The Bureaucrat Express - September 2014 Issue

DIGITAL INDIAfacebook.com/bureaucratexpress @bureaucratxprss

September 2014 bureaucratexpress.com` 40 Volume 1, Issue 2

DIGITAL INDIA

Chhattisgarh Mantralaya goes digital Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on stress-free life

How Maharashtra saves with cloud Dr. Kamal Mahawar on obesity ‘epidemic’

Satya Prasant P on pay disparity ? Books on bureaucracy by bureaucrats

TOWARDS

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September 2014 Volume 1, Issue 2

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CONTRIBUTORS

: Manoj Sharma

: Dhiraj Ahuja

: Kritika Agrawal

: Neha Kaushik

: Sharib Suhail

Trisha Saikia

: Sumeet Nath

: Subhrat Khanna

: Mukesh Maini

: Sunil Singh

: Shri Shyam Graphics

: Avadh Narayan

: Surender Saini

Anup Jindal

: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Rajesh Aggarwal

Satya Prasant

Ravinder Sharma

Dr. Kamal K Mahawar

Dr. Neelesh Tiwari

Roli Jindal

CONTENTS

10Towards Digital India...how the Prime Minister

Narendra Modi and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communications & Information Technology intend to transform the country

Cover Story

14

Dr. Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology on his plans to further Electronics System Design &

Manufacturing

Technocrat of the Month

16

Aman Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Information Technology &

Biotechnology, Energy, Government of Chhattisgarh makes the Mantralaya go digital

Change Maker

22 How Maharashtra saves with cloud computing

Case Study

September 2014 | | 3The Bureaucrat Express

6Here’s what some of the readers wrote back

regarding the inaugural issue

Letter to the editor

7A look at recent appointments in India’s

babudom

Appointments

26Satya Prasant P, IRS, on the views of non-IAS

bureaucrat lobby regarding pay parity

Opinion

46Dr. Neelesh Tiwari on how to combat stigma

towards mental illness

Matters of the Mind

48Ravinder Kumar Sharma, Vice President - Sales & Marketing, Digjam Ltd., on how to get a perfect bespoke suit

Fashion Code

42Memoirs of their days in government by some of the leading former bureaucrats

For the Bookworm

54Roli Jindal, a management professional and erratic blogger shares her travel experience in Ireland

Travelogue

CONTENTS

4 | | September 2014The Bureaucrat Express

52

Dr. Kamal K Mahawar on the obesity ‘epidemic’ that’s becoming a grave cause of concern in India

Healthcare & Wellness

40Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on how to lead a stress-free life

The Spiritual Quotient

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32News about Indian bureaucracy, that matters and makes you ponder

News & Analysis

EDITORIAL

here is no doubt whatsoever about the intent of Modi Sarkar in developing India through Digital TIndia. However, if one does a reality check, the

projections look very ambitious. There is no dearth of political will or steely resolve as well, but given the fact that virtually nothing has happened on the NOFN front for the past three years and the project has been missing one deadline after another does give jitters for it is the backbone of what Modi has in mind. His being at the helm of affairs as chairman of the monitoring committee may make things move but how fast is the question, especially considering the fact that it is the PSUs – BSNL, PGCIL and RailTel through which government intends to achieve the desired.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communications & Information Technology, has not come out in the open as yet inviting the private sector to pitch in. NOFN had high-profile names like Sam Pitroda and Nandan Nilekani on its implementation committee however it has suffered from the lack of coordination. Prior to becoming the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Nripendra Misra in one of his articles published by a leading daily had pointed out the various hurdles NOFN would face. The need for content, especially in local languages, had not been though through, the officials were unwilling to approve procurement tenders because of the anti-corruption laws as they feared that cartels were at work and there was no revenue model in

place besides the fact that the country did not have the required capacity to manufacture ducts that would carry the optical cables.

Digital India is many times the size of NOFN and five times its budget. Will we be able to achieve it by 2019, are we ready?

Action is required both at the centre and in the states. Dr. Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DEITY) is spearheading the Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM), an integral element of the Digital India program. While on the other hand states like Chhattisgarh are gearing up for the revolution. Under the able aegis of Aman Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Information Technology & Biotechnology, Energy, Chhattisgarh has made its Mantralaya go digital. TBE has captured all of this and much more in this issue.

DHIRAJ AHUJA

[email protected]


Are we ready?

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

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Modivating Bureaucracy

Modivating Bureaucracy, your cover story of the August 2014 issue was an interesting read. I quite liked the way he is inspiring the bureaucrats to give in their best to the nation. He is setting the standards. When your superior is in office at 8:00 am and decides to call it a day at 11:00 pm, only to be back in office by 8:00 am again the next day, you’d be left with little choice but to be punctual yourself. His disapproval of Page 3 parties is fine but I somehow feel that after facing such intense work pressure for the entire week, or should I say a six-day week now, why can’t a bureaucrat hit the golf course on Sunday mornings? All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Besides, promoting Hindi the national language is fine too but there should not be a dislike for upright officers from non-Hindi speaking states who are as competent as those from the Hindi hinterlands.

Anil Vinayak from New Delhi via email

Combatting policy paralysis

As a former bureaucrat, I can say that combatting policy paralysis is an important issue. The process has finally started. The bureaucrats are being encouraged to take risk and sign the files for the sake of moving forward. The Prime Minister has assured them that he will back them up should there be any bona fide mistakes in the process. There can never be 100% right decisions however decisions made with right intent should be backed or else the system will cease to move forward. Bureaucrats should not be hauled up a decade after their retirement and asked to attend court hearings. I am happy that the Prime Minister has addressed this pertinent issue.

Anonymous via email

Ajit Doval, the best NSA that the

country could get

It was quite interesting to read about the way Prime Minister selected his principal secretary. I was quite impressed with what Ajit Doval has done for the nation. He deserves to be

the National Security Advisor. Choosing the right men for the right job has been Modi’s strength right from his chief ministerial days in Gujarat and he is leveraging on it as Prime Minister as well.

Manish Pathak from New Delhi

Indian bureaucrats are like F1

racers caught in a traffic jam

I read Shri Kush Verma’s interview in your magazine and I quite agree with the veteran economist Kaushik Basu’s statement that Indian bureaucrats are in fact F1 racers caught in a traffic jam. But have you ever wondered what this traffic jam is all about. Indian bureaucrats are perhaps the best talent that we attract out of a fair selection process. So what is it that hampers their speed and does not allow them to perform to the best of their potential? It is nothing but the fear of CBI inquiries and the nexus of their superiors with the political class. They too are interested in developing the nation but if this development comes at the cost of their jobs, it is obvious that they would not tread forward. Besides, I am amazed to read as to how the PMO in the previous regime gave it all away when it comes to choosing the secretaries. This is where the corruption starts. Ministers are allowed to choose their own men, the men they mingle with at the golf course and Page 3 parties. I really appreciate the tough stand that the Prime Minister has

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taken against such practices which became prevalent during the previous regime.

V Vaidyanathan from Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu

Case studies from Karnataka and

Andhra Pradesh

The Sakala and Mee Seva from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were great however the question is why cannot the success stories be replicated and implemented across the country? Why are they limited to a state itself? It is the duty of the government at the centre to identify such case studies and customize them as per peculiar requirements, if any, of the states and cities. Why do we need to reinvent the wheel? If something works well for public in a region, it is likely to work well in other regions too.

Mukesh Maini from Agra, Uttar Pradesh via email

The Spiritual Quotient

Thanks for the article from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. It was such a pleasure reading his divine words. I had never imagined that a magazine on bureaucracy would think of this aspect and incorporate the same in its editorial. Spirituality is an integral part of bureaucrats as well as the lesser mortals like us. Please keep this wonderful initiative alive in the issues to come as well.

Kirti Madan from Jaipur, Rajasthan via email

From Metcalfe House to Charleville

I really appreciate piece you have put together on the origin and history of bureaucracy in the country. Jawaharlal Nehru was against the ICS for he thought they supported the British policies. However, despite the dislike, he let the system continue albeit a change in the name. Yes, a lot has changed in the last 150 years but the civil services continue to be the steel frame of the Indian administration. Thanks for the information on two new books as well, I will make it a point to read them for sure.

Parvesh Batra from Aurangabad,

Maharashtra via email

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6 | The Bureaucrat Express | September 2014

APPOINTMENTS

Modi makes Kothari the new DoPT head

H e h a s b e e n p u s h i n g t h e initiative since UPA d a y s b u t w a s rewarded for it by the NDA. Sanjay Kothari, a 1978-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre,

was earlier the Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms, Personnel & Grievances (DARPG). He had written to all secretaries of the Central Government suggesting them to abolish the requirement of affidavits and promote self-certification. In fact, the Second Administrative Reforms Commission had recommended this measure in 2009.

“It is expected to benefit the people immensely, as all affidavits not required by law shall eventually be done away with,” said the press release from Prime Minister’s Office. In late June this year, Modi had met Kothari wherein he delivered a detailed presentation on the benefits of abolishing the affidavit culture. Kothari had presented a case study of Punjab, a state that had implemented this move first in 2010. Punjab saves ` 600 crore annually in terms of monetary cost of getting affidavits. Besides money, it frees up the government officer to attend other important issues instead of attesting documents of the public. After receiving Modi’s approval, Kothari had written to all secretaries of the Union Government and State chief secretaries on July 2, asking them to make provisions for self-certification of documents such that affidavits are no longer required. It is believed that Modi was so impressed by Kothari’s idea that on July 12, he appointed him as the Secretary, Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT).

According to Kothari, declarations by citizens before civil servants should

be considered as good as affidavits and application forms should be drafted with an undertaking that ‘facts stated are true and correct to the best of his/her knowledge’. This self-certification by the citizen would circumvent the requirement of attestation by a gazetted officer. False declarations shall be punishable under law.

Deepak Mohan Spolia, a 1979-batch IAS officer of t h e A G M U T cadre, has been reappointed as Delhi's Chief Secretary. He was removed from the post in January this year by the Union Home Ministry on the basis of a request made by Arvind Kejriwal, the then Chief Minister. Kejriwal had handpicked Sanjoy Kumar Srivastava, a 1980-batch IAS officer instead. According to the sources, no assignment has been given to Srivastava as of now. Spolia, 59 years of age, was working as Financial Commissioner of Delhi Government since January. His reappointment to the post comes three days after Satish Upadhyay, BJP’s Delhi chief, met the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and complained against the rigid attitude of some bureaucrats in Delhi adminis t ra t ion . Congress has expressed happiness over the development saying that the NDA has reposed faith in the officer selected for the job by Sheila Dikshit Government.

Spolia becomes Delhi's Chief Secretary again

Sunil Arora makes a comeback after 9 years

It’s been a nine-year long vanvas for Sunil Arora, a 1980-batch IAS o ff i c e r o f t h e Rajasthan cadre. He has made a

comeback at the Centre. According to an order issued by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC), he has been appointed as Secretary of the newly created Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship u n d e r t h e M i n i s t r y o f S k i l l Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and Sports. Arora has a reputation of no-nonsense go-getter. When he was the CMD of Indian Airlines, the loss-making airlines made a turnaround and by the time he left, the airlines was making marginal profits. During his tenure, the airline also procured the much needed 43 new planes from Airbus.

Post this he became the Joint Secretary in Ministry of Civil Aviation when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister (1998-2004). An upright man, Arora is known to have ruffled a lot of political feathers, so much so that when Praful Patel became the Civil Aviation Minister in the UPA government, at least two former Civil Aviation ministers cautioned him about Arora. It is believed that Arora was close to the then BJP Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Very early in his career as a bureaucrat, he had a good hand of how things move in the power corridors of Delhi. He was not

afraid of getting the orders reversed if he sensed that they were not in the interest of the PSU but have been p a s s e d o w i n g t o p o l i t i c a l considerations.

His staff knows him as a firm officer who respects time and has a head for details. At meetings he takes his wrist watch off and places it on the table – an indication for everyone not to stray from the agenda. The staff would get a mouthful if they ever fudged or made-up facts. When UPA Government took charge after Vajpayee, Arora was repatriated to his home cadre. He has spent almost a decade working in Rajasthan at various positions including a three-year stint at the Chief Minister’s Office. But now when the NDA Government is at the Centre, Arora has made a comeback.


Civil Aviation Ministry & Steel Ministry get new secretaries

Senior IAS officers V S o m a s u n d a r a n ( a 1979-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre) and Rakesh Singh (a

1978-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre) have been appointed as secretaries for Civil Aviation Ministry and Steel Ministry, respectively. Somasundaran, who is serving in Kerala has taken charge from Ashok Lavasa. Lavasa (a 1980-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre) has been appointed as Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forest. He replaced V Rajagopalan (a 1978-batch IAS officer o f t h e U P c a d r e ) w h o h a s superannuated. Rakesh Singh has taken charge of the Steel Ministry from G Mohan Kumar (a 1979-batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre) who has been appointed as Secretary, Department of Defence Production according to an order issued by ACC. G Mohan Kumar has replaced GC Pati (a 1978- batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre) who has become Odisha’s Chief Secretary.

Rajni Razdan, a 64-year Haryana cadre IAS officer, has been selected as chairman o f U n i o n P u b l i c

Service Commission. Prior to this she was working as a member in the Commission. She has replaced Prof DP Agrawal at this prestigious post. Her appointment came at a time when the civil services aspirants were protesting against the pattern of the examination.

Razdan had retired as Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances. While she was in active service, her other important assignments at the centre were Joint Secretary, Ministry of Food; and Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Personnel , Public Grievances & Pensions.

Rajni Razdan is the new UPSC Chief

Deswal appointed as private secretary to Sushma Swaraj

Jagjeet Singh Deswal, a 2008-batch IPS officer of the AGMUT cadre, has been appointed as private secretary to Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs for five years or on coterminous basis with the tenure of the minister, according to an official order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). Deswal had joined Delhi and Andaman and Nicobar Islands Police Services (DANIPS) and was recently inducted into the Indian Police Service (IPS). The government also appointed Navdeep Rinwa, a 1999-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, as the PS to Minister of State (Independent charge) for Culture and Tourism, Shripad Naik. Ajay Kumar, a 1999-batch Indian Revenue Service (income, tax cadre) officer, has been appointed as PS to the Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Krishanpal Gurjar. Both Rinwa and Kumar’s appointments are for five years or coterminous with the tenure of their ministers.

OP Singh appointed as Director General, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)

OP Singh, a senior IPS officer, has been appointed as Director General of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), a central paramilitary force responsible for carrying out the rescue and relief operations during natural calamities. A 1983-batch officer of UP cadre, Singh replaces Mahboob Alam who has recently retired. OP Singh as of now is Additional DG of the Central Industrial Security Force (Airport sector) and he shall be

assuming charge as DG, NDRF in an additional capacity. He has the unique distinction of being the first IPS officer to have earned an MBA degree in disaster management.

Prior to this, he has served as ADG (Security) in UP. He has also served in the Prime Minister’s special security unit – SPG and the paramilitary CRPF. Home Ministry issued the order that he would hold the additional charge till a regular appointment is made. NDRF is a ten battalion (10,000 personnel approximately) strong force under the command of the MHA and i ts personnel are brought on deputation from various paramilitary forces like CRPF, BSF, CISF, SSB and ITBP.

Maharashtra state cabinet decided to recommend former Chief Secretary JS Saharia, a 1978 batch IAS officer, as Maharashtra State Election Commissioner (SEC) to the Maharashtra State Governor. As SEC, a constitutional post, Saharia would be responsible for conducting local elections in Maharashtra State. He had attained superannuation in July 2014. Neela Satyanarayan, a former bureaucrat, who was appointed SEC of Maharashtra in 2009, retired on July 5 this year. Saharia had taken charge as Maharashtra’s Chief Secretary in December last year, succeeding Jayant Kumar Banthia. Swadheen Kshatriya, a 1980-batch IAS officer, had succeeded Saharia as Maharashtra Chief Secretary a month ago.

Saharia becomes State Election Commissioner in Maharashtra


COVER STORY

TOWARDS DIGITAL

INDIADigital India promises to transform India into a

connected knowledge economy. Here’s an insight

into how the government intends to transform our

lives for better in the days to come.

the country. New growth opportunities for industry and people will emerge leading to employment generation and growth of economy. Addressing the IT ministers and secretaries of all states and Union Territories at the recently concluded Digital India conference, he said that the concept is being given high priority by the Prime Minister and soon in the days to come the low key IT department will turn into a high profile department for it will be the most important driver of change. He also quoted the Prime Minister’s formula of IT+IT=IT, which essentially means India Today + Information Technology = India Tomorrow.

The umbrella program will be monitored by a committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as chairman of the panel. Other members of the panel will include Ministers of Finance, Communications & IT, Research & Development, Human Resources Development, and Health. Special invitees to the panel will include principal secretary to the PM, Cabinet Secretary, Secretaries of expenditure, planning, DoT and Posts. The DEITY secretary will be the convenor of the panel. Key components of the management structure besides the monitoring committee headed by Modi include Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for according approval to projects, a Digital India Advisory Group chaired by the Minister of Communications and IT, an apex Committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.

Digital India will be implemented in phases from the current year till 2018. Nine pillars of growth have been identified – broadband highways, mobile connectivity everywhere, Public Internet Access program, e-governance, e-Kranti, information for all, electronic manufacturing, IT for jobs and early harvest programs. The government also plans to restructure the NIC (National Informatics Centre) which facilitates deployment of IT projects across various departments. CIOs (Chief Information Officers) shall be appointed in at least 10 key ministries such that various e-governance projects can be designed and implemented faster. Even the Department of Electronics & Information

he country was expecting a major announcement from the PM on Independence Day and as always, he Tdelivered. Digital India, an ambitious ` 1.13 lakh

crore program that aims to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country to the Internet superhighway through National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), provide broadband connectivity to 2,50,000 schools and WiFi to every university, besides a smartphone for every citizen by 2019 was announced. Digital India also envisages promoting Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) in a big way.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communications & Information Technology also urged all state governments to overcome political differences and come together to connect India through digital highways. According to him, NOFN, ` 35,000 crore project, will herald e-commerce revolution in


Nine Pillar of Digital India

Broadband HighwaysBroadband in 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by Dec 2016 Vitrual network operators and smart buildings in cities National information Infrastructure by March 2017` 47,686 cr

1 Universal Mobile accessCover rest of 42,300 villages by FY18` 16,000cr

2

3

E-Governance Performing Govt through technologySimplify forms create online repositeries for school certificates IDs Integration of services and platforms (Aadhaar, payment Gateway); automate govt workflow; redress grievances

4

K-Kranti-Electronic delivery of servicesE-education broadband free wifi online courses * E-healthcare; online consultation/records/ supply. Full coverage in 3 years; online cash load information for farmers financial inclusion e-courts, e-police, e-prosecution

5

Information for allonline hosting of information & documents Govt engages via social media Little addition resources needed

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Electronics Manu-facturing – target net zero importsFocus on semi conductor fabrication plants fabless design set-top boxe, VSATs, mobiles, consumer & medical electronics, smart energy meters, smart cards, micro-ATMS

7

Public internet Access programmeCommon Service centres in 2.5 lakh villages by March 2017 : 15 lakh post offices to offer multiple services` 4750 cr

It for jobsTrain 1 crore people in towns/villages in 5 years (new); 3 lakh agents to run viable businesses delivering IT services (ongoing); 5 lakh rural IT workforce in 5 years; BPO in every NE state` 200 cr

Early Harvest programmesBiometric attendance by Oct; Wifi in all varsities secure govt email hotspots in cities with pop > 1 million/tourist centres; ebooks; SMS-based distaster alerts weather info` 900 cr

8 9

TARGETS COST

Technology (DEITY) would create necessary senior positions within the department for managing the program.

Rakesh Garg, the Telecom Secretary informed that ` 20,000 crore from USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund) is being spent on mobile connectivity to 55,000 villages in the next five years. Half of this target shall be achieved in three years. Currently, a survey is being conducted across villages to build mobile towers. The telecom department is gearing up to complete the NOFN project by June 2016, a year ahead of the schedule as it happens to be the backbone of the Digital India initiative.

DoT has sought views of public-sector telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) on whether it can complete the NOFN project by then. To improve the digital literacy of people in the rural areas, DoT is planning to rope in private mobile service providers. They can educate the users in the 10-35 years of age group on how to access services through mobile phone. In a recent interview to a leading business daily, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government was planning to come up with 20 hour and 40 hour modules to educate the users. Cities with population of more than 1 million including the major tourist centers will be provided with WiFi connectivity.


There are plans to link up the Aadhaar and SIM card numbers of the mobile users. Use of mobile phones is central to delivery of government services to citizens in Digital India. As of now only 74% Indians, primarily urban, have mobile phones and therefore a smartphone for every Indian by 2019 seems steep. According to Prasad, the use of mobile phone needs to be incentivized if we are to achieve the social and economic objectives of the government. In case financial inclusion is to be achieved through mobile phones, we will have to structure the delivery of financial services in a manner that encourages villagers to go for mobile banking. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, a financial inclusion plan announced by Prime Minister on August 15 can be effectively rolled out through mobile phones.

The intention behind promoting ESDM is to bring down electronics imports from US$ 100 billion as of now to zero by 2020. This will help the current account deficit of the country. As things stand, and if immediate action is not taken on this front then the annual electronics import could rise to US$ 400 billion by 2020, more than the oil import e-bill of the country, informed the minister. In his budget for the current fiscal 2014-15, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had introduced a slew of measures. Incentives worth ` 24,000 crore including modified special incentive package scheme, tax rationalization and preferential market access. Five new electronic manufacturing clusters are likely to come up in areas like Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh for high demand products like mobile phones and set-top boxes. The first such cluster shall be up as early as March next year. The government shall foot ̀ 500 crore of the ̀ 1500 crore estimated cost.

An electronic development fund will also be set up to create Indian intellectual property for electronic goods. The setting up of semiconductor fabrication facilities in the country has been a priority for some time. As part of the plan, the government expects to create two facilities, at a cost of ` 12,419 crore, ` 23,347 crore and ` 1,400, respectively, during the 12th, 13th and 14th Plan periods. The Digital India plan will also create skill development centers to produce a workforce of 400,000 for the electronics sector in the next five years at a cost of ̀ 575 crore.

As part of the e-governance aspect of the plan, the government plans to bring all departments across the country online, including government services and necessary storage of certificates among others, in the next three years. The electronic delivery of services, including health, education, security, justice, financial inclusion and information to farmers has been labelled e-Kranti. This aims to provide broadband connectivity to 250,000 schools, including free Wi-Fi and also massive online open courses.

E-healthcare will ensure access to online medical consultations, records, supplies and even pan-India patient information. Farmers will have real-time access to price information and financial help as well as mobile banking. The plan will also include a geographic information system-based social network for citizens called MyGov.

Digital India has generated huge interest nationally and internationally. Global corporate honchos like Cisco have expressed interest in cluster manufacturing and Facebook has expressed interest in partnering with the government in delivering governance programs such as e-education, said Prasad. He also expressed concerns about the progress on NOFN front. He admitted that the main backbone of Digital India, the NOFN, had seen virtually no progress for the past three years. However, he expressed optimism that since Digital India is being monitored by none other than the PM himself, NOFN shall meet all deadlines henceforth. On being asked if the private sector shall be roped in to speed up things, he said that the government shall continue to work with the state-run PSUs BSNL, Power Grid Corporation and RailTel.

Industry gets buoyed by Digital India The industry has pledged full support to the government

in terms of innovation and most advanced integrated technological solutions to achieve the dream of Digital India. Here’s what some of the heads that matter had to say:

Pramod Bhasin, Founder & Vice Chairman, Genpact India

To complement government's program of digital inclusion, we must innovate and offer the most advanced solutions to the government which integrate data analytics, GIS, biometrics, etc., to enhance governance, food, health, physical and cybersecurity, energy, strengthen education, healthcare, transportation and other public delivery systems to the last mile and improve the standards of living of the people, especially in rural areas. It is only through PPP model that the vision can be accomplished. The program can be successful in attaining last mile connectivity to more than 635,000 villages, 250,000 panchayats, 6,000 blocks and 672 districts, 1.2 million government schools, more than 50,000 public and rural libraries, more than 100,000 departments and public agencies, if and only if the ICT industry executes and manages the desired projects and provides out of the box solutions reducing the high cost of broadband in India, which is presently four times of that of China. The government has identified broadband and mobile networks as key growth pillars under Digital India, but it will serve the purpose by bringing about process improvements, removing capacity constraints, adopting efficient operational models and by leveraging the emerging technologies like Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC). India should aim


?The world used to think that India is land of snake charmers and black magic but our youth have surprised the world with their IT skills and established India’s new identity in the world.

?Digital India is our dream for the nation. When I say Digital India, it is not meant for the rich but for the poor. We should use the broadband for extending education in rural areas and telemedicine to the needy.

?Mobile phones can be used by the poor to operate bank accounts, seek the benefits of government schemes and run businesses.

?Digital India will facilitate provision of information and services to people in a timely and effective manner.

?If we move with the dream of electronic digital India, manufacturing of electronic goods and become self-reliant, it will be a major gain for the country. We should adopt a policy of zero defect and zero effect (sans any effect on environment).

?E-governance is easy governance, effective governance and economical governance.

?There was a time when it was said that railway unites the country. I say, today IT has the power to unite the country and its people.

Relevant excerpts from the Independence Day speech

Digital India has the potential to transform existing public service delivery system, improve productivity, create jobs and induce economic activity in areas that are not digitally connected. All this is possible by overcoming barriers of soloed implementations, non-availability of robust last mile connectivity, processes improvements, capacity constraints, efficient operational models and by leveraging the emerging technologies like cloud, social media, analytics and mobility.

This is a welcome move and we believe there is a huge opportunity for India to use disruptive technologies to redefine paradigms for delivery of services like education and financial inclusion. We have written to the government, requesting them for a roundtable to how the government can leverage the Indian IT industry in implementing this vision of a digital India. Industry members are very excited about the opportunities that would be available as part of the initiative. There are three million professionals employed by the IT industry, while the number is around 10,000 for the government. Private sector will have to work with the government in making the vision become a reality.

The initiative will radically transform India's digital landscape. This is a much-needed initiative and this will help in not only bridging the digital divide but also empowering the citizens of the country.

The vision of the Digital India project is to give a different flavour to the various e-governance projects in the country and get them unified under a single umbrella. Previously, they were operating very rudderless. The model has been nicely implemented in Gujarat and it is being emulated nationally at a much grandiose level now.

Rakesh Kaul, Executive Director, Government & Public Sector, PwC India

R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Google India

Shree Parthasarthy, Director, Deloitte India

to replicate the countries like Brazil, Singapore, China, etc., and create Wi-Fi zones across cities and villages. It would not be done by single large IT company, but by thousands of small startups of young entrepreneurs who are willing to take risk. Hence, we need to create an enabling eco-system which renders entry of new young Indian players easy in ICT sector. If we support the youth with conducive policies and incubator facilities initially, they can create cutting edge solutions.


TECHNOCRAT OF THE MONTH

ESDM is an important cog in Digital India wheel

Piles of files…that’s what met our eyes

the moment we entered his office in

Electronics Niketan at CGO Complex. A

busy bureaucrat was the first impression.

However, a few minutes down the line

the TBE team discovered that he wasn’t

just busy but passionate as well.

Passionate about furthering Electronics

System Design & Manufacturing

(ESDM). Here are the excerpts of the

tête-à-tête with Dr. Ajay Kumar, Joint

Secretary, Department of

Electronics & Information

Technology (DEITY).

1In the recent past, India has grown and so has the income of Indians. Correspondingly, the demand for high technology products including electronic products has increased tremendously. According to the Task Force Report, the demand for electronics hardware in the country is projected to touch the US$ 400 billion mark by 2020, a significant increase from US$ 45 billion in 2009. The estimated production will reach US$ 104 billion by the year 2020, creating a gap of US$ 296 billion in demand and production. This creates a unique opportunity for companies in the ESDM (Electronic System Design &

Why is there so much emphasis on

ESDM?

Manufacturing) sector to look at India as their next destination to cater to the domestic Indian demand as well as act as an exports hub.

2

In fact, the government is doing a lot to promote ESDM. A National Policy on Electronics (NPE) has been formulated which envisages a turnover of about US$ 400 billion involving investment of about US$ 100 billion and employment to around 28 million by 2020. This amidst other things includes a turnover of US$ 55 billion from chip design and embedded software industry and US$ 80 billion of exports in the sector. The National Telecom

What are some of the major

government initiatives in this

direction?

P o l i c y ( N T P ) 2 0 1 2 w o r k s i n conjunction with NPE and provides for creating a design and manufacturing ecosystem for telecom equipment. Moreover, the NPE also proposes setting up of over 200 Electronic Manufacturing Clusters.

T h e d o m e s t i c d e m a n d f o r semiconductors is over US$ 10 billion. Besides, the country has become a hub for semiconductor design with nearly 2,000 chips being designed per year and more than 20,000 engineers are working in various aspects of chip design and verification. Annually, India is generating nearly US$ 2 billion in revenues for the chip design services. R&D capabilities in VLSI and chip design are also exemplified by the C e n t r e o f E x c e l l e n c e i n Nanoelectronics at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Indian Institute


of Technology, Bombay. All of this provides an enabling environment for a semiconductor wafer fab that we are planning to come up with. Two consortia have initiated work in this regard. The proposed location is Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, and in Prantij in Gujarat, about 50 kms from Gandhinagar.

Several other policy initiatives have been approved recently including providing very attractive financial investment in electronics manufac-turing and providing preference to domestically manufactured electronic goods in all government procurement as well as all strategic procurements related to security and defense. The financial incentives are available not only for new units but also for units relocating from abroad in accordance with Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ vision. The Electronics Manufacturing Cluster scheme addresses the infrastructure issues. It provides 50% of the cost of upgrading infrastructure and logistics as grant-in-aid from government.

In addition, we are setting up an Electronics Development Fund for promoting Venture Funds in ESDM area. We are also setting up incubators for supporting start-ups in the sector. As a part of NPE, the activity of developing and mandating standards has been initiated too. A scheme for providing assistance for setting-up of laboratories for testing of electronic goods has been approved as well.

3This is a very pertinent issue indeed. India has a vast pool of innovative and talented human resource. In fact, our human resource is our strength which we offer to an investor from abroad. We are aggressively working towards increasing the number of post,

How do you intend addressing the

skilled-manpower issue?

graduates and PhDs in Electronics such that abundant manpower is available for the industry to grow and flourish.

4

Many initiatives are being taken to promote R&D and IP development in the ESDM sector under the NPE. A Wo r k i n g G r o u p u n d e r t h e chairmanship of Shri Madhvan M Nambiar, former Secretary, Civil Aviation has been set up to consider R&D and IP development proposals.

5

It is the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) that for the backbone of any industry vertical and electronics is certainly no different. The incentives mentioned under various other initiatives are available for electronics MSMEs too. Besides those, there are some special incentives avai lable only for them. The government supports them by providing financial support in form of r e i m b u r s e m e n t s t o p r o m o t e manufacturing, to build quality into manufacturing, to encourage exports, to comply with standards and for developing Electronic Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs). This scheme is valid for two years as of now.

6

Of course, yes. We understand this aspect well and a policy notification for

Is there any action on Research &

Development (R&D) and Intellectual

Property (IP) development front as

well?

Are the small-scale units in the

sector receiving adequate support

from the government?

Is there any move to protect the

domestic manufacturer from the

onslaught of cheap imports?

providing preference to domestically manufactured electronic products in government procurement has been issued. The policy is applicable to all ministries/departments (except the Ministry of Defense). This would also be applicable for procurement of electronic products made under all Centrally-sponsored schemes and grants made by Central Government. The products notified for providing preference to domestic manufacturers are desktop PCs, dot matrix printers, tablet PCs, laptop PCs, contact smart cards, contactless smart cards and LED products. DGS&D and NICSI, the two major procurement agencies of the government are expected to ensure compliance of the policy in their procurement. The policy provides that all vendors would furnish an undertaking regarding their domestic value addition. In case of a complaint, STQC will be the agency to look into the domestic value addition. A template has been developed by all ministries/departments/organi-zations under their control for insertion in their RFPs/tenders such that due effect can be given to the policy with procuring the electronic items notified under the policy.

7

I must say that some of the States are pretty active. Several state govern-ments have come out with their own policies to facilitate, promote and develop Electronics System Design and Manufacturing sector. The states that have come out with Industrial Promotion/Electronics Hardware/ESDM Policy include Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The Central Government seems to

be doing its bit, but how are the

States faring?


CHANGE MAKER

Chhattisgarh Mantralaya Goes Digital

Shri Raman Singh, Hon'ble C.M., Chhattisgarh“Technology has been one of the greatest pillars of development in Chhattisgarh. I have always believed that strong e-governance is required to move forward and the ‘smoothness’ in o u r G 2 G ( G o v e r n m e n t - t o -Government) services will eventually strengthen our G2C (Government-to-Citizen) services as well. I am extremely happy that the Digital Secretariat Application is taking us towards strong G2G platform which supports fast decision making and will ultimately benefit people of the State. A greener future is our dream and with this system enabling paperless work, we are confident of achieving the same.”

Shri Aman Singh, Principal Secretary to CM, Information Technology & Biotechnology, Energy, Government of Chhattisgarh “We have leveraged best technology solutions in improving on our g o v e r n m e n t d e p a r t m e n t a l productivity and this has had a positive impact in our governance . A technology-enabled platform with due emphasis on fast processing and able monitoring is essential to ensure efficient workplace in the departments. The system, Digital Secretariat will help in enabling transparency in the governance with due security for the confidential documents.”

The Digital Secretariat and the need for it

When it comes to a government organization, information plays a vital role. Information is created, stored and forwarded by means of files, letters, notices, etc. Thousands of these are handled by the government offices each day and therefore it becomes imperative to streamline the flow of data such that it is available as and when required and can be managed and monitored properly. However, prior to this, another important phase that’s a must is to digitize the historical data in order to store and protect it in a logical pattern and enable its retrieval by authorized person for use in future.Moreover, there have been many cases of office fires in the recent past wherein thousands of important files got burnt. Besides, there can be other natural calamit ies as wel l as human i n t e r v e n t i o n s , i n t e n t i o n a l o r unintentional, which can cause havoc by damaging sensitive information. Considering all of the above, CHiPS (Chhattisgarh Infotech and Biotech Promotion Society) along with its i m p l e m e n t a t i o n p a r t n e r PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) s t a r t e d t h e d i g i t i z a t i o n a n d automation drive – the Digital Secretariat – for the Mantralaya and other government offices.

Key Issues

1. Volume of documents is rising exponentially and storing them is becoming a menace. Post the introduction of RTI Act, it is mandatory to store all documents and therefore no government

record can be destroyed even after a considerable period of time.

2. It is difficult to protect documents in case of fire, earthquake, floods, etc. Taking a physical backup is not only an expensive process, it is exposed to same risks as well.

3. One requires vast spaces to store them and the cost of preservation is high as well.

4. Referencing old documents is a daunting task. It’s arduous to track a particular document or letter amidst thousands of files. A lot many man-days are lost in the effort.

5. In government offices, files are processed at multiple levels. This makes the decision-making longer. N o t t o f o r g e t t h e i n t e r -departmental consultations. Consultations from Finance Department, Law Department, etc. are routine before taking any decision. And for this files move from one department to another for comments.

6. Prioritization is another problem area. Out of lakhs of files, at times only certain select files need to be searched and referred to.

7. I n s o m e c a s e s , ru l e s a n d regulations are not followed but it becomes difficult to conduct an audit on such a huge and busy process.

Key Requirements

1. A systematic digitization effort so that the important documents are scanned and stored.

2. Mapping the digitized files or documents with proper para-meters for easy retrieval.


3. Storing the data in a DMS with a logical pattern.

4. Maintain quality of digitization and make the documents searchable by means of Quality Checks and OCR (Optical Character Reading).

5. Self-upload facility for upcoming documents.

6. Proper access, authentication and authorization.

7. An automated application to enable the complete process automation for electronic file movement and storage.

8. Increase efficiency in terms of quick transactions and fast decision making process.

9. Smooth communication channel between the departments.

10. Ensure transparent administration by means of proper tracking of files, file history.

11. Monitoring activities at a higher level by means of reports and dashboards available easily.

12. Complete automation of the process will ensure reduction in paper usage (going green) and creation of DAKs and files from the system.

The project and its conceptualization To automate the various department offices in the State Mantralaya, a number of parameters like process automation for files and DAKs, user acceptability, proper storage of historical data, seamless transition, etc., had to be considered. Most of the users were comfortable with email system and therefore a simple, easy-to-understand system with email-like features and look and feel of manual files and correspondences was envisioned. The historical data storage was the next step wherein it was decided that the relevant documents and files should be scanned with proper quality and then uploaded on to the system with proper access rights.

The plan was that the documents could be used or referred to, as and when required in future, from the system itself without having to look for the manual file. Besides this, a change management program was designed such that users accustomed to the legacy system for years could easily use the new automated system. Major portion of the entire project timeline was dedicated to change management program like training and functional support to government employees.

Digital Secretariat

An automated process, one that follows rules and regulations of file management and makes the entire process standardized, efficient and fast, thereby reducing errors and e n h a n c i n g p r o d u c t i v i t y w a s developed. Proper tracking and monitoring through this system enables better control over huge volume of records in a busy schedule.

Project Objectives

Information and experience sharing inside as well as across the departments

To automate the routine official tasks in a system like creation of files/DAKs, tracking of files, file forwarding, etc.

Looking forward for a system which reduces human interventions will improve efficiency of the workplace

Reducing the life cycle time for a file movement and better monitoring and scheduling of the entire processes

Encourage users to adhere the policies, rules and regulations with no deviation

Tracking the history of file as well as run-time information of files can make the system more transparent

KEY FEATURES

Process Automation

Efficient Workplace

Enhance Productivity

Enable Policy- based

Processing

Enable Transparent Administ-

ration

Paper- less

Office

Knowledge Management

Greener future with paperless office where lakhs of files can be preserved


Transformation from a legacy system to a smart-automated system

I am waiting for a File

I am working on the File

I want to know the whereabouts of a File

I am outside Mantralaya

?Ask the responsible staff to provide me the file?The staff searches for the file?The staff processes the file and send to my table

?Go through the file content (both Correspondence and Notesheet entry)?Put Notesheet comments ?Add documents as necessary?Forward the file

?Ask the responsible employee regarding a file?If the file is in other departments, need to wait for the file to come back/

communicate to other departments

?All the previous steps becomes more difficult due to my absence?Need to go back to receive a file/work on a file?Communication becomes difficult due to my absence in the Mantralaya?Either I have to assign a Link Officer or I need to wait to go back to Mantralaya

Legacy System

I am waiting for a File

I am working on the File

I want to know the whereabouts of a File

I am outside Mantralaya

?Able to search it from an automated system and can know about the whereabouts (reduces dependency on others)

?Searching and Forwarding has to be fast and easy

?Able to refer to older relevant documents easily?Able to easily refer to other files by simple search mechanism?Easily put flags (even with specified page number) before forwarding the file

?Instantly get the history of a file with precise time stamps and allotted employee list through MIS Reports

?Should have multiple reports like Letter Report/File Tracker/User status to get the entire picture readily

?Can connect to my iPad/laptop to get the files in my Inbox ?Proper authentication shall ensure me of security?Able process the file on the move and forward the same?Helps me to resolve urgent jobs while outside Mantralaya

Smart-Automated System


The project had mainly two aspects - system related, under which the office automation system was designed and developed; and operational, that took care of the digitization of all existing documents and files. Strategies were adopted for both these domains to make the project successful. Let’s take a look at the operational part first i.e. scanning of the existing data.

All files, DAKs, APARs, service

books and personal files of every d e p a r t m e n t i n t h e S t a t e o f Chhattisgarh has been scanned and uploaded on to the system. Proper measures have been taken for maintaining quality and effectiveness of the scanned data. Mere scanning and uploading would not have sufficed or else it would have become nothing but a dump of data without logical ordering.

Each day, on an average, almost 1 lakh pages were

scanned in the Mantralaya.

A user with a laptop or iPad with internet connection actually carries the entire

department with him.

The most important section for this project was designing and developing the office automation. The legacy system had its own rules and regulations that were followed by all departments for long. These rules define various aspects of files and DAKs starting from their generation,

their nomenclature, their movements and the security aspects associated w i t h t h e documents.

Requi rements were gathered and rigorous analysis w e r e d o n e t o unders tand the rules and to ensure that the same were implemented in the n e w s y s t e m w i t h o u t a n y deviation. Various m o d u l e s w e r e developed in the system so that the file movement and

m a n a g e - m e n t c a n b e d o n e a u t o m a t i c a l l y w i t h o u t a n y dependencies.

Modules like File Movement, File Creation (R-files/Shadow Files/Part Files), File Search, File Conversion, Attaching correspondences to files, etc. are present in the system. Necessary care was taken to maintain the security of the files. Proper access rights were provided to the users so that a particular user from a particular department can view the files of that department only. Additional security features like OTP, SMS Notification, Digital Signature, Captcha, etc. are also provided to make the system robust.

The important modules in the system are as follows:

Creation of FIleAdd Documents to File

Search File/ DAKSearch Documents

Creation of DAKAdd DAK to File

Forward File/ DAK (Both Inter/ Intra Department)Access Inbox/ Sent Items/ Draft

Generate MIS Reports

Meeting SchedulerSend Meeting Request

File Management

Search

DAK Management

Task Management

Reports

Meetings


A comparative study of pre and post implementation processes

?Ask the responsible staff to provide the file?The staff searches for the file in the department

(manual searching may take hours to days as there are huge amount of files in every department )

?The staff processes the file and send to the table

?Need to go through the File contents like Notesheets and correspondences

?Put Notesheet comments?Attach the necessary documents?Forward the file

?In manual system, the files and DAKs are forwarded manually

?Often a considerable amount of time is wasted in the transaction period

?In case of inter, departmental file transfer, where the offices are in different location, this transaction time is even longer

?It takes time, effort as well as resources for forwarding a file from one office to another

?A manual file has to be created with a fresh Notesheet and necessary correspondences

?A proper file number has to be allocated as per the File Register (often error takes place due to human intervention)

?Need to put the subject of the file?Write the Notesheet comment and forward the file

?The meeting requests were send to the participants ?Generally the requests are send via official letters

(for a single meeting a number of photocopies of the same letter are produced to be sent to all the participants)

?Hard to maintain the meeting dates?Possibility of clashes of meetings at the same time

?The files or DAKs can be accessed only in the office within the official hour

?In case there is an urgency, the respective officers need to come to office to access the files

?If any officer is travelling to other location for official/personal reason, he or she cannot access the files. The entire process gets delayed due to the absence. Also, after returning to office the files are piled up in his or her table

?And Forwarding becomes fast and easy ?All the files are uploaded in the system and it can be easily

filtered by providing certain parameters like year, subject, can search it from the system and can know about the whereabouts (reduces dependency on others)

?Searching type, etc.

?Can easily refer to older relevant documents in bunch of correspondences

?Can easily refer to other files by simple search mechanism ?Can easily attach a document (pdf/docx/ppt/excel) directly

from the hard drives or from any existing DAK or files?Can easily put flags (even with specified page number) before

forwarding the file ?No paper will be wasted as the Notesheet is entirely automated

(multilingual facility provided for writing Notesheet)

?Mail like feature where a file or DAK can be send by selecting the recipient’s name or designation

?On clicking ‘Send’ button, the file or DAK is forwarded to the next user

?Thus, it saves time, paper, man effort and money

?The File creation facility is an integral part of the system?R-File, Part File, Shadow File can be created?The name of the file is generated automatically based on the

rules and regulations set by General Administration Department

?No page will be wasted

?A Meeting module is there in the system which can create a meeting request and can be sent to all the participants just by selecting their names in the system

?No wastage of paper; lesser effort required to send the meeting request to multiple participants

?The meeting-owner can monitor who the status/intentions of the participants regarding the meeting (Accepted/Rejected/ Pending)

?All the participants can see what others are doing regarding a meeting request

?Daily alerts will be provided in case there’s a meeting?The calendar feature summarizes the schedules of a particular

user

?The system is web based?If anybody is having Internet access and a device like laptop or

iPad, he or she can access the files that are sent to him/her (just like emails)

?Practically, the official is securely carrying the entire office with him in his laptop

?Necessary security features have been provided to keep the system unaffected from unauthorized accesses

?Features like OTP, digital signature, Captcha, etc. help the system to maintain necessary security

Search a File

Preparing a File

Forward File/ DAK

Creating a File

Meeting

Easy Access- Secured Access

Module Legacy System (Manual) Office Automation System


A brief overview

Paperless office – mission achieved! The world is looking forward to reduce carbon print and hence paperless office i s one of the most important propositions. If digitization is the first step towards paperless working, automation is the next. The only difference amidst the two is that digitization is a recurring process, as one has to scan and upload the new documents as and when they get generated while office automation is a one-time effort. For seamless trans-formation from manual to automated processes, PwC has developed systems which will act as a repository as well as help in automating the workplace. For example, the files can be generated, stored and forwarded through the system without using a single sheet of paper. Some of the innovations used in designing the process are:1. Digitized documents are stored

according to the metadata (file name, subject, department code, section, year, etc.) captured. This helps the user to easily search the corres-ponding files/documents/DAKs by filtering through the search criteria.

2. The digitized documents are stored in dynamic fashion, i.e. one can continue writing on a particular document after it is scanned. For example, a twenty page notesheet is scanned and uploaded in the system. The system encourages user to continue this notesheet through the system and whatever the user writes will get appended to the twenty-first page of the notesheet with proper designation and time stamp.

3. The look and feel of the system has been designed carefully such that it resembles the manual documents, thus helping the change manage-ment process.

4. The files stored in the system can be forwarded and received in a simple mail-like interface which saves time and money, thus increas ing productivity and efficiency. As e-mails are very popular among most of the users, this interface becomes quite familiar ensuring easier adoption.

5. Any document can be attached to a file from front end maintaining proper logical pattern.

6. The system helps in full-text searching wherein it can retrieve words from the document.

? Multi-lingual support is provided in the system. In Chhattisgarh Digital Secretariat, users can read and write both in Hindi and English in their files and documents.

7. The features like Part File, Shadow File, TL DAK, etc. are in-built features of the system.

The Road Ahead

The objective is to decrease the digitization effort and increase the automation effort gradually with time so that the papers are not required at the first place. The Government of Chhattisgarh has aimed to go paperless in Mantralaya and hence it has not restricted itself to only digitization. They have looked for an automated system such that the files are generated from the system itself without using a single paper. This approach along with initial digitization can bring a sustainable model wherein the Mantralaya will completely transform from manual work to automated process eventually.

FilesApproximately, 2.3 lakhs files are scanned during the project

DS STATUS

1.2 crores

42 departments

12 departments

30,000

8 departments

PagesTotal number of pages that were scanned is

more than 1.2 crores

DepartmentsDigitization work

completed in 42 departments of Mantralaya

TrainingTraining of the system provided

to Energy, Finance, GAD II, IT and BT, Planning, 20 Points,

Tourism, Culture, RTE, Transport, Higher Education, Labour,

Public Relation

TransactionAlmost 30,000 files and DAKs have been transacted through the system

ImplementationThe Digital Secretariat System is running in Energy, GAD II, IT & BT, Planning, 20 Points, Tourism, Culture, Transport. Also running inNRDA (outside Mantralaya)

2.3 lakhs


CASE STUDY

CLOUDMahaGovSet up at the State Data Center, based on VMware’s

virtualization technologies,the MahaGov cloud has

helped departments reduce project start up costs

from 20 crore to 5 crore.` `

t was around November 2011, that t h e D I T, G o v e r n m e n t o f IMaharashtra looked at adopting

the cloud approach for its then ongoing state data center (SDC) project. The objective was to reduce the cost of IT while increasing the flexibility and efficiency of the data center, such that it would allow the IT team to kickstart projects quickly and in a scalable manner.

With this in mind, a Proof of Concept (PoC) was initiated for creating cloud environments with both VMware and Microsoft’s virtuali-zation technologies. As the State Government has a lot of applications and wanted to avoid dependency on a particular technology, it chose to deploy both VMware and Microsoft’s virtualization platforms.

However, most of the critical applications are currently hosted on the private cloud infrastructure based on VMware’s virtualization platform. Close to 350 virtual machines have been deployed on the VMware-based infrastructure. The Government of Maharashtra has deployed VMware’s vSphere and VMware vCloud Director to virtualize the state data center, which hosts the MahaGov Cloud.

VMware was chosen after an extensive evaluation conducted by the

Government of Maharashtra. Shri. Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary IT for the Government of Maharashtra, said, “The Government of Maharashtra is committed to making e-governance a success in the state. We were confident that vir tual izat ion and c loud computing would play a critical role in enabling our vision for e-governance in the State of Maharashtra and have partnered with VMware, the industry leader, to help us on our cloud journey and fulfill this vision.

“State departments hosting their applications on the MahaGov Cloud will allow for better management of the state’s IT infrastructure, while also b r i n g i n g a b o u t t r a n s p a re n c y, efficiencies and lowering costs,” he added.

Through the MahaGov cloud, the State government is offering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to i ts var ious departments. Departments such as Public Health, Mhada, DIT, Charity Commissioner, Textile, Law and J u d i c i a r y, Wa t e r S u p p l y a n d Sanitation, IGRO, Food and Drugs, School Education, Social Justice, Relief & Rehabilitation, Forest, Tribal,

MOVING TO THE CLOUD

Bombay High Court, Rojgarwahini, UID, Solapur University, Sales Tax and Cidco are currently using the cloud to host their applications and web portals.

The deployment has helped the Government of Maharashtra lower the cost of host ing, improve the management of the state data center infrastructure, and drastically reduce the time required to provision infrastructure for various state departments. This has encouraged state departments to host their mission critical applications on the MahaGov Cloud, making it the only government cloud in India that is running a production environment with a high volume of servers and applications.

For instance, the template image and replication features provided by

The DIT has published a rate card for the cloud services that any government department or public sector undertaking can avail at a nominal cost. The

rate card helps limit indiscriminate use of the cloud resources and has also helped set an upper limit for prices of

standard services.


the platform has considerably reduced the time provision server resources, so much so that it took only three months to deploy the 350 VMs. Furthermore, the State Government has been able to keep its storage requirements in check due to thin provisioning. On the other hand, features like live migration have allowed the IT team to manage planned maintenance without any server or application downtime.

The Directorate of Information Technology (DIT) conducted a number of user awareness programmes and has laid down guidelines for state departments to confidently host their applications on the MahaGov Cloud. It has also published a rate card for these cloud services that any government d e p a r t m e n t o r p u b l i c s e c t o r undertaking can avail at a nominal cost. Based on the initial capital and

PAY-PER-USE

maintenance costs, the DIT created a billing and metering mechanism. A few departments were given dummy bills so that they have an idea of how much of resources are be ing provisioned and consumed by them. The rate card also helps limit indiscriminate use of the cloud resources and has helped set an upper limit for prices of standard services.

The flexible provisioning features and the pay-as-you-go model has yielded several benefits for MahaGov Cloud. Virtual machines for departments can be provisioned for as low as 4000-a month. DIT has been encouraging all state departments to proactively opt for MahaGov Cloud services for their IT requirements because it not only means lesser investment but also the time to start a project is accelerated. By hosting their infrastructure on the

DEPLOYMENT BENEFITS

`

MahaGov Cloud, the departments have been able to reduce project start up costs from 20 crore to 5 crore. The list of departments that have moved to the cloud prove that it has been well received by the State Government. This has prompted the SDC to go beyond IaaS and PaaS and offer Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), BI-as-a-Service (BiaaS), GIS-as-a-Service (GiaaS), API-as-a-Service (APIaaS) and Survey-as-a-Service (SyaaS) to further e n c o u r a g e t h e v a r i o u s s t a t e departments to adopt cloud on a larger scale. For instance, the GIS-as-a service enables state departments to take advantage of GIS and in future, it will also integrate data from smart meters in households across Maharashtra combined with UID data of that household. GIS would then become a common platform for delivering services across several schemes and programs that would benefit the citizen.

` `

Shri Rajesh AggarwalIAS, Secretary (IT),

Government of Maharasthra

“State departments hosting their applications on the MahaGov Cloud will allow for better

management of the state’s IT infrastructure, while also bringing about transparency,

efficiencies and lowering costs.”


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nTheir very own platform for productive deliberations and much more!

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All the officers recruited through the Civil Services Examination undergo long training for around two years in various training organizations and go on to occupy important leadership positions in their respective departments under the Government of India or under the Government of a State or a Union Territory. The Civil Services Examination prescribes similar eligibility conditions and similar educational qualifications for recruitment to all the above mentioned Services. The successful candidates in the CSE are allotted various Services from among the above-mentioned list based one’s rank in the merit list and preference for Services expressed by the candidates in their application forms. All the candidates appearing in the CSE will have to give their preferences for the Services mentioned above in their application form itself. So a candidate will have the option to choose any one Service over the other in his application form but the allotment is done based on the availability of vacancies in a particular Service and one’s rank in the CSE final merit list.

OPINION

(UN)EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORKThe Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts the elite Civil Services Examination (CSE) every year to recruit officers for around 18 Group ‘A’ Services and some Group ‘B’ Services. The CSE is a common examination for recruitment to the following Group ‘A’ Services:(1) Indian Administrative Service (IAS)(2) Indian Police Service (IPS)(3) Indian Foreign Service (IFS)(4) Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) – (IRS-IT)(5) Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Central Excise)

– (IRS-C&CE)(6) Indian Audit & Accounts Service (IAAS)(7) Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS)(8) Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS)(9) Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS)(10) Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES)(11) Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS)(12) Indian Ordnance Factories Service (IOFS)(13) Indian Postal Service (IPoS)(14) Indian P&T Accounts & Finance Service (IPTAFS)(15) Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS)(16) Indian Information Service (IIS)(17) Indian Trade Service (ITS)(18) Indian Corporate Law Service (ICLS)


RemunerationOnce recruited through the Civil Services Examination, all the successful candidates are placed in the Junior Time Scale (JTS) grade of pay. All the candidates will be on probation for two years, after which they will be confirmed in Service subject to fulfillment of eligibility criteria. These officers are promoted at regular intervals subject to fulfillment of the eligibility criteria prescribed by the respective Recruitment Rules of various Services. The various pay scales of these civil servants as they grow in the ladder of hierarchy are given below:

GradeS.

No.

Junior Time Scale (JTS)

Senior Time Scale (STS)

Junior Administrative Grade (JAG)

Non-functional Selection Grade in Junior Administrative Grade (NFSG)

Senior Administrative Grade (SAG)

Higher Administrative Grade (HAG)

Apex Scale

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

`

15,600 - 39,100 and Grade pay of 5,400

15,600 - 39,100 and Grade pay of 6,600

15,600 - 39,100 and Grade pay of 7,600

37,400 - 67,000 and Grade pay of 8,700

37,400 - 67,000 and Grade pay of 10,000

67,000 – annual increment @ 3% - 79,000

80,000 (fixed)

–

4 years

9 years

14 years

16-18 years

25 years

30 years

–

Under Secretary

Deputy Secretary

Director

Joint Secretary

Additional Secretary

Secretary

All these civil servants are given an annual increment of 3% over their basic pay on the 1st of July of every year. In addition to their basic pay, all these civil servants are given a Dearness Allowance (DA) to mitigate the impact of inflation. The DA is calculated as a percentage of the basic pay.

(Un)equal Pay for Equal WorkArticle 14 of the Constitution of India provides for the ‘Fundamental Right to Equality’ to all the citizens of India. The principle ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ is embodied in Article 39(d) of the Constitution of India. This very basic principle is being violated blatantly when it comes to the salaries

paid to the civil servants recruited by t h e c o m m o n C i v i l S e r v i c e s Examination. The IAS and IFS are accorded an edge over all the other Services by being given two additional increments @ 3% each over their basic pay at three grades, i.e. Senior Time Scale (STS), Junior Administrative Grade (JAG) & Non-functional Selection Grade (NFSG) despite all these Services being recruited by the same common examination with similar eligibility conditions and educational qualifications. The Dearness allowance (DA), given as percentage of basic salary, will further increase the gap between the IAS/IFS and other Services. The Transport Allowance and other Allowances are calculated as a percentage of basic salary or basic salary + DA. So it’s anybody’s guess as to what will be the difference in salaries being paid to an IAS/IFS officer and other officers belonging to other Services like IPS, IRS, etc. as a result of two additional increments being granted to IAS/IFS at three levels. In absolute terms, these two additional increments at three levels will lead to a difference of around ` 4,000-5,000 per month in salary between IAS/IFS and other Civil Services after four years of service, which increases to ` 15,000– 16,000 per month by 14th year and ` 18,000–20,000 per month by 17th year of service. Let us analyze the reasons for such a discriminatory arrangement in the pay structure of various Civil Services in India.

As with every other discriminatory policy/practice being followed or p e r p e t r a t e d i n I n d i a , t h i s discrimination in pay scales among various Civil Services has its roots in the erstwhile Bri t ish colonial administration. The Indian Civil Service (ICS) was an elite cadre of officers comprising predominantly the British nationals or Europeans that occupied every top administrative post/position during the British era in I n d i a . A f t e r I n d i a a t t a i n e d independence, this ICS was abolished and was replaced by the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Initially,

Eligibility(Minimum Qualifying

Service)

Equivalent Post in

Government of India

Pay Scale


the IAS used to occupy all important positions in the Government of India and used to head all the departments including that of the law and order. As the administration of various government functions became increasingly specialized, specialist Services were created to man the various specialized departments and head them. The Indian Revenue Service, various Accounts Services, various Railway Services, etc. were created one by one to take on the s p e c i a l i z e d f u n c t i o n s o f t h e government. Between 1947 and 1950, a combined competitive examination

was held once a year for recruitment to the IAS, IFS, IPS and non-technical Central Civil Services. The exam consisted of three compulsory papers (General English, Essay and General Knowledge) and three optional subjects (only two optional subjects for IPS). However, since 1951, two additional optional subjects of the Master ’s degree standard were prescribed for the IAS and IFS. So, since 1951, there used be three categories of Civil Services recruited through the same Civil Services Examination but having different levels of standards as follows:

S.No. Category Papers in Civil Services Examination

Category I Services(IAS & IFS)

Category II Services(IPS & Police Service Class II of Union Territories)

Category III Services(Central Services Class I and II)

1.

2.

3.

5 optional subjects &3 compulsory subjects



So, the candidates selected for IAS & IFS are of higher merit than those selected for IPS and other Central Services as they have to take and clear two additional optional subjects of the Master’s degree standard. So, the IAS and IFS were given a higher salary than the IPS and other Central Services. However, the scenario changed post the Kothari Committee recommen-dations of 1976. Based on the recommendations of the Kothari Committee, recruitment to IAS, IFS, IPS and other Central Civil Services was being made through a common unified Civil Services Examination to avoid any hierarchy among various Services since 1979. However, the edge enjoyed by the IAS/IFS over the other Services in respect of salaries is being continued even after 1979 citing one or the other reason.

The issue of parity between the IAS/IFS and other Group ‘A’ Central Civil Services in terms of pay scales and career progression cropped up

quite a number of times before the various committees and commissions appointed by the Government of India. The IAS-dominated Central Pay Commissions have recommended continuation of this edge enjoyed by the IAS/IFS over the other Services on some pretext or the other. The

argument put forward by the 6th C e n t r a l P a y C o m m i s s i o n i s reproduced below:

“3.2.7 The edge of IAS in pay scales is limited to Senior Time Scale, Junior Administrative Grade and Non-functional

Selection Grade. Other All India Services and Central Services have been demanding parity with IAS. This demand was projected before the various Central Pay Commissions constituted earlier but the edge has continued. The Fifth CPC recorded that no persuasive reason existed to do away with this edge. The position has not changed since then. The role of IAS is still very important in the overall scheme of governance. They have an important coordinating, multi-functional and integrating role in the administrative framework with wide experience of working across various levels in diverse areas in government. They hold important field level posts at the district level and at the cutting edge at the start of their careers with critical decision-making and crisis- management responsibilities. The leadership function, the strategic, coordinating and integrative role at this level requires the best talent available. The existing position would, therefore, need to be maintained. It will ensure that IAS officers near the beginning of their career are given slightly higher remuneration vis-à-vis other services and act as an incentive for the brightest candidates to enter this service. This is essential as the initial postings of IAS officers are generally to small places, they face frequent transfers and the pulls and pressures they have to stand upto early in their career are much more intense. The slight edge in the initial stages of their career would, to an extent, n eu t ra l i z e th e s e p rob l ems . The Commission, accordingly, is of view that the existing edge for IAS in the three grades, v iz . Sen ior Time Sca l e , Junior Administrative Grade and Non-Functional Selection Grade needs to be retained.”

The various arguments put forward by the votaries for an edge for IAS/IFS

1. 2005 417 3272. 2006 471 3793. 2007 628 5174. 2008 728 6055. 2009 866 7336. 2010 915 7297. 2011 802 6028. 2012 846 666

S.No.

Civil Services Exam Year

Rank of LastCandidate who was Allotted IAS

Number of Candidates in the Merit List above the Last IAS who Opted or were Allotted other Services


over other Civil Services in respect of pay scales can be broadly summarized as follows:

1. IAS officers are the best talent available among the candidates selected through the Civil Services Examination.

2. IAS officers are initially posted to small places, face frequent transfers and are subject to intense pulls and pressures.

Let us now analyze whether these arguments pass the test of scrutiny. It is often misunderstood that IAS is the first choice of every candidate appearing in the Civil Services Examination and that all those who are allotted IAS are the toppers in the Exam. The Service Allocation Lists for the Civil Services Examinations-2005 to 2012 are available on the website of the Department of Personnel and Training. Analysis of the same revealed startling myth-busting facts. The results of this analysis are summarized above.

Since the above analysis includes all the candidates including those covered by constitutionally mandated protective discrimination (SCs, STs, OBCs and PH candidates), an analysis of the Services allotted under the General Category was done. The results are as follows:

S.No.

Civil Services Exam Year

Rank of LastCandidate who was Allotted IAS

Number of Candidates in the Merit List above the Llast IAS who Opted or were Allotted other Services

1. 2005 56 62. 2006 50 23. 2007 78 84. 2008 81 85. 2009 70 36. 2010 83 47. 2011 97 48. 2012 110 9

The above two tables clearly indicate that around 70-80% of the total selected candidates in the Civil Services Examination in any year are allotted a Service other than IAS even though they were ahead in the merit list than the last candidate who was allotted IAS. Therefore, it is clearly evident that all those candidates who are allotted IAS in the Civil Services Examination merit list are neither the toppers of that year’s exam nor the brightest of the candidates selected in that year. In fact, the recommendations of the Kothari Committee for a unified c o m b i n e d e x a m i n a t i o n w a s implemented from the 1979 Civil Services Examination with a view to avoid any hierarchy among the different Services. So, the contention that IAS officers are the best talent available among the candidates selected through the Civil Services Examination is a myth perpetrated by the IAS lobby to gain an unfair advantage over the other sister Civil Services in the country.

A f t e r t h e f o u n d a t i o n a n d departmental trainings which may extend to a period of around two years, all the candidates selected through the Civil Services Examination are posted in their respective departments. The All-India Services (IAS and IPS) officers are allotted to a particular state cadre and are posted in that state/cadre. The Central Civil Services officers are posted in their respective Central Government departments. The 6th Central Pay Commission justified a higher pay for IAS by citing their initial postings to small places, frequent transfers and intense pulls and pressures. This justification in itself is highly self-contradictory. Initial postings of IPS and IFS officers are also to small places. The pulls and pressures on IPS officers are much more than on the IAS officers. The frequent transfers are seen more in the case of IPS than in the IAS. IPS officers are at the forefront of combating terrorism and naxalism, which are the biggest security threats the country is

facing. IPS officers are working overtime to ensure that public order is maintained across the country. The majority of the Central Civil Services officers belonging to Services like IRS (IT), IRS (C&CE), IDAS, IDES, IRTS and the Indian Forest Service officers are posted in the moffussil towns during their initial years of service. Some of them are posted in the remotest areas of the country like Jammu & Kashmir, North-East, Andaman & Nicobar Is lands, Lakshadweep, border areas, etc. Most often than not these Central Service officers work in highly inaccessible areas with deplorable and inhuman conditions, which is never the case with the IAS. An IAS officer is provided with all the facilities like a bungalow, car, maids, abundant office staff, security and subsidized power and water even in a very remote place. The living conditions of the Central Services officers are pathetic even in metros and at fairly senior positions. The less said the better about the living and working conditions of a newly recruited Central Civil Services officer posted in small places. The IRS officers posted in the Investigation Directorate face the harshest of the working conditions with significant pulls and pressures without any personal security. The Customs officers posted in border towns and coastal areas are always on their toes and also face immense pulls and pressures and are provided least or no personal security. The work pressure on the IRTS officers is comparable only to army officers’ field postings. It’s a 24x7 job like that of the IPS and IRS off i cers ( in Investigation Directorate). So, the crux of the matter is that every Service has its pulls and pressures and most of the Civil Services officers are posted in small places in their initial years of service. If at all a higher pay is to be given on the basis of postings to small places, frequent transfers, pulls and pressures, then IAS will definitely be disqualified and many other Civil Services will have a better right.

If a higher pay is to be given based on postings to smaller places, frequent transfers and pulls and pressures, can anybody justify as to how an Indian


Foreign Service (IFS) officer is qualified. IFS officers are posted in Indian Embassies abroad during their initial years. They are provided with best of the accommodations, facilities for children education, foreign allowance, etc. The pulls and pressures to which most of the IFS officers are subjected to are almost negligible and unheard of in most cases. They are never subjected to frequent transfers. They are never posted to smaller places. Then why are the IFS officers being given a salary edge along with IAS? So, the justification given by the 6th Central Pay Commission for a higher salary to IAS and IFS over the other Civil Services is unfair, prejudiced, self-contradictory and totally discriminatory. This is a good example of a self-perpetuating bureaucracy. This edge for IAS and IFS violates the principle of equity and equability.

What is the real cause of this disparity being perpetuated between the various sister Civil Services? The Central Pay Commissions are traditionally dominated by IAS officers. Non-IAS officers have never been made Members of the Central Pay Commissions. Even if appointed as Members, the non-IAS officers will be outnumbered by the IAS officers. The recommendat ions o f the Pay Commissions are drafted by the IAS officers who generally occupied posts like Secretary, Additional Secretary/ Joint Secretary in the various Pay Commissions. Once a Pay Commission submits its recommendations, the recommendations are studied by the Cabinet Secretariat (headed by an IAS officer), Department of Personnel and Training (headed by an IAS officer) and finally approved by the Department of Expenditure (headed by an IAS officer). The Union Cabinet gives the f i n a l a p p ro v a l b a s e d o n t h e recommendations of these IAS officer headed bodies. Hidden in the reports of every Central Pay Commission are the machinations of the IAS lobby to not only grant themselves the highest remuneration but also establish themselves as a Service superior to and above all other Civil Services and Armed Forces. There has been a trend

to establish the superiority of IAS among all other Civil Services from the First Central Pay Commission to the Fifth Central Pay Commission. The Sixth Central Pay Commission had institutionalized this trend. Over the years, Central Pay Commissions have turned into acrimonious and divisive affairs between the IAS on one side and non-IAS Civil Services and Armed Forces on the other side. Central Pay Commissions have only formalized the discrimination against non-IAS Civil Services and Armed Forces and perpetuated a colonial practice that favours IAS.ConclusionDr Ambedkar, in a speech to the Constituent Assembly on 10 October 1948, had said “India’s Constitution provides that there shall be an All India Service recruited on an all-India basis with common qualifications, with uniform scale of pay and the members of which alone could be appointed to these strategic posts throughout the Union”. The reports of the Central Pay C o m m i s s i o n s h a v e b e c o m e Bible/Koran/Gita, giving sanctity and rationale to the inequities and injustices of the bureaucratic caste system, which is as damaging as the original caste system to the well-being of modern India. Every Service in the country has been created with a purpose and every Service has its role to play. Some Services look after the statutory functions, some have regulatory functions and the others have commercial functions. All these functions are undertaken by the various Services on behalf of the various Governments and for the benefit of the people of this country. All the 60-odd Services functioning in this country are suffixed with the word 'Service' and are created to provide service to the people of this country and draw their salaries from the taxes paid by the taxpayers. Non-IAS officers are de-motivated because of this hegemony of the IAS lobby, which is leading to their low morale and consequent low performance. No Service is superior or inferior to the other in the administrative set up of this country. No reasoning can justify an edge in pay or conditions to a

particular Service over the others. Higher pay can be given only based on the working conditions but not based on the Service to which an officer belongs. Officers posted in harsh and tough conditions like in J&K, Leh/Ladakh, North-East, border areas, islands like Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep, etc. or officers placed in difficult and tough postings like anti-terrorist organizations, anti-naxal organizations, investigation, tough intelligence gathering, etc. or officers posted in places/offices where there is serious threat to life and limb should be given an additional pay calculated as percentage of basic salary irrespective of the Service to which he/she belongs. By ensuring the superiority of one Service at the cost of all other Services, we only ensure bad governance. Besides, this disparity amounts to violation of the basic Fundamental Right to Equality embodied in Article 14 and the principle ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ guaranteed by Article 39(d) of the Constitution of India. The fight for parity by the non-IAS officers has less to do with salary but for pride and dignity as they joined service along with IAS officers clearing the same examination and work in equally sensitive and responsible positions. One can only hope that the 7th Central Pay Commission takes the lead and removes this British-era inequality for better and motivated Civil Services. A motivated civil servant is the best instrument to achieve the results desired by the state and the society. Discontentment and lack of motivation will increase bureaucratic apathy and corruption and may trigger a flight of talent to the private sector. Nobody knows this better than our new but highly experienced and pro-reform Prime Minister.

The writer is an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer currently

posted as Deputy Director of Income Tax (Investigation) at Hyderabad.

The views expressed here are those of the writer and not that of the

government. The writer can be reached at [email protected]


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NEWS & ANALYSIS

Two bureaucrats were in news lately for

their bravado…and then for what

generally ensues, being shunted out. TBE

takes a closer look at what really

happened and what seems to be

emerging as a disturbing trend.

h e n e x t K h e m k a against the Hooda. This is precisely the tag T

that Pradeep Kasni had picked up for himself for he objected to the appointments made by the Chief Minister. And now he stands transferred. From b e i n g t h e S e c r e t a r y, Department of Administrative R e f o r m s i n t h e s t a t e government he is now the A d m i n i s t r a t o r o f t h e Command Area Development Agency (CADA) in Panchkula, a far unimportant role in comparison. According to the official press release, Kasni shall also look after the work of Project Director, Haryana AIDS Control Society, Panchkula.

He had refused to clear the appointment letters of five senior officers chosen for the job by Hooda citing violation of protocol. These officers were sworn in by Hooda. This could be challenged in the court as it is generally the governor's role to administer oaths. According to Kasni, the officers did not meet the criteria needed for their posts as per the provisions of section 13 (3) of the Haryana Right to Service Act, 2014, because they held an office of profit. His comments were however dismissed by the state government as not based on facts.

Post this, his boss – the chief secretary SC Chaudhary allegedly sent a threatening message to him which read…“Good night…please enjoy your new status as a celebrity… But agar apni maa ka doodh piya h to mere saare msg press ko dikha dena.” Chaudhary later defended himself by saying that Kasni was his friend and this message was sent in lighter vein as they exchange jokes. Kasni should have come to him and talked it out rather than going to the media, said he. Chaudhary also declared that he had sent another message expressing regret if his words had hurt Kasni's sentiments.

While Hooda claimed that he was authorized by the outgoing Governor Jagannath Pahadia to appoint the commissioners. However, BJP was of the view that permission should have been taken from the new Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki, a party nominee. They urged the new Governor to cancel the appointments of all commissioners and also demanded for a FIR against then Chief Secretary SC Choudhary. Later, Mr. Solanki sought an explanation from Hooda Government over this issue. Since the explanation would have been prepared by the Department of Administrative Reforms, it would have been inconvenient for Hooda Government to keep Kasni posted as Secretary there.

Kasni speaking to one of the news agencies said, “I don’t know why I was transferred. Only government can tell. I am used to transfers as I have seen 60 (transfers) in my service of 30 years. I don’t know for how long I would be allowed to stay on this assignment.” He said that there were immense irregularities and that his signed documents were tampered with and overwritten.

It is interesting to note that Chaudhary who retired from service on July 31, 2014 was appointed by Hooda on August 1, 2014, the very next day, as Chief Commissioner of the Right to Service (RTS) Commission. This appointment of his was cleared by the outgoing Governor Jagannath Pahadia on July 25, 2014, the last day of his tenure.

Another case of a bureaucrat being harassed is that of Mahesh Zagade in Mumbai. It is believed that the chemist lobby and multinational firms had pressured the Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan for shunting him out. And the CM did give in citing that the bureaucrat had completed his tenure as Commissioner, Food & Drug Administration.

THE HONEST GET REWARDED SHUNTED


Purushottam Bhapkar, the director of municipal administration has replaced Zagade.

According to a senior bureaucrat based in Mumbai, “We are not happy with the transfer policy. Zagade has been shunted because he has completed the tenure but the same logic should apply to Bhapkar as well. He has not even completed a year as director of the municipal administration whereas as per rules he should have finished at least three years at the job. There are 17 other bureaucrats who have completed their three year term but the Chief Minister isn’t moving them out. What’s even worse is that Zagade has not been given any charge as of now. It is the discretion of the State Government to provide extensions to officers. His performance has been exemplary and it is unfortunate that the CM is towing the line of the corrupt.”

Mahesh Zagade, a 1993-batch IAS officer became the Commissioner, Food & Drug Administration in 2011. The moment he discovered that Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, was never implemented in Maharashtra, he asked his subordinates to do the same. Zagade was surprised to learn that rules were being violated at all levels and crucial medicines were being sold without any prescription. He had booked several chemists who were running operations without a pharmacist. He was also instrumental for banning gutkha and pan masala in the State for three years in a row. Under his tenure, the FDA had started a special drive against doctors stocking antibiotics in bulk illegally. He had collaborated with Interpol to check the Internet pharmacy racket as well. The FDA had prohibited and seized illegal trade of addictive prescription drugs like anti-depressants and sex boosters (sildenafil citrate) worth crores. These were being exported to Japan, Western Europe and other countries sans any prescription. In fact, World Health Organization had recognized his efforts to ban tobacco-related products and he was bestowed with a global award.

For a little more than six decades, the iconic Ambassador has been an integral part of India’s babudom and polity. However, its production was suspended from May 2014 and that led to nostalgic memoirs and obituaries from across the world.

Ambassador going into the oblivion has hit the bureaucratic system. The car not just transported ministers and bureaucrats but its rate contract was used as the ceiling for procuring other cars. With the ‘power symbol’ gone, the government departments are in a fix to meet the increasing demand of staff cars within the approved budget, which they find insufficient.

AMBASSADOR, ‘THE POWER SYMBOL’ GOES INTO OBLIVION

In the last few months, the Department of Expenditure has been flooded with requests from the various ministries and departments to include new car models for staff cars. The department, under the Finance Ministry, has revised the guidelines to include other cars for procurement, superseding previous instructions on models approved for use as staff cars. But it is stuck in the Ambassador era as the price quoted and approved is not enough to procure luxury cars for bureaucrats.

The matter has been examined by Ministry of Finance in consultation with the Ministry of Commerce. It has been decided that models of cars with net dealer price of up to ` 4,75,000 available in the DGS&D rate contract shall be considered for purchase as staff cars. While the AC version of Ambassador was available for ̀ 4,63,000, officials say that it is impossible to purchase modern sedans with the current budget.

The Department of Expenditure has consulted financial advisors in the ministries to examine all the parameters before approving the purchase. The administrative secretary may decide on the model based on parameters.

The Urban Development Ministry bureaucrats are facing a new challenge. They have been asked to furnish a list of Sangh-BJP names for several government schemes but they do not have a clue. According to the sources, Modi Government plans to re-christen some 11 central schemes now bearing Nehru-Gandhi names.

“We are finding it extremely difficult. Venkaiah Naidu, the Urban Development Minister, will vet the list and send it across to the Prime Minister who shall have a final call on the issue. We are busy reading the RSS-BJP history and requesting our colleagues to come up with suggestions,” informed a Joint Secretary in the Urban Development Ministry on the condition of anonymity.

GOVERNMENT SCHEMES TO GET A SANGH-BJP NAME


In fact, even the journalists visiting bureaucrats in the ministry are being quizzed about possible names. “It was so easy under the UPA regime, when every scheme, big or small had to have a Nehru-Gandhi name. But the new government seems to be on a roll and they have changed names of several projects already,” he added. The problem is that names that are perennial Sangh favourites have already been taken. Sangh’s prime ideologue has replaced Rajiv Gandhi in the scheme for rural electrification, now called the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana. Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee has lent his name to the Rurban Mission, a programme to urbanise rural areas.

Babus are even considering Jayaprakash Narayan, Madan Mohan Malaviya and Vallabhbhai Patel. Unfortunately, like Upadhyaya and Mookerjee, Arun Jaitley’s budget last month claimed Malaviya and Jayaprakash too. A national centre for excellence in humanities, to be set up in Madhya Pradesh, has been named after Jayaprakash, the socialist icon who led an anti-Congress movement. Malaviya, one of the early leaders of the Right-wing Hindu Mahasabha, will adorn a yet-to-be-launched teachers’ training program.

Durga Shakti Nagpal, the 2010-batch IAS officer, has done it again. She is in the news headlines for showing the door to a Samajwadi Party (SP) leader, who was allegedly pressurizing her to put aside her office work and listen to him. Durga who shot into fame after she took on the sand mining mafia in Gautam Budh Nagar is now posted as the Chief Development Officer (CDO) in Mathura.

According to the reports, Jageshwar Yadav, who seemed to be in a hurry constantly reminded her of his connection with the top notches in the SP-led Government. He wanted to talk to her regarding re-boring some bore-wells. In reply, Durga told him that she would hear him after she is finished with the people who had been waiting to meet her for a long time. She also asked him to

DURGA DOES IT AGAIN

wait as she was in the middle of an important work.However, Yadav became aggressive and reminded her of

his connections with senior leaders of the SP. She immediately stood up and asked Yadav and his four aides to leave her chamber. She also asked the guards to ensure that her order was followed strictly.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has reportedly asked officers to listen to SP workers and solve their problems on a priority basis. A large number of officers alleged that such orders were the reason behind their frequent victimization. The locals claim that the IAS officer has been working hard to come up to the expectations of the poor people who flock to her office in large numbers every day.

This comes as a relief for almost 50 lakh Central Government employees. Modi’s Government has decided to amend the Lokpal and the Lokayukta Act to give itself a statutory power to withhold certain information from the public. All Central staff, as per the latest order of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), have to declare their assets and liabilities, both movable and immovable, as well as those of their spouses and dependents latest by September 15. All these information would then be put up by the respective ministries on their website accessible to everyone.

A number of representations received by the government from officials expressed fear that putting details of movable

CASH & JEWELRY DETAILS MAY BE WITHHELD BY THE GOVERNMENT


assets such as jewelry and cash in hand and bank would pose a security threat to them and their dependents, leave their children vulnerable to kidnapping and ransom demands. For instance, an official said he has put all savings in general provident fund which has accumulated to ` 75 lakhs over a period of time. Putting this information in the public domain would leave him and his family members vulnerable.

Sources said the amendment proposed only gives the government the statutory power to withhold information related to officials’ movable assets only such as his cash in hand or bank and jewelry owned by him or his family members. The government will not be empowered to hold back information on immovable assets: house or land owned by him.

The amendment also makes it clear that it will have no impact on the current asset declaration guidelines. The officials will have to continue declaring all their assets – movable and immovable as per the previous directive. Only difference the proposed amendment will make is to ensure certain information is not made public.

The DoPT is working on the proposed amendment and has already taken a view from the law ministry to bring in the required changes. Any fresh amendment will not impact the current declaration deadline of September 15 which is applicable for all employees.

Once these declarations are received by the government, it is for the respective ministries to put them up on its website accessible to all, except those related to the movable assets for which an amendment is required to implement it.

This comes as a yet another embarrassment for the UPA regime, particularly the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The former CAG Vinod Rai has claimed that coalition functionaries had deputed politicians to get him leave out names from the audit reports in the Coalgate and Commonwealth Games scams. In remarks damning the previous dispensation, he has also claimed that UPA functionaries had roped in even his colleagues in the IAS, to which he belonged before his appointment as CAG, to persuade him to leave out names.

Like some of the books that have recently hit the stands including those by the media adviser of the former Prime Minister Sanjay Baru, former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and former Coal Secretary PC Parakh that have been severe on Singh and his government, Rai is penning his views in his forthcoming book Not Just an Accountant to be released in October, that will be critical of the UPA regime.

UPA PRESSURIZED ME TO DROP NAMES: VINOD RAI, EX-CAG

Rai had demitted office last year after several run-i n s w i t h t h e U PA government and had estimated a ‘notional’ loss of ` 1,76,000 crore in the 2G spectrum allocation and ` 1,86,000 crore in Coal Block allocations. He has said he would provide details of how sheer considerations of survival led Singh to acquiesce to decisions which caused huge loss to the exchequer.

According to Vinod Rai, the Prime Minister is the first among equals. He has to take the last call which sometimes he did, sometimes he didn’t. Everything cannot be sacrificed only to remain in power. Governance cannot be sacrificed at the altar of compulsion of coalition politics. I have said it in the book.

According to the sources, each and every word in the book is factually correct. The purpose is not to tarnish image of somebody but to help in improving governance and systems in future. The language used in the book is so simple that people from all walks of life including students can understand. Asked why Rai is making these comments now and not earlier, the sources said, he was holding a constitutional post at that time and it would have undermined the status of the institution which he headed. Now he is free to talk about it and in the book he has spoken about every person, taking their names, who had criticized the institution and the mandate of the CAG to do performance audit. The title of the book was inspired from a Supreme Court observation in a judgment in a PIL that “the CAG is not just a munim (account).” Rai also said it was during the meetings of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that he came under pressure from the Congress members of the Committee, who put tough and hostile questions to him.

Bureaucrats who avail long spells of study leave will have to serve longer than the stipulated three years after returning to duty before resigning or quitting service. According to the revised bond that each All India Services (AIS) officer must sign before proceeding on study leave, the period for putting in service, after expiry of the study leave, will be extended by a comparable period, equivalent to the aggregate periods of leave of any kind availed by the officer during the currency of the bond period.

MISUSE OF STUDY LEAVE DISCOURAGED


In case they resign, retire or quit without resuming duty upon completion of the study leave, fail to complete the course of study, or at any time within a period of three/five years after their return to duty, the new bond format finalized by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) will make them liable to return the said sum to the government, along with interest.

One would recall that Aam Aadmi Party chief and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, a former IRS officer, had paid ` 9,27,787 as dues to the government last year for violating bond conditions by not putting in three years of active service after completing his study leave on full pay. Kejriwal had opposed the government’s demand by arguing that he had resumed duty upon completion of study leave but proceeded on unpaid leave for 18 months during the mandatory three-year period.

The DoPT, in a note sent to all Central ministries/ departments and the chief secretaries of all states/UTs, said it had come to its notice that “the provisions of the aforesaid (study leave) bond are being circumvented and officers who have availed of study leave proceed on prolonged spells of leave due and admissible to them and thus do not put in active service for the requisite period as indicated in the bond executed by them.”

Stating that it was reviewing the bond format to take care of this anomaly, the DoPT requested all ministries, departments and state governments to ensure that the study leave bond is obtained in the revised format.

As per the new bond format, in the event of an officer “failing to resume duty or resigning or retiring from service or otherwise quitting service without returning to duty after the expiry or termination of the period of study leave or failing to complete the course of study”, he/she shall pay to the government the sum together with interest, at rates in force on government loans.

Every minute counts. And Modi Sarkar is making this evidently clear to the bureaucrats. Matters are straightening up in sarkari offices in Delhi as the fear of being watched by hawk eyes is gripping the officials. The Central Government offices are on track to shun the archetypal ‘sarkari’ image, where babus turn up late, leave early and spend more time chatting than doing their work. Some have rescheduled timings of their charted buses and others are banking on carpool services to make it to the office on time.

BIOMETRIC ATTENDANCE & CCTV CAMERAS BEING DEPLOYED

The new government has ordered that an Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) be implemented in all Central Government offices. The objective is to check absenteeism and measure the time an employee spends in office and the time he or she checks in and checks out. The system will also seek to ensure that

employees cannot backdate attendance or mark attendance for someone else.

A circular issued to all Central Government offices in New Delhi has also asked employees, of all ranks, to submit their contact details (email ID, residential address, telephone and personal mobile phone numbers) to the Department of Personnel and Training that is with the Prime Minister’s Office. Delhi Police is already building a databank containing the cellphone number, email ID, name, rank and “personal number” and of every city cop, from constable to commissioner, on the orders of the PMO. A letter from the Home Ministry had asked for such a databank, which will also include the municipality in which the cop lives. All the station house officers are on the job collecting this data.

The circular however does not give a date from which the new attendance system will be implemented. It says that Aadhaar number is mandatory to register attendance. In fact, Jharkhand has become the first State to implement AEBAS. But a Central Government order essentially implies that this system will be implemented across the country starting from the capital, and then in all Central Government offices outside New Delhi.

The order is applicable for all employees, including those in the armed forces. To implement the system, all offices will have to install fingerprint scanners with Wi-fi Internet. Similar systems have been implemented in many private offices however they are not based on Aadhaar or the card issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India that was headed by Nandan Nilekani and created by the UPA II Government of Manmohan Singh in 2009. On July 1, Nilekani had met Modi and Jaitley. Both of them were impressed by Nilekani’s presentation on the Aadhaar scheme.


Meanwhile the Delhi Police seems clueless and befuddled by the demand from the PMO. According to a former IPS officer, “It seems that the PMO is emerging as the new control room and will keep an eye on all officers including the police. But this will take time as Delhi Police is arguably the world’s largest metropolitan force with 80,000 personnel of which nearly 50,000 are constables.” Delhi Police missed the first deadline for the task.

Besides the biometric attendance system forcing employees to reach on time, emails are being sent to habitual latecomers seeking reasons for showing up late. Soon CCTV cameras will also keep a hawk’s eye on them. The work has already started in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in Oil and the Corporate Affairs Ministry. Some offices, especially the PMO, have even stopped offering tea to visitors. According to an official in the PMO, who had also worked in Gujarat during Modi’s tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister, tea and snacks used to be served to employees at their desk so that they don’t take frequent tea breaks, thus hampering work.

According to a new dictat, the Centre has said that proposals for trips abroad should go through the PMO and Screening Committee of Secretaries for approval. Taking a note of the fact that norms for foreign visits are not being followed, Centre has said that clearances from PMO, Ministry of External Affairs and Home Ministry are necessary for going abroad. Besides, details of such visits should be uploaded on the website of the ministries. The guidelines issued by the Central Secretariat and Finance Ministry for processing of bureaucrats’ foreign visit proposals state that these must now be routed through the Integrated Finance Division for prior consultation before approval from the competent authority in the ministry concerned.

As per the guidelines, the FTP (Foreign Travel Proforma) should be accompanied with enclosures, including invitation letter, agenda, brief/country position duly

TRIPS ABROAD WILL NOT ‘EASY’ ANYMORE

approved by the competent authority along with clearances from MEA, PMO, MHA, etc. The time-lines for submitting proposals to the PMO and Screening Committee of Secretaries is at least 10 days and 15 days, respectively, before the date of departure. In case a proposal is delayed, condonation of delay from PMO/Cabinet Secretary must accompany the proposal. All proposals for foreign travel seeking approval of the Screening Committee of Secretaries should be forwarded by the Additional Secretary and Finance Adviser to the appropriate authority as per subject orders and not by any other officer.

The 19-column proforma, issued by the Expenditure Department, includes queries on prior official foreign visits, returns of such visits or why, in case of a senior officer, a junior officer cannot travel to achieve the objectives of the visit. The guidelines also add that on return from the tour abroad, the leader of the delegation/official concerned, besides submitting the tour report, shall also submit a separate note summarizing the major achievements of the visit, follow-up action needed and the way forward.

Modi is scouting for out-of-the-box ideas and this is precisely why he has ordered Vichar Petikas or idea boxes to be placed in North Block. New ideas is what the Pr ime Minister expects from government employees at all levels. These idea boxes, placed at strategic points, are to be used by all the staffers whenever they get a brainwave on what the new government needs to do. All the suggestions thus obtained will be collated and put into action, provided they are actionable. DoPT has issued a “please respond” note encouraging officials to drop suggestions on governance-related matters. Since assuming office, Prime Minister Modi has underlined the fact that he wants people’s participation in the governance process. The Centre has launched a website www.mygov.nic.in to ensure that people have direct partnership in matters of governance.

HAVE A NEW IDEA? BOX IT IN THE VICHAR PETIKA!


RED-TAPISM IS PASSÉ WHEN IT COMES TO INFRASTRUCTURE According to the sources, 11 major highway project proposals were caught in a bureaucratic tangle only because the Road Transport and Highways Ministry and the Planning Commission were at loggerheads with each other. Private infrastructure developers with highly leveraged balance sheets have no room for fresh equity investments, so there have been few bids for new highway projects using the

public-private partnership or PPP model over the past two years. The ministry has, therefore, been keen on starting these projects through the more traditional model where the government simply pays a private firm for executing the project. But the P l a n n i n g C o m m i s s i o n disagreed with this approach, stating that bids must first be

invited on PPP basis and alternatives should be considered only if the firms do not evince any interest in this model. Nitin Gadkari, the new Road Transport and Shipping Minister, was informed that if things worked the way Planning Commission wanted them to, it would entail a further delay of six months before construction could begin.

However, when Prime Minister Modi learnt about this, he asked Gadkari to immediately bring them to the Cabinet and cleared them to be implemented through public funding. For the ministry officials, used to painfully slow policy reactions to the sector’s growing worries under the UPA regime, such a decisive action was startling indeed. According to Gadkari, our ministry has always had many fathers – the Planning Commission, consultants, etc. The state of affairs in road building sector was deplorable and led to accumulation of non-performing assets of ` 2.4 lakh in the recent years. Post the change in regime, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has held hectic parleys with bankers, developers and state governments to resolve problems of many of the ongoing highway projects worth ` 1.9 lakh crore that were held up. This is indeed a good barometer of the energy infused into governance by the new regime.

Seeking to deliver on its minimum government, maximum governance promise, the NDA Government has not only scrapped the instruments that UPA ended up deferring decisions with – groups of ministers, empowered and otherwise – but also done away with a handful of cabinet committees that rarely met to discuss issues. “More

committees spell inordinate delays. If everyone has to come together to work, it often means no one will work. The more the committees, the more the delays, the more the problems,” added Gadkari.

So while fewer layers have smoothed and expedited decisions on the one hand, Modi has pre-empted the inter-ministerial sniping that often dogged the UPA and made consensus elusive, by giving ministers joint charge of portfolios prone to sparring. That Jaitley handles finance, defence and corporate affairs in tandem with junior minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is entrusted with commerce and industry while Piyush Goyal is in-charge of coal and power, has reduced the friction between these departments that was a permanent feature under the UPA.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has constituted a committee to identify all obsolete and archaic laws with a view to weeding them out systematically. The panel, to be chaired by secretary in the PMO R Ramanujam and comprising former secretary, legislative department, VK Bhasin, will examine all Acts recommended for repeal by the Committee on Review of Administrative Laws appointed in 1998 by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government.

According to an official press release, the Prime Minister has expressed concern that out of the 1,382 Acts recommended for repeal by that Committee, only 415 have been repealed so far. He has called for a focused and result-oriented exercise to systematically weed out archaic laws and rules. The PM reportedly believes the archaic laws only hamper governance by creating avoidable confusion.

The Ramanujam Committee will examine Acts and rules which may have become obsolete in the last 10-15 years. It has been directed to submit its report within three months, to enable the government to bring a comprehensive bill in the winter session of Parliament in line with its recommendation.

JADED LAWS ARE BEING DONE AWAY WITH


THE SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT

Towards a stress-freelife

young preacher was just getting acquainted with his duties. One of his first chores was to visit the Ahospital where Mulla Nasrudin, a member of his

flock, was confined as a result of an automobile accident. The Mulla had been seriously injured: a broken leg, both arms broken, a broken collar bone, terrible cuts over his face and head, and several broken ribs. He was so thoroughly bandaged and taped and strapped up that only his two eyes and mouth were showing. The young preacher was at a loss for words, but realized that he must say something, so he asked the Mulla: “How do you feel today? I suppose all of those broken bones and cuts cause a great deal of pain. Do you suffer very much?” “NO, NOT MUCH,” said Nasrudin, “ONLY WHEN I LAUGH.”

Undying enthusiasm is one aspect of being in perfect health. The word health in Sanskrit means an enlightened being. ‘Swasthi’ means one who is established in self. What are the signs of being in oneself? First is enthusiasm – one who can laugh and say “today nothing worked.” To be able to say that you need a state of mind that is stress-free and tension proof.

There are two conditions of the mind. One is body and mind together. And the other is body and the mind looking in different directions. Whether it is schools or in hospitals,

attention deficiency syndrome is so prevalent today. So mindfulness, being alert and aware, is the second sign of good health. Sometimes when you are stressed, you are also alert, but that is not good. You need to be alert as well as relaxed and that is what you call enlightenment.

Half of our health we spend in gaining wealth and then we spend that wealth to gain back our health. This is not economical. We do not take care of our mind and our spirit. There are seven layers to our existence – body, breath, mind, intellect, memory, ego and self. It is the breath that connects the body and the mind. Self is the subtlest aspect of our being, our existence. Everything goes on to change, the body undergoes a change and so does our mind. Mind is thoughts and the sense of perception in your consciousness that changes all the time; intellect, understanding, judgements, intellect changes, memory, ego.

But there is something that doesn’t change within you. And that is called self, which is the reference point of all the changes. Unless and until you are in touch with this subtlest aspect, you are not called a healthy person according to the ancient system of Ayurveda.

Nature has provided us with an in-built mechanism. Every night we sleep. Sleep is very important as that is when the body releases stress and energy gets recuperated. To

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar


some extent, sleep takes care of the fatigue. But most of the times, stresses remain in the system. For tackling these kinds of stresses, there are techniques of pranayama and meditation which focus on how the rhythm of breath is linked to the state of the mind.

For every emotion, there is a particular rhythm in the breath. Slow, long inhalation indicates pleasure and forceful exhalation indicates stress. So our breath is linked to our emotions. The emotions are definitely one of the factors of stress. Emotional instability causes stress.

Your body language indicates your state of mind and energy in the system. We are encapsuled in a cloud of energy which is called consciousness. You have a candle and a wick. When you light, put a match stick to the candle, what happens? The wick gets the glow around that. The same hydrocarbon is there in the candle, wick is also there. But once it is ignited, the glow comes on top of the wick. Same way body is like the wick of the candle and what is around the body is the consciousness, which makes you alive, which keeps you alive.

Have you seen animals when they get wet or when they play in the dust? What they do when they come out? They shake their full body, shake their hands and their body. Get all those things out of them. But we human beings hold onto everything, all the stress. Just looking at a dog or puppy or cat we should know how you should shake everything off. When you come to office, you should shake the home off.

When you go back home, you should shake the office off your back.

All the yoga postures, exercises are made by nature. If you observe a baby, from the time it is born to the age of 3, he or she does all the yoga asanas. You need to observe their breathing patterns too. The way a baby breathes is much different from the way an adult does. It is stress that causes the breathing pattern in adults to change.

When you are stressed, you frown. Whenever you frown, you use 72 nerves and muscles in your face. But when you smile you use only 4. So you give more work to your face every time you frown. More work means more stress. Stress also makes your smile disappear.

Never mind if some failure happens here and there, so what? Every failure is a big step for success. That’s it, pump up your enthusiasm. If you have the skill can turn any situation around and induce little humour in it. Humour is very good greasing for avoiding stress.

Avoid getting stressed. And what is that you can do avoid getting stressed, that is meditation. That is seeing life from a broader perspective. Meditation is not concentration. It is not doing something. Its deep relaxation. For meditation we have three golden rules. I want nothing, I do nothing and I am nothing. Follow Sri Sri @SriSriSpeaks Website: www.artofliving.org


FOR THE BOOKWORM

Memoirs of Bureaucrats

Born in Delhi on 1 October 1948, Robin Gupta decided on a career in the civil service early in his life. After a brief stint with the Indian Police Service, he was accepted into the Indian Administrative Service in 1974. His deputations included challenging assignments throughout the country, and he was posted as commissioner in the field on seven separate occasions, a record in the history of Indian Civil service. His final posting before retirement was as financial commi-ssioner, Government of Punjab.

“[This book] mirrors the chiaroscuro of contemporary India as observed by a civil servant…. [It] is a literary masterpiece.” – Khushwant Singh

A career civil servant, Robin Gupta has had the unique distinction of serving in four Indian provinces – Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab – apart from a long period of deputation with the Central Government. He has travelled far and wide across the country and the world and, with an active role in India’s governance and politics, he has observed it grow and change over the l a s t f o u r d e c a d e s . I n t u r n philosophical, sensitive and laced with gentle humour, this is a book that provides the reader with a window into that evolution of India, and the part played by civil servants in its advancement.

From attending lavish parties at exclusive clubs, to working in isolation in far flung, impoverished corners of India; from deal ing with the complexities of bureaucracy, to his contributions to policy-making and development; from encountering both brilliance and apathy in men and women, to the satisfaction of being able to help one’s fellow citizens – Robin Gupta documents his experiences with candour, warmth and a deep appreciation of the absurdities of the human condition. Lucid and poignant, And What Remains in the End is not only an account of a rich life but also a

Here is an eclectic selection of ‘memoirs’ written by seasoned bureaucrats. Expectedly, these are detailed accounts of their heydays and myriad experiences in the system. Unexpectedly, these don’t make for banal reading, neither are these attempts at pontification nor exercises in self-glorification.

portrait of a country in motion and a testament to those who dedicated their lives to serving their nation.

Maharaj Krishen Kaw, born in Srinagar in 1941 joined IAS when he was 23 years old. He was allocated the Himachal Pradesh cadre and has served the State at important positions including Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Finance Secretary, Education Secretary and Personnel Secretary. He has also served at the Centre for 15 years and held posts of repute like Civil Aviation Secretary and HRD Secretary.


This is an intimate, inside look at the state of the Indian Administrative Service, with nothing held back. It lays bare the activities of the modern mandarins behind bolted portals, describing how they crawl up the grease pole of success, manipulating inlaws and outlaws with equal felicity.

The way they bootlick superiors is only matched by the fervor of their pontification at juniors. The tussles at the top get really gory, as the commitment is to individuals rather than principles. Himself a senior IAS officer, the author tears off the mask and exposes the authentic face of his own clan.

Bureaucrazy was first published in 1993. Its first edition was sold out in 30 days. It was translated into Hindi and Punjabi under the title Afsarshahi Benaqab. Over the years, there has been a clamor for Bureaucrazy 2. This is a revised and updated edition of the original with 15 new chapters in addition to the 31 of the first edition.

It all begins with the bumpy Jonga ride in the woods – his childhood illegal poaching expedition under the patronage of a band of idle cops, to bring in a full partridge and half-a-black-buck to conjure up the dinner for his father’s boss. That day, eight-year-old Kartikeya Kukreja solemnly swears, that one day he too would be revered as ‘IAS’.

Kartikeya eventually discovers the secret how his father ’s fawning subordinates wriggle their way up the pyramid. When it is his own turn, Kartikeya experiences a similar hilarious predicament. Idiotically, he sees time rush by through a lifetime spent in inanities, and all but feels like the redundant antique table that moves out with him on his every transfer!

All this while, the web of Revati’s elusive dreams tantalizes him, as his wife and children pull him back to the real world. Will he juggle the two well, or lose himself in it forever? Pyramid of Virgin Dreams is a refreshingly original rendition of the slippery life in the bureaucracy. The book is spunky and replete with comical imageries drawn from a farcical, albeit hopeful India.

Mahesh Prasad has had a long and distinguished career as a civil servant in the Indian Administrative Service. He retired from the rank of Cabinet Secretary, as Chairman India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO). During his career spanning 40 years, he has held several posts at the Centre – Joint Secretary in the Ministries of Home and Commerce; Advisor, Planning Commission; secretary level positions in Ministries of Finance, I n d u s t r y, E n v i r o n m e n t , a n d Information & Broadcasting. He attained his education from Lucknow University and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Currently, he is on board of several commercial and charitable organizations.

The bard wrote: “The course of true love never ran smooth”. The same is true of this book. It is the memoirs of a civil servant who followed the path of rectitude. This is an interesting autobiographical account full of anecdotes and the author’s personal observations on the bureaucracy, politics and life. It covers a fascinating period in India’s political and administrative fabric and gives us insights into the working of the civil services.

As Mahesh Prasad observes, “The career of a civil servant which may appear to be glittering to outsiders is an eternal struggle”. As he says, there are those who are happy saying ‘Yes, Minister’, and so reap the benefits that come their way. Those who dare to oppose the Minister have to face the consequences. Dealing with the steel frame, it unveils the seeping in of corruption and inequity in the bureaucracy. The book is replete with self-deprecating humour and bon mots and is well worth a read.

Author Vipul Mittra is an IAS officer based at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. As Principal Secretary, Tourism, he ‘appointed’ the legendary actor A m i t a b h B a c h c h a n a s b r a n d ambassador on Modi’s insistence.


Bhaskar Ghose jo ined Indian Administrative Service in 1960 and retired in 1996 after thirty-six years of long and successful tenure. He has served at different positions of repute both in West Bengal, the State assigned to him, and Centre. Some of important postings amidst these were DG, Doordarshan; Secretary, department of Culture, Ministry of Human Resource Development; and Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. He has also been a visiting fellow at University of Oxford. His daughter Sagarika is a renowned TV journalist.

Through this book, Ghose raises a lot of pertinent questions about the role, relevance and effectiveness of India’s system of administration – Should IAS govern modern India, as generalists are they ‘fit’ enough to rule facilities as diverse as industrial units and rural development boards, and if they should be replaced then what are the alternatives available? Do not make the mistake of treating this book as a sheer memoir of a retired civil servant. Instead, it is a very timely argument, right answers to which can pave the way for India’s success as a nation.

Javid Chowdhury has been a career bureaucrat. As an IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, he has served as Union Secretary in the Ministry of Food, Department of Revenue and the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. Post retirement, he is living in Delhi with his family and spends his time contributing for a public health-related NGO.

In this illuminating memoir, Javid Chowdhury shares his varied experiences over four decades in the IAS: the years in training, when he imbibed the services ethos and values; his initiation into the rural universe as the District Development Officer and the District Magistrate; and further on, to his handling of the infamous Bank Securities and Jain hawala scams as Director of Enforcement and Union Revenue Secretary.

With a light pen, Chowdhury describes the changing social profile and attitudes of entrants to the higher civil services; the nepotism, in many garbs, that he encountered as Establishment Officer; and the stranger than fiction tortuous investigations of crimes. He also offers his nuanced reflections on the dubious legacy Gujarat acquired as a result of the communal carnage in 2002.

This is another candid account of an IAS officer’s life while he was in the service. It starts from his first posting as Assistant Collector in Odisha to more action-packed days during Punjab militancy, taking care of India’s internal security as the Home Secretary, as Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and finally the six-year long and successful stint as Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

His efforts to stem corruption resulted in a loss of promotion for two years. His colleagues were upset about his plight and some of them were of the view that it was not prudent to defy corrupt politicians who can harm one’s career. Somiah, however, heartily disagreed with them. Somiah’s narrative is well-knit and crisply put together.

It takes us back to the exciting days of Rajiv Gandhi’s prime ministership and gives us a glimpse into the discussions that took place at the highest political level. As its title suggests, The Honest Always Stand Alone marks the journey of a man who always upheld the truth.


GLOBAL VISION

PRESS

Something very important is missing in the world today and it’s no secret as to what it is. It is sad but true that common sense isn’t common anymore. The problem we face in living today, require something that has been lost — a collective consciousness of common sense. Some say that it has been bred out of the human gene pool. That is serious business!

I have studied long-term success all my professional life and I can tell you the most important common denominator — that success is built on a foundation of common sense. Without it, success is just a fleeting dream of rambling images. No one in the history of the world has achieved genuine success and the real peace of heart that comes with it, without learning and using good old common sense.

is a book of common sense. This book gives you seven simple ways to improve your store of it that guarantees more success than you can imagine. Here are the seven simple ways to find the valuable 5% truth that is hidden away in the 95% worthless, non-sensical information overload that doubles every two years:

admits funny mistakes and offers plenty of practical solutions to improve success in these seven important areas of living, working and relating. It is your easy-to-read guide to start going from surviving to thriving.

Reality Repair

Purpose | Principles | Perspectives | Passions Polarizations | Priorities | Problems

Reality Repair

REALITY REPAIR

BY KNOWING A LITTLEBY KNOWING A LITTLE

FIXING A LOT,FIXING A LOT,

Reality Repair will make your life a lot easier and more fun. More than anything, it will build your store of common sense solutions to today’s problems in living, working and relating.

Be one of the first to start managing time better by “Fixing a lot by knowing a little.”

The treasure is in the Land of Simple — the common sense that modern day living robbed you of. Isn’t it about time you reclaimed what was yours and have the success and peace of heart that goes along with it? Certainly!

William Cottringer, Ph.D.

About the AuthorDr. Bill has taken the long way home in his own

personal/spiritual journey. His journey to get to the simple ideas in Reality Repair has been a long, winding road full of bumps, bruises and broken bones, but loaded with colorful scenery, interesting diversions and satisfying rewards. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

This long and often trying journey took him through getting one undergraduate and three graduate degrees in psychology, several marriages and domestic partnerships, living and working in three other countries and eight states in seven different careers, practicing a variety of religions from Buddhism to Baptist to Episcopalian, taking and giving hundreds of self-development workshops, lots of hobbies from sports to building birdhouses, reading thousands of books and writing several hundred articles and seven other books. Lots of brick walls and earthquakes too. But also lots of lifelong friendships around the globe.

At present, the author serves as president of a large security company, consults, teaches, writes, plays, does some photography and lives in the mountains of North Bend with his wife Jane, and their cat Murphy who has a dog complex.

ISBN—978-81-909013-9-0

GLOBAL VISION PRESS 24, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002www.globalvisionpress.com | [email protected]

Available at

MATTERS OF THE MIND

Dr. Neelesh Tiwari, Chairman & Managing Director, World Brain Centre Hospital, New Delhi

Stigma towards, and

discrimination against, people

with mental disorders is an

important barrier to mental

health service utilization in

India. It contributes to delays

in seeking care, impedes

timely diagnosis and

treatment for mental

disorders, serves as an

impediment to recovery and

rehabilitation, and ultimately

reduces the opportunity for

fuller participation in life.

Combating stigma towards mental illness

n India, there is a need to generate evidence base for context specific Iinterventions that will address

negative attitudes towards people with mental disorders and ensure implementation of these interventions by involving users, care-givers, community health workers and mental health service providers.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare suggests that 6-7% of India’s population suffers from mental disorders with about 1% suffering from severe mental disorders. Mental illnesses like Schizophrenia and Bi-polar disorder are prevalent in about 200 cases per 10000 people. The burden of these disorders is likely to increase to 15% by 2020. Statistics show that 97% of patients believed that stigma was caused by a lack of awareness about schizophrenia, followed by the nature of the illness itself (73%). Behavioural symptoms associated with schizophrenia are also

thought to cause stigma, whereas drug-related complications are seen as playing a less influential role in stigma. Sixty-nine percent of patients feel that stigma comes from attitudes from the general community, 46% from co-workers and 42% from family members.

Mental illness, despite centuries of learning and the “Decade of the Brain’, is still perceived as an indulgence, a sign of weakness. Self-stigmatisation has been described, and there are numerous personal accounts of psychiatric illness, where shame overrides even the most extreme of symptoms.

Patient and their families suffer alike from stigma. Family and friends suffer by mere association with the patient. Professionals are no different in this regard, and hide psychiatric illness in themselves or a family member. So, unlike physical illness, when social

Families suffer with the patients

resources are mobilised, people with mental disorders are removed from potential supports. Outcomes are affected further when people suffering from mental disorders lose out on their social networks.

Consequences of stigma can be life threatening and humiliating. It can deprive an individual from basic needs, marginalize and deprive them, potentially leading to their death by self-neglect or suicide. As per World Health Report, one of the identified reasons for low support for mental health is the stigma attached to mentally ill individuals. Being mentally ill is still considered a shameful condition that causes the person or the family to lose face. In some cultures, to have a mentally ill relative could, by association, damage the possibilities of advancement of other family members, to an extent where it might harm the marriage

Consequences of Stigma


prospects of a young daughter or sister.Reduced life satisfaction emerges as

a key aspect of the subjective experience of stigma. Research shows that the experience of stigmatisation is common among patients who most frequently reported having concealed their illness, witnessed others saying offensive things about the mentally ill, were worried about being viewed unfavourably and treated as less competent. Higher levels of stigma are related to lower subjective quality of life and younger age of illness onset.

Patients also feel rejection from family members. People with mental illness experience stigma during the course of their illness and treatment, and it is an important predictor for the relapse of symptoms and non-compliance to treatment. Many patients feel that they are being ignored because of their illness, and overhearing offensive comments about mental illness.

It is clear that stigma leads to negative outcomes for those with mental illnesses. Specifically, it means because of it, the mentally ill avoid seeking treatment because they fear being discovered and in turn shunned from society. Consequently, they increase their duration of untreated illness and continue to experience debilitating symptoms and as a result face the very stigma they were attempting to avoid in the first place

We must implement ways of managing stigma or more realistically the perception of the stigmatising events in order to increase the probability of seeking treatment. Most important in this regard is to create awareness in the community about mental illnesses and their treatment. Take a quick look at few myths and facts about mental illness:

Negative Outcomes of Stigma

Combating Stigma

MYTHS

Mental illnesses are due to

weak characters or

inadequate coping skills

Treatment for mental

illnesses is a COP-OUT for

weak people

Once you feel better, you can

stop taking your psychiatric

medicines on your own

Once you have depression

or bipolar disorder, you will

never achieve your full

potential

All patients with

schizophrenia are dangerous

FACTS

Mental illnesses are medical

illnesses with biological and

psychosocial origins like all

other illnesses

Treatment is necessary for

mental illnesses like it is for

other medical illnesses like

diabetes and heart disease

Almost all patients with mental

illness need maintenance

treatment for a period of time

and sometimes lifelong to

prevent relapses and

recurrences just like diabetes

and heart disease patients

Some of the most successful

people in the world have had

depression or bipolar disorder

including Isaac Newton,

Winston Churchill, Beethoven,

Brad Pitt, Oprah Winfrey

Only a small proportion of

patients with schizophrenia can

be violent, usually when

untreated

The need of the hour is in realizing the urgency in which we need to create awareness about mental illnesses, their effects and their treatment in the Indian setting. Lack of awareness c a u s e s s t i g m a w h i c h f u r t h e r discriminates and isolates people. It also prevents people from seeking and completing their treatment.

We would like to draw the attention of bureaucrats and policymakers working in the area of health care to

cater to this unattended field and request them to develop policies that sensitize the general society towards mental illness. At least each one of us can wow to avoid stigmatization of the mentally ill and spread awareness about psychiatric illnesses.

Dr. Neelesh TiwariMD (Neuropsychiatry)

World Brain Centre Hospital, New Delhi

Website: www.wbcindia.in


FASHION CODE

How to get a perfect bespoke suit

“Being perfectly well-dressed gives one a

tranquility that no religion can bestow.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

What’s a bespoke?

A little inspiration never harms

A custom suit can be an altered off-the-rack number or a carefully constructed original. Well-dressed men know to look for tailors who use the term bespoke, which refers to the bolt of fabric a client orders from a suit maker. It signifies something owned by exactly one man and implies that the suit will be based on a paper pattern hand-drawn to the exact specifications of your body. This may be an increasingly rare service, but it is still the ultimate in men’s clothing.

Men have had their clothes made to their specifications for a long time, and for as long as they’ve been doing it, they’ve been photographed. These men understood proportion, pattern, and palette. They looked essential because they adhered to timeless principles and knew themselves. And

their tailors knew them just as well.

Now it’s your turn to decide if you want to be conservative with a white shirt and dark tie, boldly mix patterns, or rock a tight, spray-on jacket. Just remember that you don't have to reinvent the spool. And don't be afraid to print out some pictures to give

your tailor something to work from. He’ll appreciate the visual reference, and no one will judge you for aspiring to greatness.

It's time to learn about Super 120s, cashmere flannels, and Harris Tweeds. Though the sheer number of different fabric types can be overwhelming, it’s easy enough to manage if you follow

It’s always good to do the homework on fabrics

this simple advice: Your first bespoke suit needs to be good for three seasons. It should be dark, and you can’t go wrong with blue or gray. The weight of fabric is also important. There are lightweight flannels that will not make you feel the heat. But you should tell your tailor if you sweat easily.

There are more blues and grays to choose from than you can imagine. Don’t look at them in isolation: Consider the color of your skin and the color of the shirts you prefer. Your tailor should have a good idea of what has worked for men like you and will understand the restraint needed to avoid the bolder patterns better suited to men with walk-in closets. Here are the fabrics you should seek out. Ideal weight which is suitable for all geographical conditions in India is 290 gm – 310 gm per linear meter in polyester/wool blend or all wool fabrics.


Worsted Wool:

Super 120s:

Mohair:

Flannel:

Seeing a specialist is a must

Be honest, after all it’s your suit

Versatile fabric made from worsted yarn. A standard for solid-colored suits.

A luxurious lightweight wool that is ideal for a three-season suit. Super 100s, Super 150s and Super 180s are also available. All are good.

A silky fabric made from the hair of the Angora goat. It has a bit more texture than other wools and is an interesting counterpoint to an oxford or broadcloth shirt.

Tailors usually have a wide selection of grays and weights. It’s possible to get a suit that breaths easily and can be comfortable come autumn or early winter.

Different tailors specialize in very different cuts. It’s not just that Italian suits are formfitting and English suits t e n d t o b e m o re s t ru c t u re d ; neighboring houses in cities around the world often take varying approaches. It’s important to be familiar with a tailor’s house style. You don’t want to be in the middle of an appointment and discover that you don't like what a tailor does best.

A tailor will ask you straightaway when you are going to wear your suit. Have an answer ready. Do you wear a suit to work? Do you generally dress in

jeans and wear suits occasionally? Are you going to wear it to your wedding? A tailor wants to build a relationship with you, so help him understand your needs. And don’t be afraid to speak freely: Tell him what you do for a living, what your office is like, where you live, what the climate is, what problems

you’ve had with suits in the past. If you generally don't like wearing suits, tell him why.

Don’t feel pressure to act more formal than you are. If it’s the first time you’ve been to a tailor, tell him that, too. He won’t think you’re a greenhorn; he’ll be flattered you came to him. Remember: He's been dealing with men for many years. He’s seen all types.

If you want to wear a suit to a special occasion (say, your wedding) then work it into the rotation, you can ask the tailor to put on special buttons for the big day. Then you can rotate them out for the rest of the life of the suit.

Respect the tape measure

Dress up to get dressed

A truly custom suit should reflect who you want to be, but it has to flatter the figure you actually have. Now is not the time to be in denial about your height, your waist, or any other lingering insecurities. The tape measure doesn’t lie, and the measuring process is only awkward for men who don’t want to face themselves. A good tailor can compensate for a long torso, a short neck, arms of different lengths, and features far stranger than anything you’re likely working with. Just make sure he knows how you feel about the suits you already own. Are they uncomfortable through the shoulders? Do trousers sit too low?

A tailor will measure everything from your inseam to your arms and some will take photos of you to capture

your posture. Answer all the questions that he may have. And please have mercy and do not suck in when your tailor is measuring your waist. You’re not fooling anyone, and you’ll end up paying the price when you have to go on a liquid diet to fit into your new purchase.

When you visit a tailor, you should wear dress shoes – don’t go barging in there with some limited–edition sneakers. When you try on your trousers, you want to see exactly how they fall on what you would normally wear with a suit. The same is true for


shirts – wear a dress shirt. You want to see how the sleeves and collar look under your jacket.

If you have a suit you like, wear it to your first appointment, even if it’s not a custom suit. It will help the tailor get an idea of both what you like and how you hold yourself when properly attired.

You will wear your suit widely and well. So it helps if you make it easy on yourself by not making it overly daring. If you want a flash of color, then you can get a bold silk lining. It’s a nice detail that you literally keep close to the vest. Nobody knows but you.

If you want a bit of hidden complexity, add a ticket pocket – the smaller, higher pocket that’s usually on the right side of a coat. A tailor can also make specific interior pockets to fit anything you feel compelled to carry with you, from large fountain pens to small flasks to Android tablets.

You’ve got more good decisions to make: Two or three buttons? They both

Plan for the long haul

Have fun with the details

look good, but please, gentleman, do not button the top button of a three-button coat. Two-button coats have a longer lapel and can make a shorter man look taller. A three-button coat generally has a little more structure and flatters taller men. There’s also the less common single-button coat that is very clean and very formal. The other option, double-breasted suits, are a beautiful thing when done right, but they take courage and experience to wear. The f irst t ime out , we recommend going with two buttons. Keep it simple.

You can spot a good tailor by his lapels. They will be hand-canvassed (as opposed to machine-fused) and roll naturally. A well-made lapel will come slightly away from the body lower on the jacket.

But what about lapel width? That’s a schismatic question. The only right answer is to ignore trends and go with something simple and timeless. A tailor will have a standard lapel width. If you have a large head (no shame in that) then the lapels will be slightly wider to keep the proportion – the reverse if you’re smaller on top.

There are a number of questions that your tailor will ask you and, for the vast majority of them, there is no right answer. Not so when it comes to vents, the slit or slits up the back of your

Stay conservative with your lapels

Embrace the double vent

jacket. Spare yourself a lot of grief and tell your suit maker that you want deep double vents. You’ll have an easier time sitting down since you won’t be sitting on the back of your coat. The suit will hold your silhouette when you walk because it will give way to your legs as they move. Vents are, quite simply, not the place to take risks.

The biggest tailoring mistake most men make is wearing their pants too long. Trousers should never be pooled around your brogues as if you’ve raided your taller brother’s closet. That’s not to say they should be as short as Thom Browne's either. Emulate the Italians, who often wear their trousers just to the tops of their shoes. If you’re not showing any sock, all the better. Feel free to add a little break in them if you feel strongly about it.

This is a subject where you might have to be a bit assertive with your tailor. If you prefer your pants with a clean look and no break, you’ll have to insist on it. Most tailors’ default

Don’t go long


position is to go long because they often have older clients who prefer a more generous cut to their trousers.

A three-piece suit gets noticed. It’s a bit daring, without actually being risky. You’re making a strong visual statement, but in a deep blue or a lightweight gray flannel, you’re still playing it fairly safe. And you don’t have to wear the vest if you don’t want to.

It's also a nice option if you take off your coat at work. You still maintain a sense of formality in shirtsleeves. Haven’t worn a three-piece suit in a

Consider the three piece

while? Or ever? You’ll be surprised at how good you look. Just remember not to button the bottom button on the vest and you’re in the clear.

Getting your first suit made takes time. It requires multiple fittings and adjustments – you can’t just go to London for a week and come back with a suit. Most tailors will measure you once and then make a loosely mocked-up coat that you try on during your second fitting. Then they’ll make the necessary adjustments so that your jacket fits comfortably on the third attempt. Even then, better tailors may

Take your time

still adjust the length. Proportions are everything.

Next time you need a suit, your tailor will have all the details on file and can make something much more quickly. This is a sartorial blessing and a budgetary curse – rare is the man who gets a bespoke suit and doesn’t come back for more.

Keep it on a wooden hanger so that it keeps its shape especially the shoulders, and don't wear it two days in a row, which allows wrinkles to set. Hang your suit in the bathroom in winters where there is lots of steam and see those tiny wrinkles fade away. Also – and this is important – don’t dry-clean it. Sponge and press it when you have to. Many tailors offer this service themselves, or they can refer you to a trusted location.

Ravinder Sharma, Vice President – Sales & Marketing,

Digjam Ltd.The author is an industry veteran and a subject expert. In his 21-year long stint, he has been a thought leader when it comes to go-to-market strategies for some of the leading textile brands. He is steering the business operations for international market leader Holland & Sherry which is exclusively represented and marketed in India by Digjam Ltd., under his aegis.

How to keep your suit ‘new’


HEALTHCARE & WELLNESS

OBESE INDIA

he problem is much more acute in some urban areas where up to a third of adults and up to 20% children are affected. In addition, diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus and T

metabolic syndrome, where being overweight is a strong risk factor are rapidly increasing. India already has the largest diabetic population in the world. Childhood obesity is a particular problem and could cripple our work forces of tomorrow, if urgent action was not taken today.

Cost of treating obesity and diseases like type 2 diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart diseases, stroke, arthritis, acid reflux, infertility, cancers, etc. that result from it, can be truly staggering. It can run into billions of dollars and even developed countries are finding it difficult to cope with this additional economic burden. We, in India, do not have the resources to deal with dual challenge of malnutrition and obesity.

Obesity has not yet fully arrived on the radar of our general public, politicians, bureaucrats, intelligentsia, and the media. Even healthcare professionals are lagging behind; Indian Medical Association, unlike its American counterpart the American Medical Association, does not recognise obesity as a disease. Doctors make little effort to adequately diagnose obesity during their daily patient interactions and knowledge about prevention, diagnosis, and management of obesity is scarce even amongst the senior medical professionals.

India has the third largest obese population in the world, after United States of American and China, with approximately 20% adults and 5% children now either overweight or obese.

Dr. Kamal K Mahawar


Preventive measures that can only be implemented through government support and will are largely lacking. Knowledge about healthy eating, importance of physical activity, healthy weight, and ill-effects of obesity is virtually non-existent, even amongst the educated. Under these circumstances, all sorts of myths prevail. If large public and private sector don’t pay urgent attention to their employees' “weight-health” today, they could suffer serious decline in productivity in future.

The cost of obesity and its associated diseases will have to be borne by somebody. It is unlikely that individuals will be able to bear this expense out the medical insurance industry, who will ultimately bear this burden. It is in the interest of these institutions to fund strategies directed at prevention and early treatment of obesity. This could lead to enormous savings in future. The same insurance industry, which does not fund treatment of obesity today, will willingly pay for its consequences like heart diseases, strokes, and cancer. This can only be attributed to lack of foresight when treatment like bariatric surgery, are known to pay back for themselves in 2-3 years. It is hence false economy to not fund such recognized medical treatment, purely on the basis of an economic argument, foregoing the huge benefits that such

treatment also brings to an individual’s quality and quantity of life. The fact that the public-owned British National Health Service pays for this surgery should be enough to convince any skeptic about the health and cost benefits of bariatric surgery.

A comprehensive strategy involving all the stakeholders is the only way out of obesity epidemic. There is an urgent need to reinforce preventive measures including education regarding healthy eating and physical activity directed at both children and adults. At the same time, we should make an effort to diagnose obesity early at schools and workplace through annual weight focused events. Though earlier diagnosis will reduce the need for invasive surgical treatment, we should recognize that bariatric surgery is a cost-effective, life saving option for some patients and funding for it should be made available through both public sector and insurance mechanisms.

Dr. Kamal K MahawarSr. Consultant Bariatric & Metabolic Surgery,

Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.Honorary Consultant Surgeon, Sunderland Royal

Hospital, UKChairman, Webmed Limited, Durham, UK

September 2014 | | 53 The Bureaucrat Express

TRAVELOGUE

a

Dubliner for a few days!

Worth Becoming

It's

Roli Jindal, management professional working

with an MNC, shares her experience in Ireland…

The grandeur of Irish castles will

astound you. But it’s the warmth

and friendliness inside them that'll

take your breath away. And you

won’t write a postcard if you visit

Dublin. A novel is far more likely.

Many famous Dubliners have had

the ‘Gift of the Gab’...Joyce, Wilde,

and Beckett to name a few!

However, the ‘gift’ isn’t restricted

to the famous. In Dublin just about

everyone’s a storyteller...taxi

drivers, barmen, waiters...and

after a couple of days, you.

awarya? Says Liam Fahey, the famous marketing guru from Babsons College in Boston. Almost as famous as his Hbooks on marketing are his thick Irish accent and deadpan

Irish humour. “A week in Oireland? Dat’s aboot roy ta go arownd,” he opines. And then proceeds to mark for me on the map of Ireland, the places I should go to, the driving route, night stay options, restaurants to eat in and sights to see. He even refers to us a distant relative in Dungarvan who runs a bed-and-gourmet-breakfast.

Thus armed with local knowledge we land in Dublin on a bright and sunny day and in no time are zipping along to Dungarvan in Waterford county. Yes, the same one of the famous Waterford crystal – and shops here are full of some delectable stemware. Brian Wickham, the aforementioned relative receives us warmly at Cairbre House and brings us to our room – it is actually a suite – with views of the Colligan River and a lovely garden. We happily review our pictures of the Rock of Cashel that we visited en route, before stepping out for a walking tour of the Dungarvan harbor.

The promised gourmet breakfast lives up to expectation. The quality of potatoes in Ireland is outstanding, and I must confess I ordered them at every opportunity. Every restaurant or bar we ate in throughout our stay in Ireland had several vegetarian options, clearly marked, yes even the ones on the harbor in coastal fishing towns such as Kinsale and Dingle that we subsequently visit.


Dingle Harbour

Samuel Beckett Bridge, Dublin

Ireland has had a difficult history, this most people know. The hardships made a lot of Irish emigrate, with the result that almost 20% of the American population may be of Irish descent. President Kennedy, actors Harrison Ford and Gene Kelly, the intrepid explorer Neil Armstrong, industrialist Henry Ford and Margaret Mitchell, author of the famous epic Gone with the Wind all had Irish ancestry in common. More than twenty American presidents claim Irish ancestry to some degree! Here in Ireland, though, the Irish people are modest and self-effacing (boasting is extremely bad form, even when you are drunk). Talking of drunk, the Irish apparently drink more, on average, than any other nationality in Europe. Consequently, depression rates are high, and the financial meltdown of 2008 hasn’t helped. Ireland’s banking system collapsed and the country officially entered recession, the first European country to do so. The empty shell of the now-disgraced Anglo-Irish bank building stands on the banks of the river Liffey in Dublin, not far from the harp-shaped bridge, a stark reminder of the crisis.

Despite their troubles, the Irish are the friendliest of all

peoples in Europe. They welcome you into their famous pubs, yes even with a seven-year old child in tow unless it is late in the evening. There is plenty of food and music and all kinds of drinks to drink, if you want to look at something other than Guinness. People will lean across and talk to you and join you at your table and order for you. If that happens, remember to place a return order for them, before their drink runs out. That’s the only decent way to drink in a friendly Irish pub, where when you first walk in you could be forgiven for thinking there is large private party going on, till you mingle and figure out it is just a lot of strangers pubbing together.

One item on my bucket list is checked off this trip – staying in an Irish castle. The one we find is in scenic Connemara – the Ballynahinch castle that was once owned by the famous cricketer Ranji, the Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar. They have rooms dedicated to his memory and several pictures of him on the walls, but the real charmer is the walk around the estate along the stream, and you could even go trout fishing to the very spot that was Ranji’s favourite, if you ask nicely, of course.


Kylemore Abbey, Connemara

The Irish are very proud of their literary tradition. The Irish language is a rich, thriving one and like most European countries that value their language as the essence of their culture, Ireland gives pride of place to the Irish Gaelic tongue. All tourist sites have descriptions in both Irish and English, so do the tourist brochures. On highways too, all names, information and instructions are signposted in both languages. This rich linguistic heritage shows in strength in English writing as well – who hasn’t heard of James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats and Jonathan Swift?

Trinity College in Dublin has a stunning library – a long room of wooden arches where your jaw will drop when you enter. Very well-informed and entertaining students offer a guided tour of this historic university. The university also displays the ancient Book of Kells – a fabulously illustrated book of Gospels – that is more than 1200 years old. Not far from Trinity College is the City Hall, worth a visit, and

further afoot, the very impressive St Patrick’s cathedral. St Patrick brought the Catholic faith to Ireland, picking

up a three-leaved sprig of the Shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. Since then the Shamrock has been the national symbol of Ireland and St Patrick its patron saint, and no matter where in the world the Irish or their descendants may be, on March 17th they will have a rollicking time feasting, parading and making merry for it is St Patrick’s Day.

The scenic, natural beauty of Ireland has much to visit and admire, and travel guides have plenty of recommendations – a cruise to the spectacular Cliffs of Moher, a day trip through the Gap of Dunloe, a drive around the Ring of Kerry – and all of them are definitely worth the effort. What stays with me, though, is the view from my room at the Lake Hotel in Killarney – a small castle overlooking the Muckross lake, a moody sky and a colour of green that you’ve only seen on the Irish flag.


Trinity College Library, Dublin

World Brain Center Hospital

(A Unit of World Brain Center & Research Institute)

...Exceeding...Expectations...

World Brain Center is committed to providing world class health care services

Psychiatry | Neurology | Neurosurgery | Psychology | Rehabilitation, De-addiction

EMERGENCY CARE

011-25391266

Hour

WORLD BRAIN CENTER is a dream come true. It was the dream of Dr. Neelesh Tiwari, the founder of the Hospital, to

create an institution that provided quality health care and clinical excellence in the field of Psychiatry, Psychology,

Neurology, Neurosurgery and Rehabilitation. As the name depicts, WBC and RI is one of the rare institutes dedicated

to all the disorders of the brain.

Though we excel in the field of Psychiatry, Psychology, Alcohol and Drug deaddiction, Rehabilitation and Neurology,

yet we also keep in mind the need of other ancillary services required by the patient. At the heart of our Institute is an

acute focus on quality, service and medical excellence. While most hospitals treat the illness, we at World Brain

Center treat individuals. Our team serves as a competent, compassionate, innovative and respectful treatment

provider.

PANKHA ROAD, OPP. JANAK CINEMA, NEAR DABRI CROSSING, NEW DELHI-110045 (INDIA)Email : [email protected] | Website : www.wbcindia.in | Tele : +91-11-25391266, 25393347 | Cell : +91- 9968788863




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