Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, who is due to retire on June 14, was on Monday given a six-month extension in service, the second time he has got it in the top bureaucratic post.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving yet another six-month extension to Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth has created ripples in the corridors of power since the latter was a United Progressive Alliance appointee and was seen as the main reason behind the non-performing image of the UPA government at the fag-end of their tenure.
The Cabinet Secretariat has prepared a status note for the new, incoming government giving five major thrust areas out of the various issues national and international importance that await attention.major thrust areas from issues relating to national and international importance.
The government on Monday said so far there is no rise in the water level of river Kosi and there is no imminent danger but all precautionary measures are in place to deal with any eventuality.
The review committee confirmed tapping of nearly 9,600 telephones and 1,100 emails by various security and police forces throughout the country.
Union Ministers Dr Farooq Abdullah, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jairam Ramesh and G K Vasan have complained to Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth about the rude behaviour of the Special Protection Group personnel at 7 Race Course Road.
Among others, the meeting was attended by Finance Secretary R S Gujral, Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, Commerce Secretary S R Rao, Industry Secretary Saurabh Chandra and Power Secretary P Uma Shankar.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of negative growth in the manufacturing sector. In July, the country's overall industrial output expanded by just 0.1 per cent cent -- as against 3.7 per cent in the same month last year -- pulled down by decline in manufacturing sector growth.
Expressing unhappiness over the announcement of the much-touted direct cash transfer scheme by the government even when the model code was in force, the Election Commission on Sunday wrote to the Union cabinet secretary seeking a report on the matter.
In a joint stand, the three defence services have demanded the inclusion of a representative of the armed forces in the committee formed by the government to address issues related to their pay and pension. The committee is headed by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth and all its members are from the Indian Administrative Service. It is looking into the main demands of the services such as elevation of all lieutenant general rank officers to a higher pay grade.
As powerful earthquakes rocked Sikkim, the Central government on Sunday swung into action, rushing specialised teams for rescue, relief and medical operations, besides mobilising the Army and Air Force.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has once again ducked the question of who is No. 2 in the Union Cabinet in the working arrangements he made during his 4-day Iran visit.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not chosen any of the top ministers in his Cabinet to head the government during his visit to South Korea between March 24 and March 27. "The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs may decide on issues of national urgency. The CCPA will, in the prime minister's absence, be presided over by the senior-most minister," says a 'Secret/Most Urgent' note sent out by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth to nine senior ministers.
With an eye on empowering the underprivileged by efficient and intelligent use of social media and creating awareness about the assistance available from the government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked his ministers to list the achievements of their respective departments and ministries in an e-book format before December 31, 2014.
On eve of completion of one year of the Narendra Modi government one of the not-so-debated issues has been the indecision and confusion in selecting a cabinet secretary suitable for the National Democratic Alliance government.
Modi sarkar sets the ball rolling on appointment, next cabinet secretary is expected to be in office in September.
The suited and booted officials of the Ministry of External Affairs had a different job at hand on Sunday -- weeding out old files and papers and removing unusable and obsolete furniture.
The Bharatiya Janata Party government has begun the search for the new chief election commissioner when the present incumbent V S Sampath demits from office on January 15, 2015.
The directives came after he took stock of the situation arising from the massive earthquake at a high-level meeting attended by Ministers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra and senior officials of National Disaster Response Force and Indian Metereological Department.
Ahead of the Independence Day celebrations, government has warned all invited officers that absence from flag hoisting ceremony will be viewed seriously. "It has been observed that there is, at times, low attendance of the official invitees to the ceremony. This is unacceptable considering that the occasions of great national importance.
Bracing to deal with Ebola epidemic which has claimed more than 4000 lives globally, the government took stock of the measures being undertaken for strengthening the preparedness, surveillance and response system in states.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a call for 'Swachh Bharat' (Clean India) as a mass movement to realize Mahatma Gandhi's dream of a clean India by 2019
The Centre will provide MI-17 cargo chopper to Uttarakhand to ferry heavy equipment to calamity-hit high altitude areas to expedite reconstruction work in the hill state.
Power Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha was appointed as the next cabinet secretary of the country on Friday. He will succeed Ajit Seth who has been holding the position for the last four years.
Sixteen Indians stranded in violence-affected areas of Iraq have been evacuated even as one of the 40 abducted Indians has fled from the captors in Mosul town which is under the control of the militants.
Various ministries, including home and defence, have been asked to take necessary steps to prevent leakage of classified information to the media and fix responsibility in case the leakage takes place.
Secretaries were told to give their proposals at least 10 days ahead of a tour.
With tension running high in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar, the Centre on Monday offered to provide additional paramilitary forces to Uttar Pradesh to assist the local administration in dealing with the situation.
The Centre on Monday reviewed the preparedness of relief and rescue measures taken by Gujarat and offered help to the state in the wake of impending cyclonic storm Nilofar, which will make its landfall on Friday.
He said all necessary medical help should be given to the injured, including treatment in India, if required.
In order to ensure clean working space, the government on Tuesday decided to weed out confidential reports of select categories of retired employees after normal retention period of about 5 years.
Government on Sunday announced Rs 6 lakh compensation for kin of those killed in the country due to the earthquake as Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of rescue and relief operations at home and in Nepal and directed that they be speeded up through close coordination among agencies.
The Centre on Saturday made available additional forces to violence-hit Assam as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the "cowardly" terror attack and promised all measures to restore peace there.
The minister, however, said that there are challenges to boost the manufacturing sector
As Kashmir valley remains under flood water, Air India has decided to ferry free of cost tourists trapped in Srinagar while Gujarat and Bihar governments are sending 75,000 food and dry food packets for affected people.
The Centre on Sunday assured all help and assistance to Bihar for rescue and relief in the wake of emerging situation due to overflow in Kosi following a landslide in Nepal creating an artificial dam on the river and triggering possibility of floods.
The Minister said the department is yet to calculate the exact interest-free loans to be provided to the industry.
In a presentation prepared for the incoming Narendra Modi-government, the ministry listed national oil companies losing focus on domestic exploration as well as legal disputes around signed contracts with private explorers among the five things that went wrong during the United Progressive Alliance regime.
Nine more bodies were recovered from a village in Baksa district on Saturday morning, taking the toll to 32 in the violence unleashed by National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit militants in Bodoland Territorial Administration Districts area in Assam.
Addressing the food security concerns is important as India is still has 190 million hungry people, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth said at an event organised by a global think-tank The Club of Rome.
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