His career as a bureaucrat has been somewhat colourless, which suggests his current elevation is simply a matter of being at the right place at the right time.
Forced to cross the Nanoi, a channel of the Brahmaputra, over 7,000 people uprooted from their homes and farms in Darrang district of Assam now use the stream's muddy water to drink and cook and defecate in the open as `Swachh Bharat' toilets built in their villages are now guarded by policemen who do not allow them to re-enter any part of the lands they have been thrown out of.
As India launched the world's largest vaccination drive against the coronavirus pandemic, showing the light at the end of a 10-month tunnel that upended millions of lives and livelihoods, here are some of the quotes from politicians across parties and other people who took the jab:
Former women's hockey team chief coach Sjoerd Marijne's 'full and final' salary was stopped on the recommendations of Hockey India after he was denied a 'No Objection Certificate' for failing to return his official laptop, which, according to the Dutchman, is on its way to India now.
Parts of Raigad, Ratnagiri districts in the coastal Konkan region and Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra, have been worst affected by the floods. Besides that, heavy rains have been pounding parts of Satara district.
The public protest had erupted over the demand for rehabilitation of nearly 800 families evicted from the land they were living on for decades.
Sun Weidong is an expert on South Asia who worked closely with external affairs minister S Jaishankar.
A powerful 5.9-magnitude earthquake jolted a mountainous part of Pakistan's Balochistan province early on Thursday, resulting in collapse of several houses that left at least 22 people dead and over 300 others injured, officials said.
RBI's oversight cadre move creates HR trouble, officers threaten agitation.
India, Taiwan and countries with large numbers of Tibetans, Uyghurs and overseas Chinese will be prominent among those that witness elevated United Front activity, notes Jayadeva Ranade, the distinguished China expert and retired RAW officer.
Several bodies, decomposed, bloated and suspected to be of people who succumbed to COVID-19, were on Monday found floating in the river Ganga in a Bihar district.
In a major relief to thousands of Indian IT professionals, a federal judge in the US on Thursday blocked the enforcement of a temporary visa ban by the Trump administration on a large number of work permits, including the most sought after H-1B visas, ruling that the president exceeded his constitutional authority.
As the global debate on booster shots gathers momentum, several scientists in New Delhi said the priority must be to ensure that more people are inoculated with at least their first jab.
The report mentioned the Central Bureau of Investigation raid on NDTV, exit of Bobby Ghosh as the editor of Hindustan Times and arrest of cartoonist G Bala.
No longer Bengal's finance minister, Amit Mitra, Mamata's principal chief advisor, will still advise and aid the 'chief minister and finance department on all matters relating to management of state finance', represent the 'state government in national and international events/meetings/committees' and examine 'important proposals/files and policy issues relating to financial matters referred to him for advice/views'.
'Chinese experts estimate that the new US administration is 'at the crossroads of how to re-manage and control' Sino-American differences and strategic divergences and Biden's bottom line is that the US would have 'extreme competition with China, but won't allow competition to develop into conflict',' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Phase-I clinical trials have revealed "excellent safety" of the two candidate vaccines indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and Cadila Healthcare Ltd and their immunogenicity testing is now in progress, minister of state for health Ashwini Choubey informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The picturesque landscape of Pettimudi was flattened into a rough patch of boulders and mud with parts of asbestos and tin sheets seen scattered around.
On December 10, Kissinger began to encourage the Chinese to take action against India: 'If the People's Republic were to consider the situation on the Indian subcontinent a threat to security, and if it took measures to protect its security, the US would oppose efforts of others to interfere with the People's Republic.' On the 50th anniversary of India's greatest military victory, Claude Arpi recalls how the US suggested that China intervene militarily on Pakistan's side.
Pakistan Meteorological Department's earthquake centre said the 5.8-magnitude earthquake was located near the mountainous city of Jehlum in Punjab province.
G C Murmu rarely speaks in public and when he does, his statements are always in lockstep with the thinking within this government.
The crucial service records of Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai are not traceable with the Personnel ministry, an RTI reply has revealed.
'Local support is very important, without it the terror attack couldn't have taken place.' 'Explosives were secured, the IED was manufactured, the boy was brainwashed and converted into a suicide bomber... it takes a lot of planning and hard work.'
Even after SC directions, the administration has not restored mobile internet services for Kashmir division. It said misuse of data services by anti-national elements has the potential to cause large-scale violence and disturb public order.
The DMK feels its genuine gestures have had no bearing on the governor's politico-administrative conduct, which is 'more political and politicised than administrative and Constitutional', observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The former Mumbai Commissioner of Police, a 1988 batch IPS officer also sought quashing of the order transferring him from the post of Mumbai CP alleging it to be "arbitrary" and "illegal".
Three officials have been suspended.
The White House and the Indian-American community are solidly backing the nomination of Neera Tanden as the director of Office of Management and Budget, describing her as the most appropriate candidate to hold the position.
He will be one of the few in the audience for this year's Ramlila as general spectators will not be allowed to watch the show physically due to the COVID-19 restrictions. The nine-day enactment of the life of Lord Ram as per the epic Ramayana will be a virtual affair this year.
Wang Junzheng, Tibet's new Communist party boss, is on a number of sanctions lists by the US, Britain, the EU and Canada, for his tough role in Xinjiang, aimed at China's Uyghur ethnic minority, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the retired senior RA&W officer and distinguished China expert.
Russia and China are tight-fisted and Iran is broke and none of them has the political will or capacity to bankroll the Afghan economy, which only the US can, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
For nearly seven years, Bhatia served in the first and second George W Bush Administrations, first in the department of commerce and then in the department of transportation, before finally enjoying a more than two-year stint as deputy US trade representative, the senior-most administration position ever served by an Indian American, before he resigned end October last year, to return to the private sector.
'Have discreet, separate corona and non-corona hospitals for treating these two categories of patients.' 'Concentrate on your non-corona patients as well.' 'Because then your diabetics, your hypertensives, the ones on dialysis, the asthmatics, who, if and when they get corona, are the ones who are going to require more intensive care and are going to be more at risk of death.'
Officers of the three premier services -- Indian Administrative Services, Indian Police Service and Indian Foreign Service -- will now spend a minimum of two years at each posting and any exception in the form of transfers or new appointments will only be done upon the recommendation of a civil services board, according to new rules aimed at checking political interference.
The state government, however, has not sent any report as sought by the Union home ministry on "serious security lapses" during Nadda's two-day visit to West Bengal.
While TMC leaders ridiculed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath for lifting an image purportedly from West Bengal, the BJP in the Mamata Banerjee-ruled state took potshots at crashing flyovers in the eastern state over the use of an image in a newspaper ad
Mueller, who investigated into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, resigned on Wednesday.
'We don't have any agenda in that, there will be no discrimination against anyone. Constitution will be Gita in that'
The Covid pandemic has left a question mark on how the central government manages its staff.
The elephant in the room will permeate the conversations, predicts Rup Narayan Das.
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