Dilli Ka Babu
It’s army vs ips
The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has been looking to recruit some 600 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers it needs to make up for the shortfall. Since the armed and paramilitary forces seem to be pretty good catchment areas for recruiting police officers, the MHA has issued new guidelines which will allow serving officers to do a stint in the police. The decision has the blessings of home minister P. Chidambaram. Still the home ministry babus are approaching the issue cautiously. According to home secretary R.K. Singh, it is being done on an “experimental basis”.
The MHA babus propose to conduct a special examination, which these officers need to clear to become eligible for selection to the IPS. The babus hope to fill some 80 IPS vacancies through this test. But the Army top brass are against the move. Understandably, since the Army too suffers from an acute shortage of officers wouldn’t like to lose the ones it has to the civvies.
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Trai under watch
With the renewed auction of 2G licences coming up, one of the most-watched appointments in babudom currently is that of the new chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). The current chairman, J.S. Sarma, is retiring in May. According to sources, several high-fliers are in the running for the high-profile position. Among the leading contenders are R.P. Singh, former secretary in the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), and Sekhar Agarwal, secretary in the department of defence production.
Meanwhile, the selection committee, comprising of Cabinet secretary Ajit Seth, principal secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterjee, telecom secretary R. Chandrasekhar and adviser to Prime Minister Sam Pitroda, has initiated the screening process. The government will be hoping that the selection is non-controversial. So are we.
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MEA makeover
Exciting times for the ministry of external affairs, and not just due to the Sri Lanka vote or the US price on Hafiz Saeed’s head! Over the next few months the MEA will witness some 40 new ambassadorial appointments. These include vacancies in countries like Japan, the Maldives, Argentina, Mexico and Malaysia, to name but a few. Also, there are a dozen retirements due by June.
According to sources, the current Indian ambassador to Israel, Navtej Sarna, is returning to the MEA as additional secretary. Also Sharat Sabharwal, the high commissioner to Pakistan, is slated to exit in September. This position, for obvious reasons, is amongst the most coveted in the foreign service. Rumour has it that Arun K. Singh, deputy chief of mission at Indian high commission in Washington, Yash Sinha, joint secretary in the ministry’s Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran division, and T.C.A. Raghavan, high commissioner to Singapore, are among the front-runners. Still, it’s early days yet.
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