Scheduled caste officers get their due in Bihar
Even as tales of discrimination against SC/ST officers abound at the centre, Bihar presents a different story. Since 2005 when Nitish Kumar came to power, IAS officers from the reserved category have...
View ArticlePresident Pranab acknowledges political presssure on babus
Intro: Advises them to be patient with politicians and tell them what cannot be done That bureaucrats face political pressure has been acknolwedged by none other than president Pranab Mukherjee....
View ArticleHow to avoid scams: a quick guide for babus
Intro: These days, as bureaucrats join ministers in hitting headlines for wrong reasons, diligently following norms and best practices of decision-making Are scams babu made? If a ‘competent...
View ArticleConfessions of a bureaucrat
Intro: How vested interests scuttle policy implementation The author is a government officer who prefers to remain anonymous.read more
View ArticleSC aligns Art. 32, postings of babus, RTI, paper trail
Intro: In an overdue attack on India’s notorious transfer-posting raj, the apex court has done what government should have on its own: given babudom its last chance to regain trust of the citizenry...
View ArticleSC rejects PIL against poodle culture in IAS, IPS
Intro: Day after directing the Union and states to form Civil Services Boards and ensure stability of tenure for babus; the apex court Friday refused to stop their rampant extensions and post-retiral...
View ArticleHow to get governance going, plug policy paralysis
Intro: Six reasons for policy paralysis and five ways to deal with itFor the last few quarters, India has experienced two ‘strikes’ that have set it back by many years: the ‘decision-making strike’ by...
View ArticleRemembering Nitish Sengupta
Intro: Sengupta, who died of cardiac failure on Nov 3, was a rare combination of an academician, administrator and politicianAs a journalist, you get to meet a lot of people. And there are some who...
View ArticleIAS RIP: Six reasons to bury the steel frame
Intro: Crawling at the whims of the political master when mere bending would do, the Indian bureaucracy is already being labelled the ‘bamboo frame’ by some – and not quite incorrectly at that...
View ArticleMinister and the babu, and the disappearing lakshman rekha
Intro: Are bureaucrats making too much if the fear of decision-making? Is there a way out?Dateline: new delhi So, the top bureaucracy of India has decided not to decide anymore. As Shailesh Pathak, a...
View ArticleHow can you not love bureaucrats!
Intro: Every time I go home to India I collect red tape like kids collect shells on a beach I love the bureaucracy.However, would I have let my daughters marry one? Now, that’s a loaded question.Every...
View ArticleThe PM isn't a robot; shrewd he could be!
As an insider to the sanctum sanctorum of power, the cabinet secretary, India’s senior-most civil servant, has post-retirement sinecures for the asking.BK Chaturvedi, who was the first to serve in that...
View Article'Catch them old,' a mango man's manifesto for AAP
Intro: UPSC has tweaked the maximum age for applicants to IAS and other civil services this year to 32. This pushed the age bar to 37 for some reserved categories and 42 for others. Clearly, the Aam...
View ArticleSudhir Krishna vs. FM isn't about bad English
Intro: The designation of ‘Secretary to the Government of India’ is outdated. Secretaries today are picked up, beholden and dependent on their ministers. So, they should stop living in a time-wrap...
View ArticleSanjaya inside the PM's chamber!
Intro: The man I know and why he’s probably the fittest man to have written the controversial book on Manmohan Singh and UPA1 Legend has it that Sanjaya Baru’s mom wanted her son to be a journalist....
View ArticleLittle change in legal shield for corruption
Intro: SC removes immunity for 250-odd top bureaucrats but departmental sanction is still needed The more things change, the more they remain the same. This truism can be aptly applied to the working...
View ArticleSingle directive struck down
Intro: Implications of the Supreme Court verdict: more freedom for CBI to act against corruption The media has reported the latest judgment of the Supreme Court (Constitution bench of 5 judges)...
View ArticleGood governance: a 'Modi doctrine' is still missing
Of the three elements of good governance, prime minister Narendra Modi has touched on two, and must now complete the triad.The meeting of the PM with the 77 secretaries closely followed the pledge in...
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