Change in course

Pallam Raju is quietly ushering a new agenda to the HRD Ministry

Change in course

Pallam Raju is quietly ushering a new agenda to the HRD Ministry. He has decided to recast the new Education Commission and reversed predecessor Sibals policy to support development of low-cost Aakash tablet. Meanwhile,he has also ensured that a proposal he had presented to the HRD Ministry when he was MoS Defence is brought to fruition. The suggestions to make NCC an elective subject will now go to the Central Advisory Board of Education that is meeting next week for a national level endorsement of the plan.

NIA TOP JOB

THE anti-terror agency,National Investigation Agency,is grappling with a problem of finding someone for its top job. NIA director S C Sinha is due to retire in October this year he is tipped to become a NHRC member and the hunt has begun for his successor. The Home Ministry tried reaching out to Prakash Mishra,a 1977 batch IPS officer,to head the agency but Mishra,who is DGP of Orissa,has declined the offer. The next choice is K Saleem Ali,a 1978 batch IPS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre,who is special director with the CBI. What has left MHA running out of options,however,is that Saleem is also set to retire at the end of this year.

NEW TASK

INDIAS High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Ashok Kantha,who has completed his three-year tenure in Colombo,has now been picked for the job of Secretary,East,in the Ministry of External Affairs. Kantha,who is related to BJP leader Yashwant Sinha,will now be responsible for Indias policies in South East Asia,Australia and parts of the Arab world.

THE RIGHT NOTE

IT may have been his first meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Durban but Chinese President Xi Jinping was quite mindful of power equations in New Delhi. This was best reflected when he ended his conversation with Singh by requesting him to convey his greeting not only to his counterpart Pranab Mukherjee but also ruling party counterpart Sonia Gandhi.

ACTING TOUGH

WITH instances of All India Service officers,including IAS and IPS,remaining absent from duty for prolonged periods after going on study and other leaves,the Department of Personnel and Training has decided to act tough. The department has instructed all central ministries and state governments to take strict action as quickly as possible against government servants absent without leave.