No taker of plum post in Washington DC! DoPT asks secretaries to nominate officers

Indian Embassy in Washington

Gosh! The government is struggling hard to find a joint secretary level officer willing to take up a plum post in Washington DC. The designation called “minister, economic” in Indian Embassy at Washington DC, is also fancy. But over seven months after applications were first invited from JS level officers, the DoPT in a letter dated March 22, 2012, wrote to government of India’s secretaries and state chief secretaries asking them to nominate suitable officers for the post still lying vacant.

Officers in the past had lobbied very hard to get postings in Indian missions of US and UK and even in World Bank or IMF. That raises a question why JS level officers did not apply this time round. The DoPT, however, did not spell out the number of applicants which it said is not sufficient.

The DoPT letter says: “Sufficient nominations were not received to finalize the selection of filling up the Joint Secretary level post of Minister (Economic) in economy wing, Embassy of India, Washington DC, under the Department of Economic Affairs, which fell vacant on November 9, 2011”. The DoPT’s earlier advertisement was dated August 4, 2011.

The officers empanelled as joint secretaries, and with two years of experiences at the Centre are eligible to apply for the post. The minimum age is 54 years. The applicant should have prior experiences in trade, commerce, industry, finance, foreign investment, export promotion etc.

The officers who had applied earlier must reapply, the letter said. Significantly, the applicants need to write a 250-word brief stating why he or she is suitable for the job.

Action and Appointments

a) DoPT secretary PK Mishra will continue to hold the additional charge of post of steel secretary for one more month beginning March 17 or until further orders. It indicates that the government has made up its mind to choose the next steel secretary from 1978 batch.

b) Manoj Jhalani, a 1987 batch MP cadre IAS, has been appointed as joint secretary in the health ministry.