Will new DGCA EK Bharat Bhushan be able to do a Captain Gopinath?

IF YOU are a victim of exorbitant airfare in India during the recent time, you must check out this man and his mandate. EK Bharat Bhushan, new Director General of Civil Aviation and 1979 batch Kerala cadre IAS is the only hope for thousands of air travelers as DGCA’s tough decisions could force airlines not to extract too much from passengers. Bharat Bhushan, a post graduate in English literature and Edward Mason International Fellow from Harvard University was made an interim CMD of Air India last year when Raghu Menon left the National Carrier as MD.

EK Bharat Bhushan who reportedly had a meeting with Low-cost air carriers (LCCs) including IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir is expected to meet the representatives of full service carriers soon. But the big question is – will Bharat Bhushan be able to do a Captain Gopinath who with his low cost carrier, Deccan Air, forced all carriers to take a pro-passenger policy? Thanks to the affordable pricing scheme of Captain Gopinath, who has now launched a new cargo business, thousands of lower middle class Indians could dream to fly. Though civil aviation minister Praful Patel has talked touch on exorbitant airfares recently, many air travelers are actually pinning their hopes on DGCA.

Born in Calicut on January 1955, Bharat Bhushan was a collector of Malappuram and served as MD in a number of organizations in his home state Kerala. In mid-1990s, he moved to Delhi on deputation and served in the ministry of commerce and industry, first as a director and then as a joint secretary. He was a joint secretary in the ministry of communications and information technology in 2007-09 before joining as a joint secretary in the ministry of civil aviation on February 2009. In April, 2009, he was promoted as an additional secretary of the same ministry.

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Yet another MBBS turned bureaucrat is in trouble. The Delhi Police on Friday night registered a case against Dr Ketan Shukla, a 1986-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer after his 22-year old domestic help claimed that he sexually assaulted her in Kenya. Dr Shukla was the deputy high commissioner in Kenya before joining Gujarat Electricity Regulation Commission as a secretary. (Read: Home Ministry’s MBBS)

According to reports, a case under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code has been registered against Dr Shukla. His domestic help who hails from Jharkhand stayed in Kenya between 2007 and 2010. He has served in Indian diplomatic missions in Portugal, Brazil, Germany and had served as Deputy Permanent Representative to United Nations Environmental Programme(UNEP) and UN-Habitat. He also served on deputation as private secretary to minister of state for defence production and supply in the ministry of defence.

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