Who does not
know Omita Paul in New Delhi, she is the Secretary to the President of India
till July 25, 2017. She has been one of the most influential civil servants of
the decade. She stood by Pranab Mukherjee in his darkest days. It was
reportedly Omita Paul who decided who would meet the President. Even for
ceremonial functions organised within the premises of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the
invitee list used to be decided by her. Pranab will retire on July 25, 2017 and
is likely to move to Rajaji Marg, New Delhi. According to reports, President Pranab
Mukherjee’s friends are reportedly keen to launch a foundation in his name
after he demits office. This foundation is likely to propagate and educate
future generations about the ideals which the Mukherjee stood for and will also
have fellowships and encourage research papers on foreign policy, defence and
energy policy-areas on which Mukherjee has devoted his life. There will be a
faculty and many industrialists and business houses have reportedly begun to
contribute from their Corporate Social Responsibility Funds. Not surprisingly,
Omita Paul is likely to be Chief Executive Officer to drive this foundation.
Sources disclosed that another influential official of the President House, Dr.
Thomas Mathew, will also work with Paul. Those who know Omita well state that
she is very ambitious. Sources disclosed that she was aspiring to be nominated
as a Rajya Sabha member but Narendra Modi had not approved of the idea. She had
to be content with the transfer of her husband, former Delhi Police Commissioner
KK Paul, from Governor of Meghalaya to Governor of Uttarakhand.
July 10, 2017
Modi fan
Muppavarapu
Venkaiah Naidu is the most important politician in Prime Narendra Modi’s crisis
management team. He is holding dual charge of Housing and Urban Poverty
Alleviation and Information and Broadcasting Ministries. As he has been the
President of the BJP and Parliamentary Affairs Minister in the Vajpayee
government, he has an added advantage of knowing the party, parliamentarians
and the government. SO now whenever there is a crisis, Naidu is at the
forefront. Modi and he have worked earlier so they know each other’s capacities
well. In fact, Modi has visited Naidu’s residence number of times to interact
with the party leadership or to attend other social functions. On his part,
Naidu is completely overwhelmed and obsessed with the aura, dynamism and technology
driven governance of Modi. His other obsession is media. He issues a statement
almost on a daily basis and sees to it that it is printed not only in the
national papers but in his home state Andhra Pradesh as well. He recently
addressed about 100 senior officers from the three ministries at a farewell
function hosted by him on the occasion of retirement and transfer of
Secretaries concerning three of his ministries. Naidu urged the officials to
emulate Prime Minister saying, “Prime Minister is a storehouse of ideas and
fresh and innovative thinking. All that he expects from all of us is to think
and act differently. By this, what he means is innovation for higher
productivity and better results.” Naidu complimented Dr Nandita Chatterjee, who
was superannuating, for her contribution to promoting affordable housing; Rajiv
Gauba, who is to take over as Home Secretary, for pushing transformative urban
reforms; and Ajay Mittal, who is going as Secretary (Personnel), for his good
work in the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. He also welcomed new
I&B Secretary NK Sinha and new Urban Development Secretary DS Mishra.
Donating a day’s salary
When
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje decides to take up an issue, she does
it with full enthusiasm and expects the bureaucracy to follow her with full
devotion. But civil servants in Rajasthan are very low profile in nature. They
seldom take the lead. But there was no option before the state civil servants
when the Chief Minister herself ‘appealed’ to civil servants to donate one
day’s salary for the government’s programme, the Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban
Abhiyan (MJSA).
State
civil servants had to show generosity and fall in line. Director General of
Police Manoj Bhatt did not miss a chance and happily agreed to donate the
salaries of IPS officers of the state but the recently superannuated Chief
Secretary OP Meena had second thoughts and said a decision would be taken after
consultation with IAS officers. But the Chief Minister’s desire is like an
order in the state. The Finance Department did not lose time and issued orders
to deposit one day’s salary in MJSA fund. You may wonder why OP Meena was
hesitant in announcing the one-day salary donation by state civil servants.
Meena is at the fag end of his career and retired in June itself. He did not
want to be seen as the sole decision maker on behalf of his fellow
colleagues. 
Learning from the best
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi is working to change the dynamics of the civil services of India.
As many as 175 IAS officers of the 2015 batch who are completing phase-II
training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA),
Mussoorie, will be joining as Assistant Secretaries in the ministries or
departments of the Government of India for a period of three months between
July 3, 2017 and September 29, 2017. Earlier, the trainees used to join their
respective states as Assistant Collector and their main job was to understand
the working mechanism of the districts. It was referred to as bottom to top
working pattern of the governance. The Modi government has changed the pattern
for last three years. Now, first the probationers will work as Assistant
Secretaries in the ministries and then will move to the District Headquarters.
All young officers were in Delhi recently to meet the Prime Minister. Modi
advised young IAS officers to avoid getting into a mindset that resists change,
and fill India’s administrative system with the energy of ‘New India.’ The
Prime Minister began by asserting that India has not progressed as much as it
should have. He said countries that achieved independence after India, and
faced greater resource constraints than India, have touched new heights of
development. He said boldness is required to drive change, and added that a
fragmented administrative arrangement does not allow the collective
capabilities of officers to deliver to the optimum level. He said dynamic
change is needed to transform the system. He urged the young officers to
interact freely with the senior-most officers of the Union Government over the
next three months, so that the system could benefit from the combination of
their energy and fresh ideas, and the administrative experience of
Secretary-level officers. North and South Block’s senior civil servants are
observing the change and hope it may result in a perceptive change among young
officers.
In love with the US
PRIME Minister
Narendra Modi’s United States visit is being analysed not only by politicians
but among senior foreign affairs mandarins. The dignitaries from the Indian
diaspora, who witnessed and attended the ceremonies, informed that they have
not seen ever any Indian Prime Minister being given so much weightage in the US
administration. As per reports, the security of the Prime Minister was
paramount; Pennsylvania Road was completely sanitised and blocked for Modi’s
travel. Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar, a Chicago-based Indian-American industrialist
and US President Donald Trump’s die-hard supporter, was reportedly a great help
in making Modi’s trip meaningful. Modi is so important to the US that Trump’s
son-in-law Jared Kushner, personally came to the Willard Intercontinental Hotel
to meet Prime Minister of India. The most surprising aspect of the visit was.
Melania Trump’s (wife of Donald Trump) presence in the official meeting of the
head of the states for four hours. Its learnt Melania reportedly told Modi that
she would like to visit India as the First Lady of the US and will keep
visiting even as former first lady. The Indian Ambassador of US Navtej Sarna
made splendid arrangements for the stay of the Prime Minister and his
entourage. It did not deter the Indian embassy to book rooms in Willard
Intercontinental Hotel and the Ritz Carlton, though the hotels charged the
businessmen who attended the visit of the Prime Minister exorbitantly.
Chidambaram’s BJP friends
THE Central
Bureau of Investigation raided the house of former Union minister Palaniappan
Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram in connection with the alleged
criminal misconduct in grant of FIPB approvals. Congress leaders are curious
and discussing why despite the massive raids and alleged corruption of billion
dollars, Karti Chidambaram is roaming scot free as if nothing has happened.
Though Chidambaram is a very powerful politician, the Congress Party was
tight-lipped on the raids and no leader came out and defended Chidambaram. When
he was allotted a ticket for the Rajya Sabha recently, everybody was surprised.
Insiders reveal that Sonia Gandhi was reluctant to send him to the Rajya Sabha
but Chidambaram ‘intelligently’ convinced the high command and got elected from
Maharashtra. Why is the CBI and Directorate of Enforcement so generous with the
Chidambaram family. Insiders disclose that Chidambaram is being helped by a
very powerful minister of the Modi government. It is being discussed in the
central hall that the ‘powerful BJP minister’ is an admirer and impressed with
the intellect of Chidambaram. It is learnt that Chidambaram also helped the
said minister once when former BJP President Nitin Gadkari’s premises were
raided in Mumbai and Pune. In politics, nobody does something for nothing:
there’s always a quid pro quo.
Desperate times
THE
Congress Party has reached such a state of affairs because the top leaders
(read Gandhi family) do not want to learn anything from past mistakes. For
them, it’s business as usual. The crisis is deeper. Most of the senior leaders
of the Congress Party appear to be in a depressed mood. It’s not that they are
not competent or they cannot motivate the workers on national level. Their real
worry is being leaderless and direction-less. But business within and outside
the party is not leaderless. It has a leader, Rahul Gandhi.
However,
most of the Congress leaders are not able to understand Rahul’s politics and
missions. In the face of a crisis, senior leaders are also trying to determine
who is the boss of the party. No doubt, Rahul Gandhi has emerged as the face
but his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and her husband Robert Vadra command
considerable clout in the management of the party and the Congress-ruled
states. As disclosed by party leaders, nothing has changed. A new coterie is
managing the show even though the working style to manage the party and states
is same. The Congress ruled Chief Ministers are the wisest lot and have found a
way to manage the leaders who manage the family. As one senior leader pointed
out, Robert Vadra is still the boss. Vadra is still in demand by the ruling
clique within the party and Priyanka Vadra and Roberts’ words are final as far
as the management of the states are concerned. Sonia Gandhi is aware of the
complex situation within the family but she is in a fix.
Too big for his boots
WHEN they ruled
Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav did not look
beyond their immediate families while distributing largesse. One such move was
the appointment of Arvind Singh Bisht as the information Commissioner in UP.
Who is Bisht? Well, he happens to be the father-in-law of Samajwadi Party
supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s adopted son Prateek Yadav. Bisht, a former
journalist and former Political Editor, Times of India, considered the
appointment a feather in his cap. With the backing of the state bosses and
Chief Minister, he reportedly started throwing tantrums in the commission. He
became aggressive especially whenever the Chief Information Commissioner Jawed
Usmani would proceed on leave. Usmani would give charge to another commissioner
but not to Bisht. Ambitious Bisht confronted Usmani, a former DGP of UP. It is
reported that Bisht said that being the senior-most, he should be given charge.
But the CIC shot off that since all the Information Commissioners had been
appointed on the same day, the mere fact that Bisht’s name, alphabetically
only, tops the list does not make him the senior-most. Bisht was not amused
with the answer and moved the courts, but the latter slammed the door on his
face, rubbishing his claims.
Art of ‘knowing’
WHY do I
invoke Adiyogi or Shiva so recurrently? It is a question I am often asked. The
answer to that is simple. It is not because I want to anthropomorphise the
divine. It is not because I want to introduce some devious mode of pagan
worship. It is not because I want to usher in some Eastern cult.
I invoke
him simply because he is vital for our times. And he is vital because there is
nothing more important right now than raising human consciousness. We have the
tools and technologies in our hands with which we can make this world a
paradise, or turn it into a living hell, or obliterate it altogether because of
our own capabilities. In other words, we have reached a point where if we do
not raise human consciousness, our intelligence and capability is going to work
against us. We are racing rapidly towards self-sabotage. How did we get
ourselves into this mess? We got here because we developed our intellect at the
expense of our interiority.
Turnaround Man
FOR Probir
Chandra Sen, his indecision is what landed him into the civil services.
Grandson of AN Sen, former judge of the Calcutta High Court, and son of Pratap
Chandra Sen, a top executive in Burmah Shell, Probir, better known as PC Sen,
had an admiration for the Communist Party of India and the Ramakrishna Mission,
but was not fully convinced by either.
Paresh Baruah rings alarm bells
With the
demise of SS Khaplang, the legendary Naga rebel who abrogated truce with India
in 2015, Indian security agencies have reasons to be worried. Now it will be
Paresh Baruah, the reckless ULFA (Independent) boss who will call shots in the
entire North-East where militants of different ethnicities have come together
to wage guerrilla warfare.
FARMERS’ STIR IN MADHYA PRADESH : Self delusional edifice crumbles
THE farmer stir
that claimed six lives in police firing in Mandsaur on June 5 may have petered
out, but its aftereffects are still being felt in Madhya Pradesh politics and
the government. Aftermath of the stir is manifest at many levels; in farmers’
smoldering anger; in the State government’s desperate attempts to buy their
produce at the risk of huge loss to the exchequer; in the Bharatiya Janata
Party’s damage control exercise; in resurgence of the faction-ridden Congress.
In sum, the farmers’ fury has set the tone for contest between the two major
political rivals for the assembly election due in November 2018.
IATA AGM : An Engine of Commerce
by Anil Tyagi &
Anish Gandhi
CANCUN
meeting is to promote safe, reliable and affordable air transport. We do that
for the benefit of the people of the world and to foster commerce through
collaboration and cooperation.
This
year more than four billion passengers will rely on airlines for safe travel.
Sixty-three million people depend on the global air transport system for
employment. Aviation underpins $2.7 trillion of economic activity and delivers
a third of global trade.
IATA AGM : Business of Freedom
by Anil Tyagi & Anish Gandhi
While
revenues are increasing, earnings are being squeezed by rising fuel, labour and
maintenance expenses. Finding alternative means to keep flying secure without
the inconvenience of the current laptop ban, combating human trafficking,
implementing the Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation
(CORSIA) and modernising air cargo processes were some of the serious issues on
which 73rd IATA AGM deliberated at Cancun (Mexico) in the first week of June
2017. Anil Tyagi, Editor, and Anish Gandhi, Consultant Foreign Affairs, of
gfiles flew to Cancun to understand the frank and daring deliberations of
International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) 73rd AGM.
Demonetisation hits human trafficking
by Abhishek
Narain
Demonetisation scheme announced by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in November 2016 was aimed, among other things, to hit out at
black money, parallel economy and criminal activities. As we cross the
six-month threshold, Abhishek Narain analyses whether the decision has impacted
the human trafficking industry which thrives on black money and is this move
enough to have a long-term impact on the inhuman trafficking activities.
RERA: An Elixir for Real Estate Sector
by SUNIL KUMAR GUPTA
ON December 8,
2014, home buyers in the NCR (National Capital Region) staged a massive rally
at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi against majority of builders operating in the NCR
region. Since then there have been multiple protests, petitions and pleas
against the realtors or home builders. The main concerns raised by the home
buyers while protesting or filing petition are delay in possession, quality of
construction, huge difference between promised infrastructure and delivered,
diversion of funds to other projects and many more. In addition, the
administration also realised that the real estate sector was abuzz with
fraudulent builders, promoters who did not have land
anhttp://www.gfilesindia.com/rera-an-elixir-for-real-estate-sector/d were
fleecing buyers with pre-launch offers and many more.
IAS Exams : What are we testing?
Agreat number
of educated youths in the country aspire to join the Indian civil services and
work for the country. For being successful in their efforts, they have to pass
through three gateways, namely (i) preliminary examination; (ii) main
examination and (iii) interview. Only when they walk through these gates
successfully, they can become members of these prestigious services. This
article is focused on going through the first gateway of clearing the
preliminary examination (prelims for short) and the unrealistic attitude of the
Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) towards such exams.
NITI Ayog : Where is the transformation?
AT The
Economic Times’s Global Business Summit in mid-January 2015, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi clearly laid out his Transformation Agenda. After presenting a
provocative poser-“India is a $2-trillion economy today. Can we not dream of an
India with a $20-trillion economy?”-he unveiled his ‘doctrine of development’
in lucid terms: “The government must nurture an ecosystem where the economy is
primed for growth; and growth
promotes all-round development.
MERGER OF OIL COMPANIES : Caught on the wrong foot
Investments depend on risk-taking abilities,
especially for spending money on overseas ventures, and autonomy. The
State-owned oil companies possess neitherhttp. Vertically-integrated
oil majors make sense if these too are handed over to the managements.
Richest Indian on shaky ground
There is a grave danger if there’s over-regulation-it
results in a strangulating bureaucracy. But there are pitfalls of
under-regulation-it makes those who should be more on their toes to relax and
become complacent. In the first, it’s the businesses that suffer; in the
latter, it’s the retail investors and poor customers who bear the burden. This is why as India
tries to ease the way to do business, she should ensure that the watchdogs are
on guard, and don’t abdicate their responsibilities.
From the Editor
Radhakishan
Damani is the 17th wealthiest entrepreneur of India. As per media reports, the
market capitalisation of his company, Indian Avenue Supermarts Ltd is almost
Rs. 40,000 crore (over $6 billion). Nobody would question Radhakishan Damani if
his companies were being run professionally and he was earning through
legalised operations. gfiles’ cover story by Alam Srinivas tries to understand
the operations of Damani and let our readers know how Damani has earned his
millions by creating a small business entity.
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