With monsoon playing hide and seek the government has taken major step to control food inflation by appointing a full-time chairman and managing director of Food Corporation of India. The FCI facil
Sanjiv Chaturvedi, the Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer who has emerged as a whistle-blower, has won a battle, as the centre has finally approved his long-pending cadre transfer. The app
With friends like this, Narendra Modi does not need enemies. Subramanian Swamy has tasted success and he is continuing his nation-building mission with all the more zeal.
Is Modi`s `snub` to Swamy too late, now t
With the union cabinet having accorded its approval to the recommendations of the 7th Pay Co
The Lokpal law that was enacted after decades of debate and demand for an anti-corruption institution was dealt a severe blow as an amendment bill was introduced and passed by parliament in l
On Independence Day, we heard the PM saying that his government’s motto is to reform, perform and transform. Also, on September 1, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote, “Ind
In the politico-administrative set up of India, executives are a vital part and have been empowered to formulate policies and implement them for the welfare of the people. Executives are of t
‘Three Year Action Agenda’, a document prepared by the NITI Aayog and released for public consultation on April 27, devotes a chapter on ‘Government’, with the government th
A senior bureaucrat, apparently much respected among the administrative circles, faces two years in jail. His crime: a decision that may have come from the political leadership
Uttar Pradesh has been advised by Niti Aayog to trim its bureaucracy to streamline functioning and boost efficiency, a civil service reform initiative that needs to be urgently undertaken across
As Ram Nath Kovind readies to take charge as president, the government is forming his team, naming three officials. Ashok Malik, former journalist and comment
Government projects typically suffer from time overrun and cost overrun. There appears to be no project management discipline, and extension of time and escalation of cost rarely attract the kind o
Continuing as a bureaucrat just got a lot tougher with the government weeding out the incompetent and taking action against 381 civil services officers, including 24 who were from the Indian Admi
A single adverse entry in the annual confidential report (ACR) of a government official can be enough to ruin a promising career. Many officials decide to take premature retirement as their chanc
Gone are the days of Lal Bahadur Shastri, Madhav Rao Scindia and Nitish Kumar who hogged the limelight and even moral space by resigning after train accidents that claimed human lives. Railway mi
L`affaire Antrix Devas no longer makes newspaper headlines, but little snippets about it keep surfacing periodically. It has a strange history, starting from 2003, has seen three PMOs and two
We recently witnessed the shameful spectacle of a tribal girl’s death from starvation due to her inability to link her Aadhaar to her ration card. Once the media got hold of the story, all
In a country where a sense of entitlement comes naturally for a bureaucrat, if a civil servant – especially a veteran – displays even little bit of humility it is sure enough to garner
The unfortunate event last week raises the question whether the supreme court decision on powers and accountability of the Delhi government will really settle matters. Even as the de
If you want to know why the Narendra Modi government`s proposal for lateral entry of experts into the hallowed precincts of the Indian Administration Service has kicked up such a row, this anecdote
As a nervous, young IAS aspirant in 1977, I remember being thrilled to see my name in the newspapers when the list of successful candidates was published. Indeed, I was hoping to be allotted my hom
In 1988, at the peak of the Rajiv Gandhi-VP Singh face-off fuelled by media exposes, the most respected editor of those times, Girilal Jain, wrote a comment in The Times of India with the hea
The recent DoPT advertisement inviting applications for 10 posts of joint secretaries has generated a disproportionate amount of controversy. The government has justified the lateral induction of
Skeletons, if kept in the cupboards of investigative agencies, are bound to tumble out much sooner than later. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is no exception. The corridors of the CBI he
The Steel Frame of the government machinery was forged by the Iron Man. The phrase that has come to describe the Indian bureaucracy was coined by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, when he addressed the fir
The recent conviction of former coal secretary Harish Chandra Gupta and other officers by a CBI court in a case relation to allocation of a coal block in West Bengal has raised many questions relat
The Razor’s Edge, a 1944 novel by Somerset Maugham, explores the dichotomy between materialism and spirituality. The title is derived from a line of Katha Upanishad: “The sharp edge of
Shouting vengeance at all and sundry while wriggling out of holes of our own making seems to be our very special national characteristic. Some recent instances are illustrative of this attribute. A
The question of reform of the civil services has been debated extensively at all levels at least over the last five to six decades after independence. Indeed, it was soon perceived that the Indian
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bureaucracy but Were Afraid to Ask By T.R. Raghunandan Penguin Books, 272 pages, Rs 399 T.R. Ragh
Demobilization, like its predecessor – demonetization, is another decision gone bad in implementation. In both instances a careful public administrative action through its governance sy
Fear is the Indian bureaucrat’s best friend. As the fear of Covid-19 grips people, an opportunity has arisen—for the regulatory inspectors to make the country dance to their tunes. Taki
A large section of the youngsters wishing to make a career in the government sector will not have to face a lot of hurdles as the cabinet has moved forward with a major reform in the recruitment pr
The education industry has been taken over by the mafia who are eating into the essentials of the system, says Anil Swarup, retired IAS officer, who also served as school education secretary.
Blaming the ‘health bureaucracy’ for mishandling the Covid-19 response, failure of vaccination drive and lack of proper communication, Mohandas Pai, chairman, Aarin Capital Partners, an
Raphael Lemkin`s discourse on genocide followed by a UN debate on issues like Nazi offences against Jews, the sordid tale of Bosnian Serb aggression against Bosnian Moslems, and details of the Jewi
Our hearts almost skipped a beat when we heard community health officer (CHO) Dr. Sandeep Kakuste’s success story with baby Pinki Lakhan Patil, who was born underweight in a brick kiln. Pinki
Decorated IAS officer and BMC commissioner-administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal has been empanelled to the rank of Secretary to the Government of India. Chahal has been credited with con
A two-week capacity building programme in the field administration for civil servants of Bangladesh was inaugurated at the Mussoorie-based National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) on Tuesday.
Over Rs. 254 crore has been earned so far from disposal of scrap during a short period of three weeks of the ongoing Special Swachhta campaign 2.0, while 37.19 lakh square feet of space has been cl
“Why is the child growing?” is the question that bothers a lot many in the administration. The answer, to be honest, is to be discovered via science, and less via what we call ‘ef
In pursuance of the decisions taken in the National workshop on 23.12.2022, DARPG published monthly report on “Secretariat Reforms” for January, 2023. The Report is available at
The Indian President: An Insider’s Account of the Zail Singh Years By K.C. Singh HarperCollins, 312 pages, Rs.699
Transforming the Steel Frame: Promise and Paradox of Civil Service Reform Edited by Vinod Rai Rupa, 256 pages, Rs 595
There has been a steady decline in governance in Maharashtra – sad for a state once known for its good administration. Political instability is only one of the factors. Nothing illustrates th
In pursuance of the decisions taken in the National workshop on December 23, 2022, DARPG published monthly report on “Secretariat Reforms” for April 2023. Key highlights
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, MoS PMO, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space and MoS Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Dr Jitendra
Through the Broken Glass: An Autobiography By T.N. Seshan Rupa, 368 pages, Rs 795 Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan was a one-of-a-kind administ
How Prime Ministers Decide By Neerja Chowdhury Aleph, 608 pages, Rs 999
The union cabinet, chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, has approved to release an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to p
