Surveillance state? Have we entered the era of mass surveillance with little oversight? The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued an order authorising 10 Central agencies to intercept, monitor, and decrypt “any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer.” The order, signed by Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, gives a licence to snoop […]
The Modi sarkar has perceptibly slowed down in the last leg of its tenure. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to streamline the functioning of the government, it has had mixed results. While the 360-degree evaluation system is now well established, Mr Modi is having significantly more trouble trying to induct outside talent to […]
The Modi sarkar, also buffeted by the adverse assembly election results, wants to move on from the Urijit Patel era without delay. So barely a day after Urijit resigned as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the government appointed former finance secretary Shaktikanta Das as the new RBI chief. The resignation of Urijit […]
No extension for Hasmukh Adhia? Despite earlier rumours, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, due to retire this month-end, is unlikely to get an extension. In the past governments usually, extend the tenure of secretaries in the Finance Ministry if their tenure is ending close to the presentation of the Union Budget. In Mr Adhia’s case, sources […]
Modi’s security strategy In the last lap of the Modi sarkar before the 2019 general elections, the government is effecting a major revamp of the national security architecture. Over the past few months, the government has constituted the Defence Planning Committee (DPC), increased the budget for the National Security Council Secretariat, and reconstituted the Strategic […]
More power to J&K babus Imposition of Governor’s rule in Jammu & Kashmir has come as a welcome fillip for state cadre officials, who find themselves holding key posts in the administration. Former chief secretary B.B. Vyas, a 1986-batch IAS officer of the J&K cadre, is back in the saddle as Advisor to the Governor. […]
Tough on corruption Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath who is running a campaign against corruption has reportedly sought the records of over 100 officials, including IAS, IPS and state service, whose names have figured in corruption cases. Sources say that at least 300 officials and employees of the state government are under the CM’s […]
Babu challenges lateral entry Not everyone’s enthused about the Centre’s decision to allow lateral entry in the government at the joint secretary-level on a contractual basis. As expected, the babus are less than enthusiastic about the proposal. Now a retired IAS officer has moved the Supreme Court against the decision. Claiming that the decision is […]
R&AW hits headlines It’s quite understandable that the nation’s premier intelligence agency does not make it into the news. But, of late, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) has crept into the headlines. Currently, the buzz surrounds the release of a book by former R&AW chief Vikram Sood, who has some advice for the powers […]
Non-cooperation blues The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and the Board of National Cooperatives Consumers Federation, the apex consumer co-op body, differ on who has the authority to appoint the Managing Director of the apex consumer cooperative body. Their differences came to the fore when the Ministry appointed a joint secretary Anil […]