Fifteen years after the Right to Information (RTI) Act came into force, does the nation have more transparency or less? The story is quite sombre. More than 2.2 lakh cases are pending at the Central and State Information Commissions. Nine out of 29 information commissions are functioning without a chief, one-fourth of information commissioner posts […]
Politicians are sometimes loath to let a favourite babu go off into retirement. They find ways to bring them back into the administration. In 2017, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had appointed retired chief secretary Suresh Kumar as his chief principal secretary, even though the state had a regular principal secretary, another IAS officer because […]
Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers trying to nab economic offenders will now get an edge after undergoing training from spooks. Officers from the nation’s premier intelligence agencies, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), have been roped in to train them in intelligence “tradecraft”. Sources say that revenue officers from the Enforcement Directorate, […]
The Narendra Modi government is pushing ahead with restructuring the Indian Railways board and services. The Cabinet recently green-lit the revamping of the powerful Railway Board that governs the railways. The board will now have five members instead of five. The present Chairman of the Board V.K. Yadav will be the first CEO of the […]
What made seven former DGPs and a police commissioner approach the Bombay High Court in the Sushant Singh Rajput case? The media’s obsession with the Sushant Singh Rajput death case has overridden the raging corona pandemic, our stalled economy and the Chinese threat on the border. After the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and sundry agencies have […]
Transparency and weeding out corruption is a big theme with the Modi sarkar, and it has doggedly pursued this goal despite pushback from the babus. Last year, the government endorsed lists of dozens of officers of the IRS and IT services accused of corruption, sexual harassment and other charges. The campaign continues. Now, as part […]
Former Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar has been named the new Election Commissioner. He replaces Ashok Lavasa, who is leaving to join the Asian Development Bank as vice-president. While Sunil Arora is the Chief Election Commissioner, the other Election Commissioner is Sushil Chandra. The importance of this announcement lies in the fact that Rajiv Kumar will […]
The appointment of former Lt Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, G.C. Murmu as India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has not been welcomed by the Indian Audit & Accounts Service (IA&AS) officers. It is being seen as yet another instance of the dominance of the IAS cadre over other all-India services. Not that it’s been […]
India will take over as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in January 2021. The government has begun preparations by deciding to upgrade India’s diplomatic presence at the UN. The Indian delegation is being strengthened with the appointment of an additional deputy permanent representative and a counsellor to solely handle Security Council […]
This looks like a nightmarish end to federalism as we know it. Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s tragic death has turned into deplorable political one-upmanship. The unprecedented face-off between Bihar Police and Mumbai Police on the investigation of the suicide, has far reaching consequences. Many experts are of the view that sending a team of […]