A WEEK before the announcement of Parliamentary results in May this year, cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar, a 1970 batch IAS of Kerala cadre, ordered all secretaries to prepare a 100 days agenda for their respective ministry or department. By then, it was strongly anticipated that Congress would lead a coalition government, and by the time the government was actually formed, its 100 days agenda should be ready.
No wonder, once Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh began his second innings from his South Block office, he had no qualm about Mr Chandrasekhar getting a one-year extension. Yes, K M Chandrasekhar who is well regarded among top echelon of civil servants in India is India’s No 3 most powerful bureaucrat. He is babuz no 3, just behind 1974 batch IAS from Uttar Pradesh cadre, Pulok Chaterji and principal secretary to PM TKA Nair, according to feedback received by babu blogger from senior civil servants and politicians.
Also, read “babuz no 1: Pulok Chaterji is India’s most powerful bureaucrat” and “babuz no 2: principal secretary to PM TKA Nair is India’s second most powerful bureaucrat” posted on August 17 and 18 respectively.
A former ambassador & permanent representative of India in World Trade Organization (WTO) and revenue secretary in the ministry of finance, Mr Chandrasekhar has a post graduation degree in management studies from the University of Leeds in United Kingdom.
In fact, Mr Chandrasekhar had a close tie with another secretary three batch junior to him for the third position as many senior IAS officers in power corridors have rather vouched for the latter to be more powerful than the cabinet secretary. Anyway, the 1973 batch officer is babu blogger’s choice as the fourth most powerful bureaucrat in India. Watch out this space in the coming days to check out who are babuz no 4 & 5.
State secretaries to discuss urban issues in New Delhi today Principal secretaries or secretaries of urban development of states and union territories would meet on August 19 in New Delhi to discuss project completion in 65 Mission Cities under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), submission of Quarterly Project Reports (QPRs), utilization of funds and projected requirement of funds etc. The state government officials will also discuss other urban schemes such as national urban sanitation policy, pilot project on implementation of service level benchmarks and accelerated urban water supply programme (AUWSP) etc.
We are glad to learn that Chandrasekhar was the man behind the UPA Govt's 100 days action plan. No doubt a very powerful babu.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt he is not below 3rd, but i'll bet for him for 2nd as well. any way, nice to keep us excited for each next day...keep up bloggerbabu and do make it "other than" the run of the mill sites on bureaucracy as u r doing now.
ReplyDeleterailbabu
KM Chandrasekhar, the most respected by all officers, businessmen, politicians and other personal friends. There are many milestones he has made in his career and can contribute invaluable intellectual inputs in the Indian Executive.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of UPA-II, it became clear, all these people proved to be Good for nothing. They did not bring any radical changes in overall Management of Governmental Machinery..Lesson z we want somebody who has combo of Technical and administrative skills 2 run the country..PMO has become joke in recent times..sad and shame.
ReplyDelete