Law & the jungle Environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan’s crackdown on corrupt officials in the forest department has babu circles buzzing. Though barely two months old in the ministry, Ms Natarajan has already acted against three senior forest officials. The most recent instance is the transfer of an inspector general of forests, C.D. Singh, […]
Pressure tactics It’s not surprising to learn that babus spare no efforts to wrangle a stint abroad. The chief attraction of course is the special allowance which can range from Rs 70,000 per month to Rs 1.15 lakh per month. But the Ministry for External Affairs (MEA) is clearly unhappy with the situation since it […]
Banking on corporates Although final licensing may still be some time away, there is much excitement in Dilli over the prospect of granting new banking licences. With corporate majors like Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra, AV Birla and L&T among those publicly hopeful of entering the banking sector, the suspense is naturally high. Industrial houses have […]
Performance pain Wonder how this will sit with the Finance Minister’s revived austerity drive. Mounting government expenditure has have made Pranab-da issue a circular on austerity to be observed by Central government ministries, a throwback to the situation in 2008-09. But it’s not clear whether the austerity drive will now put a stop to performance […]