Oct 27, 2008

A double whammy—a fear of bomb blasts and an economic meltdown—has dimmed the glow of Diwali in the capital this year. One case in point: the famed Diwali bazaar at the Blind School, which pulls in the society ladies each year who leave laden with bags of goodies. This year, the crowds were thin and pickings extremely slim. Indeed, ‘slim pickings’ is the best phrase to describe corporate Diwali gifts this year. The gift hampers were decidedly lighter as were the bonuses. Yup, austerity is the buzzword, a word Delhi really can’t get its lips around too comfortably. Say hello to winter.

Oct 22, 2008

- More significantly Government of India has started the selection process for the heads of the Intelligence Bureau & RAW, which fall vacant on Jan 31st, 2009. Watch this space for more news on this………

-A race has already begun in the 74-75 batch cadre officers for the 3 most critical & lucrative posts falling vacant as a result of these movements; Anil Razdan-secretary power & H C Gupta-secretary coal, Anurag Goel-secretary corporate affairs.

- 2 outgoing secretaries in the government of India shall be joining as Member Competion commission of India; Anurag Goel- secretary corporate affairs & H C Gupta- secretary coal.

- Dhanendra Kumar, who was to retire from World Bank on Nov 30th, has been given 3 months extension, and will be the new Chairman of the Competition Commission of India in February 2009. Pulok Chaterji, will succeed Dhanendra kumar and shall be joining World Bank in February 2009.
As reported earlier, Arvind Mayaram has been promoted to Additional Secretary & FA Rural Development – he took over on Friday, 17 October. Mayaram’s proximity to 10 Janpath is well known-his mother was a minister in Rajasthan during the Congress regime
RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani’s corporate communication team in Delhi is all shook up. During his last visit to the capital, the boss was hounded relentlessly by the media, apparently owing to his schedule being leaked. And now, his Delhi team will face the music. Former IRS officer (UP cadre) Sandeep Tandon has put the blame squarely on the door of V Balasubramanium’s office. For his part, ‘Balu’ blames Shankar Adawal’s team. While telling both men to take it easy and cut the flab in their teams, Mukesh has decided to rope Nira Radia’s new venture NeoCom- for a hefty annual fee of Rs 24 crore-to get the job done. There’s also talk of equity in NeoCom being picked up by Manoj Modi and Parimal Nathwani, close associates of Mukesh. Nathwani will also lobby in Parliament for RIL along with N K Singh. Meanwhile, the suave and soft-spoken former IAS officer (MP cadre) Najeeb Jung is being recalled from London to handle bureaucratic lobbying in Delhi for group. Jung was sent to London after RIL’s unsuccessful attempt to install him CMD of ONGC.

Oct 11, 2008

Arvind Mayaram, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance would be joining Department of Rural Development as Additional Secretary & FA
Niranjan Bharati of Economic Times has quit and according to sources he is joining CNBC-TV18

Oct 8, 2008

The post of Special Secretary Security, vacated by Sh. Kumawat, may be given to Sh. Raman Shrivastav, DG Police, Kerela, the malyali speaking UP cadre has an unblemished record and the post is key as it reports to Home Minister directly on internal matters of the country.

Trust the Indian Media

Finally the lid is blown of the deep-rooted conspiracy engineered by Nira Radia of Vaishanavei Communications, on Aveek Sarkar, of Ananda Bazar Patrika.

Two weeks ago, Jehangir Pochha, editor Business World told Aveek that he wanted to resign and join Radia’s Vaishnavei.

The corporate world had been watching the editorial demise of Business World as Pochha made the magazine into a propaganda arm of two of Radia’s biggest clients, the Tatas & Reliance Industries.
The joke in the BW staff was that every week Pochha would go to Radia’s farm in south Delhi at night, get drunk, get the story for the issue and give it to the correspondent the next morning.
In the process, he has bought a flat for himself in Gurgaon and a benami flat in Mumbai 2 weeks ago.
According to a BW insider, to make matters worse, a BW Mumbai correspondent PS has filed a complaint of sexual harassment against Pochha; a Delhi marketing executive also brought the same facts to the management’s notice that Pochha was repeatedly harassing her by asking her out on dates. Another woman correspondent, Puja Mehra also left BW on differences with Pochha as have a host of other male reporters.
Pochha’s friendship has been well publicized with Radia by Pochha himself to all and sundry, much to the discomfiture to all his colleagues. He has also been claiming that more permanent plans are on the anvil. On the other hand now that Nira Radia has established her own professional relationship with Sarkar family, they & she, both are quite happy to see Pochha disappear if he wishes to.