An officer with intrinsic merit may still disqualify to be a joint secretary at Centre

CONSIDER yourself an officer with intrinsic merit? Yes, you could be rightly so, but that does not guarantee you for getting an easy empanelment for joint secretary in government of India. In fact, the government in a recent empanelment guideline said that “empanelment should be considered not as a reflection of the intrinsic merit or otherwise of an officer but the suitability of an officer to occupy senior levels in the Central government”.
A section of the guideline reads as if it is designed to reiterate the fact that those serving the state government are no less inferior than their counterparts leading the Central government ministries. “Given the background and experience of an officer, she or he may be highly suited to occupy senior positions in state government. Likewise, another officer, in view of the background and experience, may be considered more suitable for Central government posts,” it said.
The guideline has further talked about how an expert panel will be required to examine the ACRs, and what’s about missing ACRs. “In case the selection process does not lead to adequate representation of categories like SC/ST, women, the North East and from particular state cadres in the panel, the criteria for empanelment would be suitably relaxed to give due representation to these categories” the guideline said.
At present, there are 473 joint secretaries at the Centre.
Read in full the Empanelment Guidelines

Probe against 57 years old IAS for allegedly seeking sex from a widow
Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa ordered on Wednesday a probe into allegations of a senior IAS officer demanding sexual favours from a young widow Yamini Rao. It could be a fast-track investigation on mass education department director, D K Rangaswamy, who was promoted into IAS in 1996. He is 57 years old.

Action and Appointments
a) Inter-cadre transfer of Vijayendra Bidari, a 2005 batch Rajasthan cadre IPS from Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu cadre has been approved.
b) The inter-cadre deputation of Samuel Changkija, a 2003 batch JK cadre IFS from Jammu and Kashmir to Nagaland cadre for a period of 5 years has been approved.