Opinion Army Chief’s special farewell
In a new gesture that is being much discussed within the Army,all retiring officers have started getting a personal thank you note from the Chief of Army Staff.
Army Chief’s special farewell
In a new gesture that is being much discussed within the Army,all retiring officers have started getting a personal thank you note from the Chief of Army Staff. On an average,close to 50 officers of the Indian Army retire every month. Since March,all retiring officers have been getting a special packet that not only contains all pension and retirement papers but also a personally signed letter of appreciation by Army Chief General Bikram Singh for service to the nation. Besides,the Army Chief has been hosting a formal function every month for retiring officers.
Old party,new address
the Congress is set to unveil its revamped website. Changing its name from aicc.org,which the party feels is difficult to remember,the web address is to be changed to inc.orginitials of the Indian National Congress. It has been designed by a team led by Congress MP Deepender Hooda. Similarly,the party is going for a fresh twitter handle,incindia,for all official tweets. These changes are part of the revamp that Rahul Gandhi decided on in recent weeks and began with the appointment of party general secretary Ajay Maken as head of the communication and media department.
Aakash tablet to get a new push
Praveen Prakash,a 1994-batch IAS officer from the Andhra Pradesh cadre,is set to take over the HRD Ministrys Aakash tablet project. Soon to join the ministry as Joint Secretary,Prakash has been PS to Minister of State for Information Technology & Communications Killi Kruparani. While the HRD Ministry,after the exit of Kapil Sibal,has not shown much enthusiasm for the low-cost tablet,Prakash is said to be a firm believer in it. According to officials,he is even planning to travel to Patna to learn about the project from his predecessor N K Sinha.
Informing and broadcasting
having already received the nod for its Rs 6 crore New Media Wing,the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting does not really need to go back to the Cabinet. However,I&B minister Manish Tewari is reportedly keen to apprise the Union Cabinet about this crack team of new recruits that will help publicise the initiatives of the UPA government on Facebook,Twitter and other social media. Tewaris ministry,it is learnt,has already sent a note on the same to the Cabinet Secretariat. The same plan,incidentally,had earlier met with resistance from the plan panel over the expensive gadgetry for the new wing.
An expected demand
Last week,shortly after the Congress announced its support for a Telangana,its Nagpur MP Vilas Muttemwar shot off a letter to Sonia Gandhi advocating statehood for Vidarbha. The seven-term MPs letter,however,only drew a few nudges and smiles from party leaders. Minister of State (Independent charge) of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in the UPA-I,Muttemwar found no place in the Union Council of Ministers when the UPA returned to power in 2009. In no time,he was raising the Vidarbha statehood issue. In July 2011,he was appointed AICC general secretary after he missed the bus in the Cabinet reshuffle. In the AICC reshuffle last June,he was dropped as general secretary. The party leadership was,therefore,already expecting a renewed call for Vidarbha state from him.
Express Bureau
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