Bureaucratic Bonhomie

At a time when drug regulatory mechanisms in the country are facing a lot of criticism,there are reasons why things are moving so slowly in this area. The National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority seems to be working in a time warp. The office of chairman C P Singh does not accept e-mail communication and insists on faxed documents instead. “Sir does not allow e-mails,” is how one staff member put it.

Delayed Invitation

The Trinamool Congress has not yet made up its mind on whether to support UPA’s Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee or not. And — probably as a consequence — it has not been informed of a dinner that the UPA is planning for all its allies — and also other supporters like the SP and BSP — as a token of thanks for supporting Mukherjee’s candidature. The date of dinner is yet to be finalised but the other allies are learnt to have been informally told about it. The Trinamool Congress has also not been consulted so far on the Vice-Presidential candidate of the UPA. The Prime Minister has been talking to various parties seeking support for the UPA candidate — yet to be announced — but so far has not reached out to Trinamool.

Offer Spurned

The Director of IIM-Bangalore Pankaj Chandra narrowly missed out on becoming the chairperson of University Grants Commission. He was the preferred choice of the HRD Ministry but the Prime Minister’s Office wanted the entire selection process to be started again after Prof Seyed Hasnain also emerged as a strong candidate. In an apparent bid to assuage Chandra,the HRD Ministry is learnt to have offered him the top job at another important academic body. Chandra,however,was not amused by this kind of patronising and is learnt to have politely turned down the ministry’s offer.

Lankan Folly

The government would have liked to keep the news of moving Sri Lankan cadets training near Chennai to Bangalore under wraps. The move had come under pressure from the Tamil parties and there was no need to publicise the event. But an overzealous defence spokesperson at Chennai,in his wisdom,issued a one-line statement saying the Air Force personnel had been ‘moved out’. The decision caused much embarrassment within the government and now the Defence Ministry has been trying to find out who authorised the release of a press statement. They have so far zeroed in on a group captain based at Tambaram. Interestingly,in a breach of protocol,South Block was not consulted before the release was issued.