The Indian meteorological department (IMD) has been the object of ridicule for long. With a series of inaccurate predictions, including its failure to predict three droughts (2002, 2004 and 2009), the department’s reputation was in tatters. October 12, a black day for Odisha, changed all that, inadvertently becoming a red-letter day for the Met department. Often questioned for cr
As secretary to the government of Arunachal Pradesh, Gaken Ete is holding charge of two departments: information technology and water resources and development. When he joined as the IT secretary in 2012, Ete meticulously planned the execution of e-governance and telecommunications projects. In the past, the IT department had run into trouble for allocating work of few e-governance projects to
Tariq Anwar quit the Congress in 1999 to join Sharad Pawar in founding the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Today he is the only representative of Bihar in the union council of ministers (he hails from Bihar, though currently he represents Maharashtra in Rajya Sabha). In an exclusive interview with Bhavdeep Kang, Anwar discusses the NCP-Congress ties, the Bihar scenar
Engineering from Mumbai University, MBA in finance from London Business School, corporate honcho in Siemens and Google, and then a straight dive into municipal politics. Now 38, Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon councillor Nisha Singh zooms in on the outsider-turned-insider perspective of politics and tells Srishti Pandey why and how sitting on the cryptic fence is not going to change our lives.
The National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) is an attempt to bring broadband connectivity to the remotest corners of the country by connecting 2,50,000 gram panchayats in a network. To oversee the project, a special purpose vehicle, Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), was created. Under it three agencies, BSNL, Power Grid Corporation of India and Railtel, were chosen as the implementing enti
Abhayanand, who took over as Bihar police chief in August 2011, has been looking at some out-of-the-box ideas to curb crime, corruption and black money. In an interview with Pankaj Kumar, he explains his theory: if economic crimes are committed for sake of money, and criminals get away with it by exploiting loopholes, then the solution is in making crime unprofitable. He has fo
In India the conventional media, especially print, is still growing well, but media futurist Gerd Leonhard has a word of caution for this sector. He says India may face the Brazilian situation tomorrow. The South American country was also witnessing the same story until last year when the middle class switched to new media such as the internet and newspapers became obsolete. The Swiss e
RK Dubey took over as Canara Bank chairman early this year bang in the middle of a slowdown. But a few months into his stewardship, his bank made bold to drop its lending rate to 9.95% because of “better efficiencies” while others hung on to rates of 10% and 10.25%. In this interview with B V Rao and Imran Qureshi, he talks about the challenges befo
Can you enumerate key outcomes (from citizens` perspective) of decades of e-governance initiatives in Maharashtra? From citizens` perspective, it is convenience. They should be able to avail government services with the least number of trips to the government office without paying bribes and within a given time frame. Wh
Ratings agencies perform the critical function of assessing the fundamentals and future prospects of corporate houses that continuously seek to raise money from privat e investors or the public. That puts the onus on ratings agencies to get their systems of governance right, both within their own companies and the companies they assess. How do they do it? How do they ensure a rating or grading
Security concerns regarding online data and records are rising with each passing day, and the situation is set to stay that way in times to come. The problem is compounded by newer technologies being introduced: while on one hand may make life easier, they also make security more vulnerable. Altaf Halde, managing director (South Asia) of Kaspersky, a Russian multinational computer secur
Dr Ami Bera is a self-made man and pursued what is called the American Dream. Son of an Indian immigrant couple from Rajkot in Gujarat, Bera is the only Indian American currently serving in the Congress, and third after Dilip Singh Saund and Bobby Jindal to be from the community in the House. During the last week of August, he made his first trip to India after being elected to the House of Rep
Ratings agencies perform the critical function of assessing the fundamentals and future prospects of corporate houses that continuously seek to raise money from private investors or the public. That puts the onus on ratings agencies to get their systems of governance right, both within their own companies and the companies they assess. How do they do it? How do they ensure a rating or grading r
Set up in 2007, Central Railside Warehouse Company (CRWC) is a young organisation by public sector standards. Coming under the department of food and public distribution, the ministry of consumer affairs, it develops and constructs warehouses with the railways for storage of food and other products. The idea is to reduce the logistic expenses and benefit industries. Starting with Bangalore, CRW
Delhi finance and power secretary Shakti Sinha, a 1979 batch IAS officer of AGMUT cadre, has had an exciting three-decade career. He served on the board of World Bank, advising it on several projects related to developing countries, and worked with the Afghanistan government, helping it prepare national development strategies. He also served as joint secretary to former prime minister Atal
Amitabh Kant, CEO and MD, Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Limited, tells Governance Now how the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor development corporation (DMICDC) is implementing the country`s most ambitious project: the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor. Building 24 cities from scratch along a 1,483-km railway track, if successfully implemented, the corridor will be Indi
In conversation with Pankaj Kumar, former Punjab director general of police KPS Gill, the man known for eliminating terrorism from Punjab, says what is happening between the two agencies poses a threat to the national security. The CBI is blaming the IB and the two agencies seem to be acting against each other. Don’t you think
From military to corporate sector, ‘scenario planning’ is the in concept now. More so since the 12th five-year plan incorporated possible scenarios to project and forecast the India story. Arun Maira, member of the planning commission and the man behind this idea, stressed on three scenarios so far as the Indian economy is concerned. First, he said, is ‘meddling along&
Dr Arun Gupta, a member of the prime minister’s national council on nutrition, who challenged the market-led solutions provided by the Lancet to tackle the problem of under-nutrition, wonders why the private sector needs to handle issues on the malnutrition front. Edited excerpts: Why are you opposed to this study? We are actually challenging its
Let’s begin with the India story. The last few years have been depressing for the economy. As a rating agency that looks at individual companies – I know you don’t do country ratings – you have a sense of where it is all headed. How is it telling on the investment climate and mood? From a rating agency’s perspective, is it really that depressing or are we o
