Ashok Chawla, R Bandyopadhyay in race for CCI chairman’s post

A NUMBER of high-profile retired bureaucrats including former finance secretary Ashok Chawla and former corporate affairs secretary R Bandyopadhyay are in race for the post of chairman of Competition Commission of India (CCI) as the incumbent Dhanendra Kumar retires next month.

According to reports, there are about 300 applicants for two CCI posts, one for Chairman and another for a Member. These posts are quite attractive as the salary goes upto over two and half lakhs rupees if the selected person prefers not to take any official house and car. A secretary in government of India gets a salary of Rs 80,000 in addition to perks such as official car and a residence in prime locations.

According to reports, the applicants for CCI chairman’s post also include former United Bank of India chairman SC Gupta, former environment secretary Vijay Sharma, Adviser to deputy chairman of Planning Commission Gajendra Haldea, and former CBDT Member Durgesh Shankar.

UPSC chairman calls for a review of permanent appointment of bureaucrats

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) chairman DP Agrawal said there is a need for a fresh look at the issue of permanent appointment in bureaucracy. He said on Wednesday that there should be an intense assessment of officers’ performance at various stages of their career, and the deadwood should be weeded out at early stages. The UPSC is the government’s recruiting agency for all top bureaucrats including IAS, IPS, IFS etc.

Bihar CM takes his key bureaucrats to Bhutan

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar along with a few of his key bureaucrats left for a four-day visit to Bhutan. His mission: To study ways to make the state self-reliant in energy sector. Principal secretary, energy Ajay V Nayak; principal secretary tourism Dipak Prasad; information and public relations department secretary Rajesh Bhushan; CM’s secretary Atish Chandra and his officer-on-special duty Gopal Prasad have accompanied Kumar on his visit.