkarni (2000) Subhash D. Lakhe (2004)
Anil Swarup (1981) Rajiv Kumar I (1981) Dinesh Singh (1982) Dinesh Kumar Singh (2000) Narendra Kumar Singh (2002) Ram Vishal Mishra (2002) Jai Prakash Sagar (2002) Sitaram Yadav (2002) Anita Srivastava (2005)
Andhra Pradesh
Manipur Limneikim Singson (2005)
B Ramanjaneyulu (1995)
Madhya Pradesh
Bihar Birendra Kumar (2006) Naushad Yusuf (2006)
Basant Pratap Singh (1984) Ajatshatru Srivastava (1996) Narayan Pd. Daheria (2001)
Gujarat
Odisha
RG Bhalara (2005)
Prashanta Kumar Nayak (1984) Ashok MR Dalawai (1984) Ananda Chandra Sial (2002)
Jammu & Kashmir Kifayat Hussain Rizvi (2002)
Union Territory JB Singh (2000) G Theva Neethi Dhas (2002)
West Bengal Ujjal Kumar Sengupta (2004)
Tamil Nadu Leena Nair (1982)
Kerala Paul Antony (1983)
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57
Tracking
For a complete list of appointments & retirements, see www.gfilesindia.com
The President, Shri Ram Nath Kovind with the all-women crew of INSV Tarini on completion of their voyage of circumnavigation of the globe, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on June 01, 2018. The Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba is also seen.
cadre has been appointed Additional Secretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare.
Anjali Bhawara The 1988 batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre has been appointed Additional Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Juthikar Patankar The 1988 batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre has been appointed Director General, National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD).
K Sanjay Murthy The 1989 batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre has been appointed Joint Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
Devesh Chaturvedi The 1989 batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre has been appointed Joint Secretary, Department of Agriculture,
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gfiles inside the government vol. 12, issue 3 | June 2018
Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare.
Sunil Bharthwal The 1989 batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre has been appointed Joint Secretary of Economic Affairs. He is a 1989 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre.
Lok Ranjan The 1989 batch IAS officer of the
reshuffle of IAS officers in Tamil Nadu Sandeep Naduri has been appointed Collector, Tirunelveli; N Venkatesh has been appointed Additional State Project Director for Implementation of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan; Ashish Vachhani as Secretary, Planning and Development; K Nagarajan has been appointed Commissioner of Archaeology; Santosh K Misra has been appointed MD, Tamil Nadu Warehousing Corporation.
Tripura cadre has been appointed Joint Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training.
Govind Mohan The 1989 batch IAS officer of the Sikkim cadre has been appointed Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Bhushan Gagarani The 1990 batch IAS officer has been appointed Principal Secretary to Maharashtra Chief Minister.
Punya Salila Srivastava The 1993 batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre has been appointed Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs.
Deepti Umashankar The 1993 batch IAS officer has been appointed Chairperson, Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC), Panchkula, in addition to her present duties.
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The President, Shri Ram Nath Kovind with the Officer Trainees of the Indian Foreign Service (2017 Batch) from Foreign Service Institute, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on June 06, 2018.
HR Srinivas
Sreekanth T
J Ganesan
The 1996 batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre has been appointed Secretary, Election-cum- Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar.
The 2004 batch IAS officer of the Union Territory cadre has been appointed Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The 2006 batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre has been appointed Director, New & Renewable Energy in Haryana.
Asheesh Sharma The 1997 batch IAS officer of the Maharashtra cadre has been appointed Member Finance in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Bhawna Garg The 1999 batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre has been appointed DDG at Joint Secretary, UIDAI, Regional Office, Chandigarh.
N Ashok Kumar The 2004 batch IAS officer of the Manipur cadre has been appointed OSD to Dr. Satya Pal Singh, Minister of State for Human Resources Development.
Reshuffle of IAS officers in Himachal Pradesh Srikant Baldi has been appointed Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister; Manisha Nanda has been appointed ACS (PWD), Financial Commissioner (Revenue) and Principal Resident Commissioner, Delhi with additional charge of ACS (Information and Public Relations); Anil Khachi has been appointed ACS Finance and Planning; BK Aggarwal as ACS, Home and Vigilance and also Health and Family Welfare; Tarun Kapoor as ACS Power and Forest with additional charge of the state electricity board.
Nagargoje Madan Vibhishan The 2007 batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre has been appointed Deputy Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection in Madhya Pradesh.
Kumar Ravikant Singh The 2008 batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre has been appointed Private Secretary to S S Ahluwalia, Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation.
Amarpal Singh The 2009 batch IAS officer has been appointed Additional Commissioner (Revenue), Sagar division in Madhya Pradesh.
Ved Prakash The 2009 batch IAS officer of the Madhya
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59
Tracking
For a complete list of appointments & retirements, see www.gfilesindia.com
Hon’ble Vice President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Dignataries on Dais and 15 Awardees of Malti Gyan Peeth Puraskar-2018 during Group Photograph
Pradesh cadre has been appointed Collector, Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh.
Ashok Chandra The 2009 batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre has been appointed Special Secretary to the Uttar Pradesh Governor.
Kamdambari Balkwade The 2010 batch IAS officer of the Maharashtra cadre has been appointed Collector, Gondia in Maharashtra.
Pavan Kumar Malapati The 2012 batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre has been appointed Deputy Secretary, Finance Department (Budget & Resources).
Chandrashekhar Nayaka L The 2013 batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre has been appointed Deputy Secretary-3, Finance Department in Karnataka.
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NC Asthana The 1986 batch IPS officer of the Kerala cadre has been appointed Additional Director General BSF.
AK Sharma The 1987 batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre has been appointed Additional Director at the CBI headquarters in New Delhi.
Amar Kumar Pandey The 1989 batch IPS officer has been appointed Additional Director General of Police, Intelligence, Bengaluru, Karnataka.
SCL Das The 1992 batch IPS officer of the Union Territory cadre has been appointed Joint Secretary IS (I) in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
GS Malik The 1993 batch IPS officer of the Gujarat
cadre has been appointed Inspector General in Border Security Force (BSF) on deputation.
Sandeep Patil The 2004 batch IPS officer has been appointed Deputy Inspector General of Police, Intelligence, Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Nitin Tiwari The 2007 batch IPS officer has been appointed Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Subhash Ashutosh The 1986 batch IFS officer of the Maharashtra cadre has been appointed Director General, Forest Survey of India, Dehradun.
Pankaj Saran The 1982 batch IFS officer has been appointed Deputy National Security Advisor.
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...by the way No Trust, No Respect
F
or the past four months, the fierce fighting between the civil servants of Delhi and Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, has continued. There is a stand-still kind of a situation. The Chief Minister’s office and civil servants work on mutual trust and respect. But in Delhi both these traits are non-existent. IAS AGMUT Association says there’s no strike; work is on with “written communications”. However, Kejriwal doesn’t wish to issue written orders; officials don’t want to work on the basis of verbal orders. Kejriwal devised a new idea; he and his deputy CM, Manish Sisodia, and two other cabinet ministers, spent the night in the waiting room of the Lt. Governor’s residence, and protested against what they claimed was the LG’s inaction to end the bureaucrats’ strike. “In the history of independent India, this is the first time that IAS officers have gone on strike for four months. Why?” — Kejriwal tweeted. IAS AGMUT Association strongly refuted the charges, and said that no officer has been on strike subsequent to the assault on Delhi Chief Secretary at midnight on February 19, 2018. In a statement, the Association said that the officers “continue to work with full vigour and dedication, in fact, many times even on holidays”. Kejriwal issued a statement citing various examples of work getting halted due to the non-cooperation of the officers. He named the officers and described how they were not co-operating, not even returning the phone calls of the ministers concerned. The IAS officers, however, say that they are regularly attending the offices. “However, the officers are not attending routine meetings called by the Ministers and the CM. The AGMUT association says that the CM and the Ministers have failed to give any assurance regarding the safety, security, dignity and respect of the officers, including the women officials. “Due to the genuine apprehensions in the mind of officials, we are constrained to have interaction with the Ministers only by means of written communications”, the Association of the AGMUT cadre IAS officers said in its statement. Kejriwal has to nurture his constituency, so he went to LG’s house, and spent the night in the waiting room. He issued pictures to the press. g
www.indianbuzz.com
Perturbed UP Civil Servants
C
ivil servants in UP are a perturbed lot. The reason: transfer and suspension spree in the state on one pretext or the other. The Chief Minister recently suspended District Magistrate, Gonda JB Singh, and DM Fatehpur, Kumar Prashant, over food grain scam, and non-purchase of wheat. Along with them, 10 junior officers were suspended. While issuing the suspension order, the Chief Minister said in a statement that the action was taken to send a strong message that this government will not spare even senior officials for any irregularities. While the controversy was being hotly debated in Lucknow, UP Governor, Ram Naik, wrote to Yogi Adityanath, and informed him about a complaint against his Principal Secretary, SP Goel, who allegedly demanded a bribe of `25 lakh to provide land for road-widening to set up a petrol pump in Hardoi. A national newspaper broke the story without verifying the facts with the concerned officer. In the article, Goel refuted the charge, stating, “This is ridiculous. I received the file only after the governor’s letter was received. I recused myself, did not deal with the case, and informed the chief minister about the same.” He added, “I am not aware of any decision taken on the issue.” A day after Adityanath suspended the two IAS officers, a delegation of the Uttar Pradesh IAS Association met Chief Secretary, Rajiv Kumar, and requested him to withdraw the suspension letters, as due procedure was not followed while issuing it. Secretary, UP IAS Association, Alok Kumar said that the delegation put forward the facts to prove that the two IAS officers were suspended in violation of the Service Rules. Thus, the order should be withdrawn. Corruption in UP is rampant, but the CM could have sought other ways to create adequate checks and balances. g
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...by the way
Strengthening the NSA’s Office
F
ew officers in the government are aware about the activities of the NSA’s office. It is learnt that Ajit Doval, India’s NSA, is the most trusted officer of the Prime Minister. Doval has emerged as the biggest trouble-shooter for Modi. Whether his services are needed in Dubai, Pakistan, Gulf, China or Russia, the NSA’s network comes in handy for the PMO. Doval knows the highest-level officials in these regions. His office is overloaded with work, but lacks competent officers. Thus, Modi reportedly felt the need to revamp his office. The latest appointment is of Pankaj Saran, 1982 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, as the Deputy National Security Adviser (Dy. NSA) for an initial period of two years on a deputation till the date of his retirement, i.e. November 30, 2018. Thereafter, it will be on a re-employment contract basis. Saran is presently serving as the ambassador to Russia. Earlier, he was a Joint Secretary in Manmohan Singh’s PMO. With his appointment, there will be two deputy NSAs, the other being Rajinder Khanna, a former head of India’s external intelligence agency, Research & Analysis Wing (RAW). Khanna was appointed in January 2018. The need to bring in a diplomat into the NSA was possibly felt since both Doval, and his deputy, Khanna, are former IPS officers with experiences in intelligence, not diplomacy. Significantly, some of the former NSAs such as Brajesh Mishra (19982004), JN Dixit (2004-2005) and Shivshankar Menon (2010-2014) were retired IFS officers. However, MK Narayanan (2005-2010) during UPA-1 regime was a former IPS officer. Saran also served as India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh. Yet another significance of the move is that after a long time, Modi has inculcated an officer who has worked in UPA government. g
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Modi’s foreign visit
P
rime Minister Narendra Modi is the globetrotting leader of India. He has galvanised external affairs and diplomatic relations. Diplomacy is a sensitive issue, where every moment and action indicates different nuances. Modi is aware of it. It is learnt that the PMO plans months in advance before each of the prime minister’s visits. Modi, despite his busy schedule, keeps track of the developments. He has an added advantage: even as the official machinery fine-tunes his itinerary, the backroom boys of the committed RSS diaspora keep feeding the Prime Minister. The diaspora is of great help to get social and political inputs, but diplomatic background preparation is the work of senior officials of the Ministry of External Affairs. It’s interesting to see the documents that are prepared as briefs for the Prime Minister. Every document narrates the socio, economic and political scenarios of the country he plans to visit. Apart from this, there a detailed dossier on the leader of the host country, which includes details about his or her habits, family, likes and dislikes and his association with the external world. The most interesting portion of the documents is the detailed brief related to the meetings of the two heads of states. They minutely describe which side of the PM has to take and which walk he needs to talk. The time taken for the walk, and the items to be discussed during the walk, are sketched out. Even the breakfast, lunch and dinner details are typed and highlighted for the PM’s ready reference. The officials in the external affairs ministry are cautious to mention the points, which should not crop up during the meetings. In case, the host leader puts such subjects on the discussion table, the PM’s proposed responses are mentioned. g
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