Know Your Babu: Profile of new urban development secretary Navin Kumar, 1975 batch Bihar cadre IAS

THE government has zeroed in Planning Commission principal adviser and 1975 batch Bihar cadre IAS Navin Kumar as the new urban development secretary in place of M Ramachandran, 1972 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS who retired on June 30. The formal announcement may likely to come later today.

A postgraduate in physics, Mr Kumar was the district magistrate in West Champaran district in early 1980s, and had served in Central deputation both in the ministry of water resources and department of economic affairs (DEA) before moving back to the cadre. Later, he became the joint secretary in the ministry of finance and company affairs (1999-2003) and also clinched the powerful position of Director General (DG) of Doordarshan (2004-’06). He also served as the development commissioner in Bihar in Nitish Kumar’s government before joining the Planning Commission as the principal adviser in the rank of a secretary, Government of India.

Global Window: Russia may trim bureaucracy by 20%

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has indicated that the number of state officials could be cut by 20 percent “in order to increase government efficiency”. His theory says the move would save a major amount of government resources which could be used to “stimulate” the rest of the workforce. Russian bureaucrats has earned the reputations as bloated and corrupt. Energy dependent Russian economy suffered a major setback when global economic crisis hit it and tumbled the oil prices globally in 2008.

7 envoys present their credentials to Indian Prez

The envoys who presented their credentials were Dr Ruben I. Zamora, the Ambassador of El Salvador, Mr Ronald B. Allarey, the Ambassador of the Philippines, Thongphanh Syackhaphom, the Ambassador of Laos, Mr. Doulat O Kuanyshev, the Ambassador of Kazakhstan, Dr Nanguyalai Tarzi (See Picture), the Ambassador of Afghanistan, Mr Marco Piccinini, the Ambassador of Monaco and Mr Byron Escobedo Menendez, the Ambassador of Guatemala.