The government has appointed Divya Prakash Sinha,a 1979 batch IPS officer of the Manipur-Tripura cadre, special director with the Intelligence Bureau, as Secretary (Security) in the Cabinet Secretariat. The post had been lying vacant since November 2013 when Yashovardhan Azad, holding the post then, was appointed information commissioner by the government.
The move is part of the government effort to fill up key posts in the security establishment left vacant for months.
Kulamani Biswal , Director ( Finance ) NTPC has been conferred with GSBA-Top Rankers Excellence Award 2015 – Financial Pride of India – in the Best Finance Professional Category at a gala function organized in New Delhi. The award has been given to Biswal by Top Rankers, a leading consultant in HR, Organizational Development and General Management for his excellence in the area of Financial Management. Award was presented by Eminent Educationist Padamshri Dr. Pritam Singh at the 16th National Management Summit on “Impactful organization- Making it happen “ held at New Delhi.
Biswal is a Commerce Graduate from Utkal University and a fellow in Cost Accountancy along with MBA from New Port University, California, USA; LLB from Sambalpur University and Diploma in Financial Management from IGNOU. He started his career with Coal India Limited in 1985. Later he joined Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission at Director level in 1997.
In 2004, he was appointed as Chief (Finance), Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. In CERC, he played a key role in formulation of Tariff Regulations 2009-14 and formation of new company called POSOCO to take care of System Operation and Load Dispatch activities. He also acted as Internal Financial Advisor in CERC as an added responsibility. In NTPC, besides many hats to his credit, he has been instrumental in mopping up USD 750 Million fund from the international market at quite attractive rate of interest for meeting the Capex Requirement of the company.
Under his able leadership, NTPC has been able to reduce its cost of debt to 7.81% p.a., a feat many in the industry envy to achieve. Prior to joining NTPC, he was Director (Finance) in Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) from Oct’ 2010 to Dec’ 2013. He played a key role in making MCL as second largest coal company in India in terms of production and profitability. In MCL, he was also responsible for diversification of business into Power Generation, Solar Power, Transmission of electricity etc., for gainful utilisation of surplus funds. He has exposure in entire value chain of power business right from Supply, Distribution to Generation and Regulatory affairs.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the following:
(i) Appointment of Shri K. Durga Prasad, IPS (AP:81) as Special Director General in Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the pay scale of Rs. 75,500- 80,000/- against existing vacancy from the date of joining the post and until further orders or upto the date of his superannuation i.e. 28.02.2017, whichever is earlier;
(ii) Grant of pay scale of Rs. 75,500 – 80,000/- and rank of Special Director General (SDG) to Shri Vivek Dube, IPS (AP:81), working as Additional Director General, CRPF on “in-situ” basis from the date on which Shri K. Durga Prasad, lPS(AP:81) assumes the charge of the post of SDG in CRPF and upto the date of his superannuation on 31.03.2015 or until further orders, whichever is earlier; and
(iii) Grant of pay scale of Rs. 75,500 – 80,000/- and rank of Special Director General (SDG) to Shri A.R.K. Kini, IPS (BH:81), working as Additional Director General, BPR&D on “in-situ” basis from the date on which Shri K. Durga Prasad, lPS(AP:81) assumes the charge of the post of SDG in CRPF and upto the date of his superannuation on 31.11.2017 or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
Every year, the officers of the Customs & Central Excise Department are considered for grant of Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificate for ‘exceptionally meritorious service rendered at the risk of life’ and for Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificate for ‘specially distinguished record of service’ on their achieving and maintaining excellence in the discharge of their duties. These awards are announced on the eve of Republic Day.
This year, 40 officers have been selected for grant of Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificate for ‘Specially distinguished record of service’.
These officers have been selected on the basis of their exemplary and flawless performance in their respective field of services over the years. The awardees selected this year include the officers working as Commissioners/Directors/Additional Commissioners/Additional Directors, Deputy Directors, Superintendents/Slos, Assistant, Chief Accounts Officer, Sr. Private Secretary, Inspector, Driver who have been consistently committed to the department in various fields.
The aforesaid officer’s performance in various fields includes the prevention of smuggling of contrabands and Narcotics Drugs, detection of tax evasion and trade based money laundering, detection of foreign exchange violations by booking/arresting the offenders and seizing the smuggled goods, upgradation of anti-smuggling equipments and streamlining enforcement procedures etc in the department. Besides, many awardees have shown their brilliance and given commendable performance in other fields as varied as revenue mobilization, development of software for automation at Customs, Central Excise and Service tax formations, reducing litigations, international Conventions and Protocol relating to Trade Facilitation and enforcement, dispute resolution, effective defence of cases in the Tribunals and High Courts, preparing informative web sites for revenue officers as well as deft handling of administrative work.
The list of officers, along with their designation and their present place of posting, who have been selected for grant of the Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificate for ‘Specially distinguished record of service’, on the occasion of Republic Day, 2015 is given below:
COMMISSIONERS
1. Dr. Awdhesh Kumar Singh, Commissioner, Large Tax Payers Unit, Chennai.
2. Shri Alok Chopra, Commissioner, Central Excise, Thane-II.
DIRECTORS/ADDITIONAL COMMISSIONERS/ADDITIONAL DIRECTORS/DEPUTY DIRECTORS
3. Shri Rajesh Nandan Srivastava, Director, Narcotics Control, Department of Revenue,
Ministry of Finance, North Block, New Delhi.
4. Shri Dheeraj Rastogi, Additional Commissioner, Service Tax Audit, Commissionerate, Delhi.
5. Shri Shafat Ahmad Usmani, Additional Director, DRI Hyderabad Zonal Unit, Hyderabad.
6. Shri Chalamalla Venkat Reddy, Additional Director of Systems, Directorate General of Systems, Chennai.
7. Smt. Sudha Koka, Additional Commissioner, Service Tax, Audit, Commissionerate, Bangalore.
8. Shri Shailesh Kumar, Additional Director, DRI (Hqrs), New Delhi.
9. Shri Pankaj Kumar Singh, Additional Commissioner, First Secretary (Economic), Embassy of India, Kathmandu, Nepal.
10. Shri Giridhar Gopalkrishna Pai, Director, Tax Research Unit, CBEC, North Block, New Delhi.
11. Shri V. Nagendra Rao, Joint Commissioner, Commissionerate of Customs (Chennai-11), Chennai.
12. Shri Ravindra Singh Bhati, Deputy Director, DRI, Mumbai Zonal Unit, Nhava Sheva Regional Unit, Mumbai.
13. Dr. Sudesh Kumar Sheoran, Deputy Director, DGCE1 (Hqrs), New Delhi.
14. Shri Jitendra Pal Singh, Assistant Director, Directorate of Enforcement (Hqrs), New Delhi.
15. Shri Leo John Ilango, Assistant Commissioner, Directorate General of Vigilance, SZU, Chennai.
16. Shri Rajendrakumar Shantilal Raithatha, Assistant Commissioner, Commissionerate of Cennal Excise and Customs, Rajkot, Ahmedabad Zone.
17. Shri Manoj Kumar, Assistant Director, Directorate of Enforcement, Eastern Region, Kolkata.
SUPERINTENDENTS/SENIOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS
18. Shri Dipankar Baneijee, Superintendent, CenDal Bureau of Narcotics, Kolkata.
19. Shri Shrikant Patankar, Senior fntelligence Officer, DGCEI, Regional Unit, Indore.
20. Shri A. Jagannadha Prasad, Superintendent, Central Excise & Customs (Anti-Evasion), Tirupati Commissionerate,Tirupati.
21. Shri Rajesh Sharma, Superintendent, Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate, Delhi.
22. Shri Rajendra Singh L Pathak, Superintendent, Commissionerate of Central Excise & Customs (Ahmadabad-I), Ahmedabad.
23. Shri R. Ravichandran, Senior Intelligence Officer, DGCEI (Hqrs), New Delhi.
24. Shri Prcm Chand Jain, Senior Intelligence Officer, DGCEI, Zonal Unit, Ahmedabad.
25. Shri Suman Kumar Gangopadhyay, Senior Intelligence Officer, DRI, Kolkata Zonal Unit, Kolkata.
26. Shri Krishnakumar B. Menon, Senior Intelligence Officer, DRI, Mumbai Zonal Unit, Mumbai.
27. Shri Gavin Jude D’Mello, Superintendent, Division-Ill, Commissionerate of Service Tax, (Mumbai-I), Mumbai.
28. Shri Mahesh Chowdhary, Senior Intelligence Officer, DGCEI, Zonal Unit, Ahmedabad.
29. Shri Vitobh Shetty, Senior Intelligence Officer, DGCEI, Regional Unit, Goa.
30. Shri Sunil Joshi, Senior Intelligence Officer, DGCEI (Hqrs), New Delhi.
31. Shri B. Shridhar, Senior Intelligence Officer, DRI, Bangalore Zonal Unit, Bangalore.
32. Shri Nagendra Kumar Jha, Superintendent (Anti-Evasion), Service Tax Commissionerate, Delhi-11.
33. Shri N.S. Dev, Superintendent, Commissionerate of Customs, Cochin.
34. Shri Sunil Shankar Yadav, Superintendent, Service Tax Cell, Satara Division, Kolhapur Commissionerate, Kolhapur.
35. Shri Sandeep Thapliyal, Superintendent, Commissionerate of Central Excise & Customs, Meerut.
36. Shri Shailendra Rammanohar Singh, Senior Intelligence Officer, DRI, Mumbai Zonal Unit, Mumbai.
INSPECTOR
37. Shri Rideep Hazarika, Inspector, Tax Recovery Cell, Customs Division, Customs (Prey.) Commissionerate, Guwahati.
ASSISTANT CHIEF ACCOUNT OFFICER/SR. PRIVATE SECRETARY
38. Shri Kotekar Sheik Abdul Kareem, Assistant Chief Accounts Officer, Commissionerate of Customs, Mangalore.
39. Smt. K. Savithri, Senior Private Secretary to Chief Commissioner of Central Excise, Chennai Zone.
DRIVER
40. Shri Jagbir Singh Pundir, Driver GR-I, DRI (Hqrs.), New Delhi.
Ashok Kuwar Pavadia Indian Railway Traffic Service,1980 will take over as the new Advisor, Inter State Council Secretariat under the Ministry of Home Affairs with the rank of an Additional Secretary.
Before taking up this appointment, Pavadia was JS in the Department of Public Enterprises.
The new appointment comes in place of B N Satpathy IES 1980 who was earlier appointed for the same post but now his appointment has been cancelled.
Rajiv Gauba,a 1980-batch IAS officer, Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry, relieved from central deputation for repatriation to his parent cadre Jharkhand. Jharkhand government had requested that Gauba be relieved from his duties at the Centre to enable him to take over as the new Chief Secretary of the state. He will replace Sajal Chakravorty.
Bibek Debroy, a renowned economist took over as member NITI Aayog here. A professor at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi previously, Shri Debroy has also worked as Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, Consultant to the Union Finance Ministry in various capacities and Chairman of the High Powered Committee on Railways restructuring.
Debroy has been associated with a number of prestigious institutes in the field of academics including Presidency College Kolkata Delhi School of Economics Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, the National Council of Applied Economic Research, Trinity College, Cambridge, and institute for South Asian Studies , Singapore.
Born on 25 January 1955, Debroy has authored several books, papers and articles on Economic issues besides authoring a ten-volume unabridged English translation of the Hindu epic the Mahabharata.
Gyanesh Bharti IAS (UT:1998), has been appointed as Director in the Ministry of Power for a period of five years.
Industrialists Anil and Mukesh Ambani, actor Amitabh Bachchan and cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar are among many celebrities invited for the ceremonial banquet to be hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee for US President Barack Obama.
Officials said the banquet, to be held Jan 25, will also be attended by the three service chiefs. Tennis star Sania Mirza is also among the invitees, they said. Obama will arrive in India Jan 25 along with his wife Michelle on a three-day state visit.
Former Chief Secretary Sajjal Chakraborty has been served with a show cause notice for allegedly arguing with Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das. Chakraborty has been given three days time to reply as to why disciplinary action should not be taken against him.
Apart from being the CS, Chakraborty was holding additional charges as member of Revenue Board and additional CS of Civil Aviation department. Chakraborty, appointed to the post by the erstwhile Hemant Soren government, was to retire next year.But over the last few days, serious differences were said to have cropped up between him and new BJP Chief Minister Raghubar Das.
Chakraborty said he had made some suggestions which Das had brushed aside. When he remonstrated with the Chief Minister, he was asked to “get out,” Chakraborty alleged. There has been no comment from the Chief Minister or his office. The Jharkhand government has pointed to Mr Chakraborty’s replacement Rajiv Gauba and his expertise in managing the Maoist situation.
If sources in finance ministry are to be believed, Govt is likely to sell a 5 percent stake in state-run Power Finance Corporation Ltd next week as the government scrambles to meet part of a near USD 10 billion share sale target before March 31. “Five percent shares of PFC could be sold next week,” a senior finance ministry official said. He also said that state-run manganese miner MOIL Ltd could be the next in line with a 10 percent stake sale.
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