In demand

However,in most cases,the court has asked him to continue assisting the Bench.

In demand

Even though he is no longer the countrys second senior-most law officer,former Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium continues to be in demand with government departments and agencies. After demitting office,he sent back case files pertaining to pending cases in which he had been appointed amicus curiae by the Supreme Court when he was a law officer. However,in most cases,the court has asked him to continue assisting the Bench. Similarly,the CBI and some other investigating agencies of the Government of India want him to appear for them in some important cases. The only difference is that now that he is no longer a government law officer,the agencies would have to pay him his regular fees.

NIP AND TUCK

THE South Block heritage building that houses the Defence Ministry is seeing a lot of destruction lately. Authorities are cracking down on illegal extensions and construction within the building. While a two storied structure has also been demolished to bring the building back to its original state,several illegally constructed walls have also been brought down in recent days,giving South Block a more airy feel. This led a senior official to crack that the demolitions are part of the transparency efforts initiated by the Defence Ministry.

WISH GRANTED

AFTER the Empowered Group of Ministers EGoM on Food Security revoked the ban on onion export,the junior-most member of the group,Food Minister K V Thomas,walked up to the chairman Pranab Mukherjee,with a small request. Thomas wanted to know whether he can brief the media about the decision which pertained to his ministry. The minister was anxious that in the absence of a structured briefing,a wrong message may go out which could compound problems for a government already reeling under pressure from high food inflation. Mukherjee gave his permission.

STARTING SMALL

NEW Air India CMD Rohit Nandan has a mountain of problems to deal with in his endeavour to bring the troubled state carrier back on track. Nandan,however,wants to begin with small steps. He is learnt to have identified two areas where he wants to focus his attention first the airlines on-time performance and customer satisfaction/perception of the airline. The on-time performance of the airline at Delhi,which had been hovering at 75 per cent in recent times,shot up to over 90 per cent a couple of days ago.

DEMISE

FORMER chief of Indias external intelligence agency,the Research and Analysis Wing RAW,Ashok Chaturvedi,died in the capital Monday after a prolonged illness. The 1970-batch IPS officer was head of the agency when the Mumbai terrorist strikes took place in November 2008. He retired in January 2009 and unlike many of his colleagues did not opt for a post-retirement job.