Eyes wide shut
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395Recognise the small entrepreneur
IT is widely believed, and not without substance, that the recent large scale replacement of currency has caused avoidable distress to the small business man, micro and small entrepreneur and trader. The social and the mainstream media have been providing ample empirical evidence of the impact of the breakdown of cash transactions. It is also […]
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365Demonetisation: The jury is still out
WHEN we are confronted with the evidence in any matter, for example a personal or a political issue, the cognitive process in our brain is immediately activated. But surprisingly, the neural circuits in the brain that are normally involved in reasoning or logic do not participate in this process. In fact, when the brain arrives […]
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391Puzzling silence
I N the foreword to the White Paper on the ‘State of Law and Order in Delhi’ that was released to the media recently, the Managing Trustee of the NGO Praja says, ‘There is a crisis brewing in Delhi, a crisis that this city is becoming unlivable for the common men and women’. And, ‘this […]
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269It’s time for conscious public service delivery
WORKING on the concept of institutional ethics as a possible solution to the menace of corruption in government, the IC Centre for Governance looked around for a value-based organisation in public governance. The search was very tricky, like the proverbial looking for a needle in a haystack. The hunt was as difficult, if not more, […]
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198The malady of political interference
IN the last seven decades, innumerable studies on civil services have been conducted from time to time. They have been read, commented on and forgotten. And now, a new and perhaps more comprehensive study on the civil service has been added to the existing literature, conclusions of which have been drawn from the enormous volume […]
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228A cruel pattern comes to the fore
IT is a tale of two cases in quick succession, where two senior civil servants were put on trial for alleged acts of corruption on the ground of causing benefit to somebody by their actions which, according to the CBI, were not in public interest. That they did not benefit themselves or their family and […]
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243The war within
THE war for parity between IAS and non-IAS officers of the Union Government is far from being over. In the last couple of weeks, it came very close for the non-IAS services to win parity with IAS. I am sure the bitter war of words on the social media and elsewhere will continue unabated despite, […]
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Stories that need to be told
ONCE a young IAS officer newly empanelled and promoted as Joint Secretary, obviously dissatisfied with his posting in a not very coveted ministry in the Government of India, came to the Cabinet Secretary and complained about the unfair treatment meted out to him by the government. The Cabinet Secretary leaned back in his chair and […]