Indian government to fund 3 officers qualified for Harvard’s Mason Program

THE Government of India has decided to fully fund three officers who will qualify for the prestigious Mason Program of Harvard next year. Changing its own policy, the government has now decided to bring the one-year MPA (Mason Program), 2012-13 of the Harvard Kennedy School under the Domestic Funding of Foreign Training (DFFT). In a circular dated November 8, 2011, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) said that a separate sponsorship system was devised under the same scheme as the deadline for the Harvard Kennedy School program is December 2, 2011.

Here are the details of the schedule

a)      Interested officers may directly apply to Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) before December 2, 2011, and undertake the selection process as a private individual.

b)      The DoPT will earmark 3 slots for the MPA (Mason Program).

c)      Once an officer is selected to the program as a private individual, he/she may apply for sponsorship under DFFT scheme. The applications have to be made through the official channels as vigilance clearance, ACR grading etc. will be needed.

d)      A committed constituted by DoPT will scrutinize the applications.

e)      The successful candidates will receive full funding as in case of other long-term programs.

The DFFT scheme was introduced in 2001 mainly to provide exposure to international best practices. The officers belonging to IAS, CSS and SCS are eligible to undergo foreign training under the scheme. Officers of the other two All India Services, viz., IPS and IFoS and those of other organized Group A Central Civil Services are eligible under the scheme only when they are holding posts on deputation under the Central Staffing Scheme.

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Indian Railways to get 13 new GMs

In one of the most high-profile sets of appointments in Indian Railways, as many as 13 General Managers (GMs) were appointed with effect from November 9, 2011. Here are the new officers at the helms…

a) Indra Ghosh, Chief Operations Manager, Northern Railway is the new General Manager, East Coast Railway, Bhubneshwar.

b) SK Jain, Chief Administrative Officer (Construction), Western Railways has been appointed as General Manager, Central Railway, Mumbai.

c) Mahesh Kumar, Additional Member (Signal), Railway Board will be General Manager, Western Railway, Mumbai.

d) AK Verma, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Central Railway has been appointed as General Manager, South Eastern Railway, Kolkata.

e) Arunendra Kumar, Additional Member (Production Unit), Railway Board is the new General Manager, South East Central Railway, Bilaspur.

f) GC Agarwal, Principal Chief Engineer, Eastern Railway has been appointed as General Manager, Eastern Railway, Kolkata.

g) Varun Bharthuar, General Manager, Eastern Railway has been appointed as General Manager, East Central Railway, Hajipur.

h) SV Arya, Additional General Manager, Central Railways is the new General Manager, West Central Railway, Jabalpur.

i) GN Asthana, General Manager, West Central Railway is the new General Manager, South Central Railway, Secunderabad.

j) BN Rajasekhar, Additional Member (Planning), Railway Board has been appointed as General Manager, Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala.

k) Abhay Kumar Khanna, Additional Member (Budget), Railway Board is the new General Manager, Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai.

l) Rajeev Bhargava, Additional Member (Works) has been appointed as General Manager, Rail Wheel Factory, Bangalore.

m) Jagdev Kalia, Chief Electrical Engineer, South Central Railway has been appointed as General Manager, Central Organization for Railway Electrification (CORE), Allahabad.