Roll Back Prasar Bharati, The boiling cauldron, Governance awards 2014,The dying media powerhouse, Autonomy that got muted and more...

There are Five Top Stories. First on the 3 mths research on controversial Tablighi Jamaat. Another interesting story is about KV Kamath & his women colleagues. Talk with Mark Sedwill Cabinet Secretary UK. The labour unrest in India. Gold Momentum about Gold management by MCX. The might of Putin. plus wonderful tidbit about the corridors of power .

The COVID-19 disease is caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus. It spread, it captured, and it killed. What was required were across-the-globe leadership qualities to take quick decisions, initiate immediate actions, and implement lessons already learnt from the past public health crises. Instead, we had leaders, who believed more in faith, both religious and personal, as Alam Srinivas explores in the first article on faith, free will, and determinism. Coupled with this mindset was the failure of the Indian administration to act and react.

Media baron Subhash Chandra of ZEE TV  had to fall back on the last resort of selling Essel Group promoter stake in November 2019 to save his jewel in the crown, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited from sinking under the debt burden of `11,000 crore. His fight back, though commendable, holds a cautionary tale for India Inc and promoters with overreaching ambitions who expended too fast,
piggy backing on easy capital when the going was good. But when the economic slowdown triggered by the ill-fated demonetisation decision and dodgy financial practices came back to haunt the non-banking financial sector, trouble came storming at the doorsteps of these promoters

The recent merger of various Indian Railways services
seems to have ruffled many feathers. In the corridors
of the Rail Bhawan, it’s being interpreted as a hamhanded
approach to address the various problems
that plague the world’s biggest railway network.
Experts view the latest move by the Railways Ministry
as the cynical first step towards privatisation of the
Indian Railways, instead of trying to address the
systemic issues that have adversely impacted its
Operating Ratio, affecting its modernisation plan,
expansion and efficiency. The sweeping changes that
the ministry is trying to ram through also mark the
beginning of the end of a welfare enterprise that
provides a cheap means of transport to the country’s
poorest of the poor. In a bigger context, this is,
perhaps, the first clear signs of the end of a welfare
state. It’s also apparent that the government is in no
mood to learn from the disastrous consequences of
privatisation of Railways in other countries, especially
in Latin America and Africa, as it embarks upon
dismantling the superstructure of transportation in
India, writes Srinand Jha

Civil servants are increasingly
using technology to resolve
issues affecting the country.
This change was in the
spotlight during the 7th gfiles
Governance Awards, held in
New Delhi on December 12, in
collaboration with Tatsat
Foundation.   
Second Story on The telecom saga in India has had a number of twists and
turns. Unfortunately, it is a narrative in which several
governments favoured specific telecom players, service
providers hoodwinked the policy-makers and regulators,
and the regulators were either clueless or under pressure
to rule in favour of the firms. Illegality, irregularity,
skirting the laws, looting the taxpayers and Exchequer
was the norm. Every hand rubbed the others’ backs. In
the process, a few companies thrived, most died. The
consumers benefitted through some moves, and lost
through many others. Alam Srinivas reports

The Aam Aadmi Party chief, Arvind Kejriwal, emerged on India’s political landscape with a promise and hope of delivering an alternative politics that would occupy the high moral ground. But in the past five years the party’s transformation from being an alternative force to yet another outfit that has taken recourse to cynical politics left many disappointed and feeling short-changed.

Congratulations to Shri DK Jain IAS, Lokpal and Dr Ajay Kumar IAS, Secretary Defence for being amongst the Distinguished Alumnus Awardees of IIT Kanpur for 2019. Truly proud.

Shooting the messenger: The resignation of Kannan Gopinathan hasn’t gone down well with the establishment and it’s out to discredit him by trying to paint him as an inefficient and undisciplined officer. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

India Inc. in distress A fear psychosis has pervaded India Inc. unleashed by a mountain of bad corporate loans and a dictatorial insolvency law. Alam Srinivas explores how financial terror has gripped the country.

National Company Flaw Tribunal Although touted as possibly the best way to recover bank loans in the quickest possible time, the National Company Law Tribunal has become a hotbed of complications, controversies, coercion, conflicts, and confusion.

Although 70 per cent of respondents in a recent survey had “high” or “somewhat” trust in
police, a miniscule portion (14 percent) interacted with it. The poor, lower castes, women and children, and religious minorities continue to be exploited, discriminated, and falsified in criminal cases. Even the conviction rates are extremely low in cases against the destitute and marginalised communities

In 2019, when 800 million Indians vote to elect a new government, they, along with the political fraternity, will rest their faith on the controversial, malfunctioning, and allegedly hack-able voting machines. In 2009, the opposition (BJP) charged that the ruling regime (Congress-led UPA II) tampered and hacked EVMs. Today, again the opposition (Congress) have levelled the same allegations against BJP. The fact that there are uncertainties about the voting machines is deplorable in a healthy and matured democracy. Hence, it’s time for the political parties to decide whether they knowingly wish to join the bandwagon, and trust the EVMs, or take the firm stand. Is the future of the democracy is going to be decided by a questionable and doubtful technology even if all the political party decide to participate in 2019 elections? The Election Commission needs to step in, and clear the murky air. An insightful report by Vivek Mukherji

With thousands of crores at stake that grease the wheels and cogs of the underground betting networks, controlled exclusively by the mafia, there is a compelling case for legalising gambling and sports betting in India. After the Supreme Court accepted the recommendations of the Lodha Committee that was set up to clean up cricket in the wake of the 2013 IPL match fixing scandal, the apex court directed the Law Commission to explore the legislative and legal framework that would be needed to legalise sports betting. However, after close to two years of studying the issue and inviting views from various stakeholders, the commission’s report submitted to the Ministry of Law and Justice on July 5, suffers from some serious flaws. It’s clear that the report was drafted in a hurry and lacks clarity of thought

A PMO proposal to allocate cadre of civil servants after taking into account their performances in the Foundation Course has raised eyebrows. Experts believe that the ill-conceived decision-in the- making will have an adverse impact on the overall morale

There was a big change in the 12th annual Civil Services Day, organized to deliberate administrative issues and give away awards to performance civil servants – the proceedings and speeches this time were in Hindi. Also, NSA Ajit Doval was missing from action this year.

The Maharaja is on the street. Armed with a begging bowl, he is being carted around on global roadshows in a bid to sell him to the one who offers the most coins. Hence, the Maharaja may be sold for a song, and loose change. It may be better to separately sell the various invaluable assets of Air India, rather than offer slices of the company as ‘going concerns’. Air India was built over decades with the sweat and blood of the people, the taxpayers’ money. It is the utmost responsibility of the government to get the best price for it.

For hundreds of years, and even today, wars are strategised and fought in the boardrooms of the large industrial-military complexes, mostly privately-owned. Such conglomerates, along with their well-funded think tanks, create convincing scenarios, which are palatable and immediately accepted by policymakers across the globe. The result: a constant trade in expensive equipment, and huge and regular billion-dollar deals, which grease the wheels and gears of the global corporate-military political nexus. Rest assured, great wars are decided largely by great captains of industry, and only implemented by great generals.

It’s not just crises of currencies. It’s crises of governance—across the globe—through currencies’ displacement or substitution. It’s not the disappearance of physical currencies. It’s the appearance of virtual ones that are tougher to trace and almost impossible to monitor and regulate. Bitcoin, and other crypto-currencies, fall into this category. Given their secrecy and lack of transparency, they can hold governments’ monetary, financial and economic policies to ransom. They can be used at will by mafia, terrorists, underworld, black marketers, smugglers and dope peddlers. Money can not only be hidden, but it can vanish too. Existing currencies can be attacked to undermine nation states. Democracy, economic freedom and globalization, as we know, are at risk. The 21st century wars will be fought in the virtual world—through the nanosecond computer wireless and fiber networks.
Bitcoin, and its crypto-competitors, are ideally placed to wage secretive and covert battles decimate economies and bring governments down to their knees. Even large corporates, like Reliance Jio are reportedly entering the market. Alam Srinivas reports

In the last 50 years, Haryana has moved places. While its area has remained constant, the number of districts has gone up from six to 22 and the population from one crore to more than 2.5 crores. Unfortunately, the skewed male-female ratio and caste prejudices have remained. For a modern and progressive Haryana, what is needed is wisdom and correct action

Karti Chidambaram has allegedly accumulated unprecedented and unaccounted wealth. His is an unabashed saga of the failings of Indian polity and governance. His rise and rise, and now may be a fall, and the lust to earn tainted money proves how a father-son nexus, especially if the father (P Chidambaram) was thrice the country’s Finance Minister, can plunder a nation. Imagine a nation, where leading businessmen paid $15,000 each, or thereabouts, to the son to fix a meeting with the latter’s father. And then send a “Thank you” email. Imagine a country, where Karti was paid huge amounts to urge his father to okay well-deserved clearances, and slightly dubious ones, from the FIPB for foreign investment inflows. Political leaders in the Congress didn’t dare to act against the father, despite this being common knowledge for years. Instead, Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul, nominated him for another Rajya Sabha term in June 2016. In the BJP regime, meanwhile, a senior cabinet minister has the audacity and courage to defy his Prime Minister’s efforts to attack corruption. He is busy with the ‘Save Karti’ operation. Alam Srinivas opens up Karti’s Pandora’s Box of illegal business activities related to INX Media, Aircel-Maxis, Vasan healthcare, and many more. More than 50 questions were sent to Karti but he did not respond.

This is a story of a flawed business strategy being pursued by one of the most powerful, and allegedly a not-so-clean, CMD of a mega public sector entity. He has incurred the wrath of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), reportedly got rid of his Secretary, allegedly caused a huge loss to the exchequer, and possibly crafted tenders to favour select foreign suppliers. Yet his juggernaut moves on. Despite several charges, Anupam Shrivastava continues, and thrives, as the head of the state-owned telecom major, BSNL. The reason: the blessings of a brother of his former boss, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the former telecom minister, and a powerful lobby within the PMO. In the recent past, Shrivastava allegedly caused a `1,000-crore loss to the exchequer as he released unauthorised payment to a subsidiary of a Chinese firm. He issued advance purchase orders to Finnish Nokia and Chinese ZTE to supply network equipment for the firm’s `6,000 crore national mobile network expansion. Critics charge that the tenders were drafted to favour the two firms. Recently, JS Deepak, the former Secretary (Communications) was shunted out because of the delays in the laying of optic fibre cables in the North East. However, the fault lay with Shrivastava, who had cancelled the tender. This article focuses on the CMD’s myopic vision to expand in 2G, even as the Indian private players, and other majors worldwide, aggressively move towards 3G and 4G.

LATERAL hiring may sound like an exciting concept, but it is a flawed one for several reasons. For one, it will destroy what it aims to rebuild. One of the reasons for its acceptance is that it will allow people with domain knowledge to participate in governance. What’s forgotten in such a logic is that, over the decades, governance and public policy have themselves acquired the status of new domains. A public servant now requires expert knowledge in both these areas. More important, an excellent doctor cannot manage AIIMS, a brilliant engineer cannot ‘Make in India’, and a lawyer cannot draft PPP contracts. Two, the IAS structure allows those in governance to understand and master the unique federal structure of this country. It enables the public servant to realise the needs of the people at several levels. As she starts from the district and works towards the centre, she undergoes a bottoms-up approach that helps her to always put the needs of the people before anything else.

There is a grave danger if there’s over regulation—it results in a strangulating bureaucracy. But there are pitfalls of under regulation— it makes those who should be more on their toes to relax and become complacent. In the first, it’s the businesses that suffer; in the latter, it’s the retail investors and poor customers who bear the burden. This is why as India tries to ease the way to do business, she should ensure that the watchdogs are on guard, and don’t abdicate their responsibilities. A classic case where the regulators seem to have gone to sleep is the rich-to-richer story of Avenue Supermarts and its promoter, Radhakishan Damani. Although, the company is performing well, and its stock is flying, there are danger signals that should interest the regulators and watchdogs. At the moment, they seem to be sleeping, and seem unaware of what’s happening.
Alam Srinivas reports

With even schoolchildren coming out to protest on the streets, the situation in Kashmir is the worse than the one prevailing in the militancy hit 1990s. Making the situation worse is the Centre’s abhorrence to involve those forming the middle ground in the Valley and the PDP-BJP State government’s inability to resolve their differences. This has resulted in misgovernance, giving rise to a situation which is being merrily cashed in on by separatists and pro-Pakistan elements. But, in the absence of any overture by the Centre and total helplessness of the State government, the path to peace in Kashmir looks elusive. Political dialogue is the only option, which has even been advocated by two Generals of the Indian Army. Their voice needs to be heeded. Anil Anand, Mohammad Sayeed Malik and MK Kaw reports

The 11th Civil Services Day celebrated on April 21, 2017 changed the dynamics of the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration. Narendra Modi was the force behind making the awards more dynamic, racy, pacy and consequential along with SCOPE Awards 2017.

Until the party jettisons Rahul Gandhi and picks up another leader,
there is no way the Congress can hope to capture power in 2019 when
the party would face a larger than life Narendra Modi

The clamour for government jobs is rising across India—from Jats in Haryana to Patidars in Gujarat to Kapus in Telengana and Andhra Pradesh and Marathas in Maharashtra. The irony is that the number of government jobs have been shrinking over the years. It all started majorly with VP Singh’s populism and Mandal politics that opened a can of worms in the form of reservations. In Haryana, the Jat agitation turned violent last year. The Jats are again threatening to lay a seige on the National Capital with yet another agitation, seeking Backward Class status. The issue is examined in detail by Shubhabrata Bhattacharya, MK Shukla and Alam Srinivas.

The 45th US President Donald Trump has not only upset China with his various  pronouncements, his ascendency has also fired nationalist sentiments in Europe. India needs to tighten its act to cash in on the opportunities that present themselves in this altered scenario. Reports MKShukla.

The Ratan Tata-Cyrus
Mistry story began on a
wrong note, albeit in a
subconscious manner.
They both felt that since
they had worked
together for years, they
understood each other
and the bonhomie would
continue forever. But,
human psychology works
differently—it changes
rapidly when one is
given powers, and the
other has to give up his
erstwhile powers. Reports Alam Srinivas

gfiles—the largest publication in its domain reaching the entire spectrum of the central and state governments including ministers, governors and members of Parliament, central and state civil services, public sector undertakings, judiciary, diplomatic arena, banks, financial institutions and enjoying 21 lakh hits on internet—awards 11 best civil servants of the country at the fifth gfiles governance awards ceremony.

May - June 2020

March - April 2020

February 2020

January 2020 II

December 2019

November 2019

October 2019

September 2019

August 2019

July 2019

September 2018

August 2018

July 2018

June 2018

May 2018

April 2018

gfiles is the country's first independent magazine written, designed and produced for India's civil services—the vast and formidable network of bureaucracies and public sector organisations that provides continuity and stability to this nation's governance.

Every month this niche market product reaches 56,000 individuals with a universe of more than 1,00,000 readers. Its exclusive audience consists of the men and women who lead the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), the Indian Police Service (IPS), the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), Class I Union Services, as well as a host of Allied Services.

gfiles magazine edited by India's seniormost journalists who have made an intensive study of the reading preferences of decision makers and implementers in government services, the magazine—with substantial contributions from serving and retired officers—is uniquely designed to engage the bureaucrat's attention in the entire content. It has therefore been divided into sections according to the specific reading needs of this target audience. While these readers flip through newswpapers and general magazines, they read gfiles from page to page.

This is because gfiles magazine provides not only exclusive news unavailable anywhere else in the media or the Internet, but also focuses exclusively on the future, anticipating events and developments. It contains detailed, extensive, and accurate reports about transfers and postings. It features interviews, case studies, snippets, retirement profiles, financial planning advice, political changes, as well as birthdays and alumni tracking.

gfiles magazine cuts through rumour mills and hearsay and helps India's civil servants reach out to one another, share and become acquainted with their issues, practical problems, everyday challenges and the intricacies of their working environment.

October 2012

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