COVER STORY | Should a civil servant join politics? | by prabhat kumar

elections 2014 prabhat kumar

Should a civil servant join politics?

While there may be a couple of exceptions, as a thumb rule, the roles of a civil servant and a politician are radically different and should be kept separate

Hurtling towards the watershed Lok Sabha elections, the country is witnessing a growing trend of retired civil servants joining the ranks of political parties. While it should not be difficult to guess their intentions as they know what power is all about, the question is whether it is appropriate for civil servants to join politics... Read More

COVER STORY | Civil servants as political masters! | By mg devasahayam

elections 2014 mg devasahayam

Civil servants as political masters!

Of late, the herd mentality has taken over and many civil servants are queuing up to grab a chance of getting a Lok Sabha ticket and becoming MPs, MLAs and ministers!

Decades ago, when I entered the portals of the National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, as an IAS Probationer, the first principle drummed into my ears was: “You are a civil servant. You are only to be seen, not heard.” .. Read More

COVER STORY | Taking the plunge | by Neeraj Mahajan

elections 2014

Taking the plunge

There are those who choose to opt for politics after retirement and then there are some who leave a career midway to serve the nation in a different avatar

byNeeraj Mahajan

The debate is on: should civil servants looking to join politics soon after retirement or quitting service be allowed to do so without any cooling-off period? Read More

STATE SCAN | Hooda regime’s ‘land grabbing’ under attack | by Rakesh Bhatnagar

real estate haryana

Hooda regime’s ‘land grabbing’ under attack

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has passed severe strictures on the Hooda government, saying the ulterior object is to enable private builders

byRakesh Bhatnagar

|The Supreme Court held in 2011 that in the name of globalisation and development, the government is transforming poor land owners into marginalised people by acquiring their “mother earth”. .. Read More

From the editor

What kind of India did we dream of? The vision statement (read manifesto) of political parties is a dream-selling document, but the answer to the above question is blurred by the lust of political masters to capture power by any means. India has become the most venerable market in the world. Manmohanomics has changed the dynamics of the economy. Three decades ago, agriculture was a major contributor to India’s GDP. The current standing is: agriculture 17.2 per cent.. Read More

GOVERNANCE | Meddling with national security? | by MG Devasahayam

security propaganda

Meddling with national security?

Corruption and treason are the worst forms of threat to national security.
Are we sure that this combine is not in place in India?

bymgdevasahayam

Some weeks ago, a group of Kashmiri students in Meerut were slapped with sedition charges just because they cheered the Pakistani cricket team when it won a match against India in the Asia Cup. Some months ago, sedition cases were registered against hundreds of fisherfolk in the coastal villages of southern Tamil Nadu... Read More 

GOVERNANCE | Making an organisation tick | By ashwani lohani

growth ashwani lohani

Making an organisation tick

The operating ratio of an organisation is the single most important pointer of excellence

Organisational excellence is the need of the hour, and I wonder what excellence in organisations is really all about... Read More

FIRST STIRRINGS | ‘You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching’ | by Shailaja Chandra

shovananarayan

‘You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching’

by Shailaja Chandra

  

Finding an unusual retired woman civil servant proved to be a challenge. Some have achieved high visibility but I needed a compelling story, not a list of achievements. And then the name of Kathak maestro Shovana Narayan, recipient of Padma Shri (1992) and until 2011 a full-time member of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service... Read More

INITIATIVE | Consequences of high and low EQ | By dalip singh

workplace dalip singh

Consequences of high and low eq

You may not be able to choose many of the events in your life, but you can choose how to react to them. You are responsible for your thoughts, emotions and consequential actions. Your emotional response, as is generally believed, is not your destiny but your own conscious decision. How you use your emotions to tackle day-to-day problems is what reflects the amount of EQ you have. Since EQ is important, it is necessary to know the consequences of having a low or high EQ...Read More

ADVERTISING | Whither Advertising Agency? | By gopinath menon

trends gopinath menon

Whither Advertising Agency?

The unfortunate erosion of advertising agencies in India

As a college student at the University of Delhi, I always looked at the world of advertising as a factory for building dreams. Ads fascinated me and hence I had a curiosity to know more about the people who created them and ensured that they were seen by many. I also was one of the fortunate ones to have joined the profession in the late1980s.... Read More

MY CORNER | Transparent Judiciary Need of the hour | By amitabh thakur

judiciary amitabh thakur

Transparent Judiciary Need of the hour

For fear of contempt of court, grievances against the judiciary are either not aired or not redressed

Contempt of court! These three words every judge would love to use whenever he feels that the person in front of him, or even if not physically standing in front of the judge, is going beyond the limits prescribed through law and numerous.. Read More

SILLY POINT | A secret interview withRahul Gandhi | By mk kaw

humour mk kaw

A secret interview withRahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi gave a TV interview to Arnab Goswami. His performance was widely condemned. Since then, Rahul has been advised to avoid TV anchors like the plague. Had I been a TV anchor, this is how I'd expect it to go. This interview was dreamt of before the distribution of tickets.. Read More

STOCK DOCTOR | Keep an eye on the risks

dr gs sood

Keep an eye on the risks

By the time you will read this column, the election process would be well under way. What is encouraging about the way this election is being fought is the dominance of issues relating to management of the economy and governance instead of caste and religion. How the market reacts may be a different matter altogether.... Read More

PERSPECTIVE | Faith is not cultivated

faith sadhguru

Faith is not cultivated

A lament one often hears is that today’s generation is not religious, that it does not share the same beliefs of an earlier generation.

I personally wish there were more youth who did not believe! It is an unfortunate situation in the world when the youth believe what their fathers say... Read More

Bric-a-brac

feats & seats

Hot seat in Gujarat
anandiben patel leads the fray

A certain political strategist within the BJP feels that Narendra Modi should have resigned as Chief Minister and then campaigned for the Prime Ministership but admitted it is not an easy decision, not only for Modi but also for the BJP and RSS to immediately relieve a strong Chief Minister.... Read More

Bric-a-brac

feats & seats

Parliament, here I come
chidambaram a step ahead

Do you think PC Chidambaram will be out of Parliament 2014? No, as a shrewd politician, he has already envisioned the roadmap of his political journey. The Karnataka Assembly has to elect four Rajya Sabha MPs in June 2014.... Read More

Bric-a-brac

feats & seats

Dost dost na raha

venod sharma, hooda part company

One can buy almost everything but no one can buy reputation—once it is gone, it is gone forever. This reflects the situation of Haryana’s Venod Sharma. He did everything to emerge as a political personality in the State, but no political party cared for him... Read More

Bric-a-brac

feats & seats

Man for all seasons
jaswant battles on in barmer

Jaswant Singh, a former Defence, Finance and External Affairs Minister, is a very sensitive man. He is fighting his last political battle in Barmer in Rajasthan. He was silently active within the BJP for the last four-five months and could never have dreamed that Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh would not let him contest as a BJP candidate from Barmer.. Read More

Bric-a-brac

feats & seats

Honestly speaking
an anecdote from khushwant singh

Writer Khushwant Singh used to go to Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh as soon as the summer set in. Though this is an old anecdote, it is about him and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Khushwant not only used to write about political personalities... Read More

...by the way

His Master’s Voice

No Chief Minister does any “real” work by himself. In every Chief Minister’s office, there are pawns who implement the desires and wishes of the master. Haryana is no exception. Mahender Singh Chopra is the Man Friday of Bhupinder Singh Hooda. ..Read More

...by the way

Inner democracy!

We all know that the bureaucracy is like a tight-knit family with little space for outsiders. If left to their designs, no outsider would enter the system. At the receiving end this time was Pankaj Pachauri, the well known TV personality..Read More

...by the way

Figurative exercise

There is always a lot of discussion on the poor recovery from the Customs and Central Excise Department, but nobody has pondered till now why the department is unable to collect the targeted revenue. Officials working in the department claim that if an opportunity is given to them, they can collect taxes on par with the Central Board of Direct Taxes..Read More

...by the way

Ups and downs

Most departments are in status quo mode till the elections are over but not the Finance Ministry where a lot of changes are taking place. Nobody was expecting any changes at the Secretary level till the new Lok Sabha. The term of Sumit Bose, Revenue Secretary, was likely to be extended but suddenly Rajiv Takru..Read More