Modi Congratulates Daftary's Son

Sweet taste of success: Modi meets 'daftari', son over UPSC exam success-Hindustan Times

For 36 long years, Devkaran had remained a nameless and faceless employee in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), hidden behind bulky files he carried from the chamber of one babu to another.

On Wednesday, as he approached the end of the corridor on the first floor, his feet trembled in tension as well as excitement.

For, the class-four staff of the country's highest executive office was about to meet his top boss—Narendra Modi. The occasion was special, too.

Devkaran's son Rajesh Kumar has secured the 578th rank out of 1,122 selected candidates in the civil service exams and as soon as Modi heard about it he wanted to meet both father and the son.

"I could not have expected more in this life. When I entered his room, the Prime Minister stood up, came around the table to feed sweets from his own hands to my son. The PM told my son that whenever he needs any help, he can meet him," said Devkaran, a daftari (office help) in the PMO.

Another surprise came towards the end of the meeting when Modi told the bright young man what he had been telling his cabinet colleagues and bureaucrats: "If you have any innovative idea (of governance) in your mind, feel free to tell me."

Rajesh's grandfather Narayan Ram had worked in the first PMO during Jawaharlal Nehru's tenure. When he died in 1978 still working in South Block, Devkaran got a job under compassionate ground.

Last week, after the civil services results were out, an elated Devkaran distributed sweets in the PMO. "I gave sweets to the PM's personal staff and they said they will inform the PM about my son's success. Last evening, I got a call confirming an appointment."

Rajesh, a graduate in Electronics Communication from Alwar's Institute of Engineering & Technology had brief stints with the Centre's National Informatics Centre (NIC) and ICICI Bank while he prepared for the civil service exams.

He is currently working as an assistant in the department of personnel and training (DoPT) of the Government of India.

This was his first attempt in the civil services examination.

The Devkarans originally belong to Rajasthan and fall under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.

"If luck permits, Rajesh may bag a slot even in the elite group of Indian Police Service or Revenue Service. And who know, one day he might enter the South Block following his father's footstep but as a bureaucrat," said a senior officer.
Link Hindustan Times

Modi Wants Action , Not Only Plan

PM Narendra Modi wants results, not plans

Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times ----------19th June 2014

Link government spending to the pay-off: that’s the message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for department secretaries.

Disappointed with routine presentations, the Prime Minister’s Office has asked department secretaries to specify how they would link each paisa the government invested to the outcome for benefit of the people.

Modi, apparently, was not very impressed with initial demonstrations made before him by secretaries, as they only indicated their ministries’ mandate and vision. Most of the presentations talked about the departments’ plans and proposals for the next 100 days, but not the impact. The PM was more interested in learning the outcome of the proposals and how the ministries intend to measure this. “He wants results of every paisa the government spends and the statistical measurement,” a secretary-level official in the government said.

The administration has been grappling with a system to measure upshot of public outlay. The UPA government, under finance minister P Chidambaram, had come out with an outcome budget for two years, but discontinued the practice after facing criticism that the reports didn’t indicate how the expenditure had changed lives of people.  

Modi, however, is keen that ministries measure outcome with May 2014 as the base as promised by him in BJP Parliamentary Party meeting.

The official added that all the secretaries have been asked to tweak their presentations to include a specific component on measureable outcome. “If a new scheme is being proposed, the secretaries have to state how many people it would benefit,” he said. The secretaries have also been told to give a timeline.

This has caught some functionaries off-guard, as none of the ministries have a system to measure the change government expenditure brings to lives of beneficiaries

Link Hindustan Times

Narendra Modi calls Russia 'time tested friend'-Times of India

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday described Russia as a "time tested friend" and said Moscow stood by India in difficult times. 

At a meeting with Russian deputy prime minister Dmitri Rogozin who called on Modi here, the Prime Minister appreciated Russia's support in building India's military capabilities. 

Modi said he intended to take the relationship with Russia to a higher level, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said. 

Rogozin conveyed President Vladimir Putin's greetings to Modi, the statement added. 

He also communicated Putin's desire to work with Modi and strengthen the "special and privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia". 

Modi thanked Rogozin for Russia's contribution to the realization of INS Vikramaditya, a major milestone in India's naval capabilities. 

The Indian prime minister said he looked forward to "a productive, substantive and forward looking" summit with Putin later in the year. 

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, foreign secretary Sujatha Singh, principal secretary to the PM Nripendra Misra and national security advisor Ajit Doval were present at the meeting.

RBI Rajan Meets PM Modi

RBI governor Rajan meets Narendra Modi-India TV

New Delhi: Ahead of monetary policy review on Tuesday, Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan today called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is likely to have discussed the macro-economic situation and issues related to price rise.  The RBI’s bi-monthly policy review on June 3 will be the first after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office on May 26.

Last week, Rajan also met the newly appointed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and had said fighting price increase is a priority, stressing that the central bank has always maintained a balance between the need to check inflation and prop up growth.

“Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Raghuram Rajan called on Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi at 7, Race Course Road today. It was a courtesy call,” an official statement said.

India’s economic growth stayed below 5 per cent for the second year in a row at 4.7 per cent in 2013-14. Growth remained subdued at 4.6 per cent in the fourth quarter.  The Reserve Bank of India may leave key interest rates unchanged in its June 3 monetary policy review as Rajan is likely to prefer containing stubborn inflation before conceding to demands for a rate cut to boost growth.  “RBI is likely to maintain status quo as inflation is still high and the threat of monsoon being weak this time is looming large,” Indian Overseas Bank Chairman and Managing Director M Narendra told PTI.

Rajan had kept the policy rate unchanged at 8 per cent in its April 1 review as inflation, especially of food items, hovered at over 8 per cent. Food inflation in April stood at 9.66 per cent and retail inflation was at 8.59 per cent.

Performance Is More Important Than Praising Modi Or BJP

Praising me no help, time to bite economic bullet: Narendra Modi to nation-Times of India ( Bankers should See my opinion below)

Using his significant political capital to send out one of the clearest messages a political leader has done in recent times on the need for fiscal prudence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said some “tough economic decisions” are on the anvil to improve the financial health of the country.

He indicated that the “stringent measures” he plans to undertake — his government will present its first budget less than a month from now — may not go down well with every section but it is necessary in “the larger interest of the nation”.

Addressing BJP workers in Taligaon in Goa, Modi hit out at the previous UPA government for its handling of the economy. “I have taken over the reins of the country in circumstances when there is nothing left behind by the previous government. They left everything empty. The country’s financial health has hit the bottom.”

He said “tough economic decisions will be required to bring the country out of the current economic mess”. He expressed confidence that the “stringent measures” for prudent financial discipline will not be for his own or his party’s interest, but “the larger interest of the nation”.

“I am well aware that my steps may dent the immense love that the country has given me. But when my countrymen realise that these steps will result in getting the financial health back, then I will regain that love,” he said.

Modi said his government will remain connected to the people and work to empower them for the development process. “The government has begun its work well. For ten years, the people of this country have not witnessed a working government in Delhi. Our government will work with a clear conscience, clear policy and strong leadership to provide good governance,” he said.

Referring to the mandate the BJP got, he said the era of coalition politics has ended. “People have given a clear indication that political parties, whether in power or in opposition, must pay heed to people’s expectations. This election has also proved that people have defeated the politics of casteism, communalism, nepotism and family. People decided that a government should be formed to provide security, prosperity, eliminate corruption and meet the aspirations of the people, solve their problems,” he said.

“We won’t be helping the country by praising Modi and praising BJP. There is no guarantee that just singing praise of Modi will improve the situation. We need to take tough measures to improve the financial situation,” he said.

Later, Modi tweeted that “time has come to take tough decisions in the interest of the nation. Whatever decisions we take will be solely guided by national interest.”

He said it is wrong to think that people in government are not willing to work for the country. “In a government set-up, most officials would like to do something for the the country. They are ready to work. This is what I can say from my experience as the Prime Minister in the last fifteen days.”

Link Times of India

My Opinion:  

This is a learning point for bankers too. Majority of bank officers are busy in keeping their bosses happy sacrificing the health of thier bank. They extend red carpet welcome to their bosses when they visit their branch. They are least bothered of health of assets and interest of their customers .

Bank Officers in general  spend most of time in praising their Regional Head, or Zonal Head or Country head. Bank officers at branches are ready to obey right or wrong advices of their bosses keeping in mind their career prospect and cream posting. They know very well that if they do not obey wrong advice of bosses they may be transferred to critical places and they may be rejected in promotion processes.  They know it very well that  if they are doing well in any branch, their boss may remove good staff and post bad staff in their branch if they fail to keep boss happy. There are many ways to punish a good working officer who do not flatter his or her boss.

 I have no doubt that health of assets of public sector bank is deteriorating and moving from bad to worse mostly because of flattery and bribery culture prevalent in these banks.

Clever top officials blame global recession or domestic situation for their failure to contain bad debts and for their failure in keeping their bank healthy and prosperous. They hide their ill-motivated acts in recruitment and promotions by projecting  image of bank fraudulently in good stream and by concealing their evil works and projecting bad assets as good assets. 

Until bank officers learn to give value to their organisation , public sector banks may not dream of any reduction  in rising trend of bad debts or any improvement in quality of lending. .They may not stop erosion in profitability .They may not solve crisis of capital in compliance of Basel III norms.

Either Bank management have to discard their so called merit oriented promotion policy or recruitment policy which produces flatterers and flatterers only. They have to stick to seniority based promotions and postings so that top officials may not rape the future of good performers. Or else Bank officers will have to have enough courage to disobey wrong verbal orders of high ranked officials and stop flattery in quest of good posting or in greed of quicker promotions. 

Flattery to yesman  is  easier and safer than the habit of sticking to ideals and principles  because it is difficult for junior officers to have animosity with their seniors who are fate makers,  if they want to lead a peaceful life.

Making transparent policy and reducing discretionary powers may help in reducing corruption in recruitment and promotions. But expecting only juniors stopping flattery is practically absolutely unimaginable.

Similarly politicians have to stop exploitation of banks for their self interest and government have to give value to real performing CEOs and not to them who simply indulge in flattery to Ministers .

Government  has to decide whether they want banks to be used for charity work and social welfare services or they want them to function as purely as commercial entity focusing on profit and profit only.

Bank officers are so much crazy and anxious to please their bosses or ministers that they sanction hundreds of crores of rupees in one day when these dignitories visit their place of work and organise a camp for loan disbursement.

There are many Branch officials who do not sanction loans to even a few persons in 365 days , manage to sanction loans to hundreds of persons in a day or two to earn blessings of bosses and political masters under whose instruction loan camp is organised in a town or city.

Such ambitious , greedy and career oriented officials undoubtedly compromise with quality of lending and give rise to bad accounts. I have no doubt in saying that loads of bad debts inflicted on these banks is nothing but outcome of officer's culture of flattery and habit of giving more importance to their bosses than their organisation.

Similarly political workers , elected representatives like MLAs and MPS and Ministers give more values and more importance to flattery to their bosses than to interest of common men who vote them to power. These clever politicians therefore advise banks to disburse more and more loans in a camp attended by them so that voters give them value even though it leads to rise in non performing assets and thus hurts the profitability of a bank.

Charity and profitability , both cannot be taken care of at the same time. Unfortunately , politicians are using taxpayers money in distributing it as charity to enhance their vote bank only . They do not bother about future of bank, as much as they care for their vote bank .

This is why , health of banks have been deteriorating year after year . Politicians care more for their health than for bank's health. Similarly bank officers care more for pleasure of their bosses than for health of banks they serve.

Restructuring of loans or selling of loans to ARC or writing off of bad loans or changing norms of identification of bad assets or evergreening of loans may give temporary relief only. IN the long run, these short term measures will prove to be more disasteous and perilous.

SIT On Black Money

The Black Money Trail-Money Life
After the special investigation team (SIT) was set up following Supreme Court orders, there are hopes of a decisive action to unearth black money stashed abroad

One of the first actions of the Narendra Modi government was to set up a special investigation team (SIT) to track black money. The decision is not merely about a poll promise. No amount of hard work will bring the economy on track, unless the government finds a way to raise revenue innovatively. With a fiscal deficit of 4.47% of GDP (gross domestic product) and a lot of ‘unpaid bills’ (the unpaid subsidy bill alone is expected to aggregate around Rs1 trillion, says an article in The Mint), the government has the tough task of meeting sky-high public expectations with very little manoeuvrability.

Forcing rich Indians to bring back the wealth stashed overseas is certainly a better option than the Congress formula of draconian taxes, complex compliance processes and harassment, followed by amnesty schemes every few years to let tax-evaders off the hook. In any case, the Supreme Court (SC) had closed this option and also set a deadline for the black money issue.

The Congress-led regime has been dragging its feet on this issue for over five years, despite specific information available from France and Germany. That Indians have money stashed abroad is not a myth. Various global organisations have attempted to quantify the amounts from time to time. One such is Global Financial Integrity (GFI) which estimated black money outflow from India at a whopping $344 billion in the decade of 2002-11, of which $85 billion was in 2011 alone; India is ranked fifth in the world in terms of illicit outflows.

Why do we expect the Narendra Modi government to be different? First, an extremely credible person like Justice MB Shah has been asked to head the SIT. He has already held its first meeting. Secondly, it will report directly to the SC and this empowers it enormously. Thirdly, we have a strong leader at the Centre who is not burdened by coalition compromises. Finally, this is an issue that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership has agitated before the apex court and in the court of public opinion. Failing to act decisively will irreparably damage its own credibility

Modi Disbands Cabinet Committees

PM Narendra Modi disbands 4 Cabinet committees, gives teeth to economic affairs panel-Hindustan Times-11.06.14

In the second major decision to end the UPA government's legacy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday scrapped four cabinet committees, including one on Unique Identification Authority (UIDAI), as part of his efforts to minimise decision-making processes.

The other committees disbanded were the Cabinet Committee on Prices, the Cabinet Committee on Management of Natural Calamities and the Cabinet Committee on World Trade Organisation Matters, an official statement said.

Modi, however, gave additional responsibilities to the all-important cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) which primarily deals with matters of high economic importance such as clearing big-ticket projects, approving FDI or deciding on food export/import.

With regard to the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI-related issues, the statement said major decisions have already been taken and the remaining issues will be brought to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

 NDA govt moves to amend Factories Act-Livemint

“The labour and employment ministry proposes to amend the Factories Act 1948,” said a ministry document dated 6 June and posted on its website.

Coincidentally, it was the same day the BJP government in Rajasthan approved amendments to three key labour laws—the Industrial Disputes Act, the Factories Act and the Contract Labour Act—and set in motion a process of decentralizing the labour market and making it “employment friendly”.

The BJP, which has won a majority on its own, had in its manifesto signalled its intent to pursue labour law reforms, saying that if elected to power, it would “bring together all stakeholders to review our labour laws which are outdated, complicated and even contradictory”.

 

Ahead of Modi-Obama meet, India and US seek to strengthen ties-LiveMint

Wide range of talks planned leading up to Narendra Modi’s meeting with Barack Obama in September

New Delhi: India and the US are looking to reset ties with governments on both sides keen to arrest a recent downslide in relations marked by lethargy and tension after the detention of an Indian diplomat in New York in December, people close to the development said on Tuesday.

On the cards are a wide range of dialogues to intensify engagement—the India-US-Japan trilateral talks and discussions between the commerce and defence departments of the two countries besides the India-US strategic dialogue between Secretary of State John Kerry and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. All these are expected to lead up to a meeting between India’s newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama in September when the former travels to the US for the United Nations General Assembly

 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi seeks Narendra Modi's company to dominate the world-DNA

 

At the end of his two-day visit to India, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a free-wheeling press conference on late Monday evening, said that he felt the winds of change in the new government and that the international community has high expectations of the new dispensation. He was confident that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that both India and China relations would achieve greater progress and modernisation.

Wang Yi emphasised that there were more commonalities than differences and greater cooperation than competitiveness between the two countries. Wang had called on President Pranab Mukherjee and PM Modi earlier in the day. He said that Modi had told him of the visit of seventh century CE Chinese Buddhist traveller Zuan Zhang to Gujarat, and that they have agreed to launch a Zuan Zhang cultural exchange programme. He also admitted that India was one of the priorities in China’s foreign policy and that if China too was a priority for India, then the relations between the two countries would grow faster than ever. He said that as India had the Look East policy, China, too, is looking to the west
Modi factor helps stock market cap cross $1.5 trillion-HT

The combined market capitalisation of India's publicly listed companies crossed $1.5 trillion on Monday, as billions of dollars poured into India in the wake of Narendra Modi's stunning election victory in May.

Modi, leading the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party, scored the biggest election win for 30 years, pledging sweeping reform to create jobs and boost an economy growing below 5% - its slowest in more than a decade.

Strong foreign buying has pushed both the Sensex and the broader Nifty up by just over 20% so far this year, posting a series of record highs - the latest on Monday - and far outperforming a 5% gain in the MSCI Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan.

Foreign investors have bought a net $8.55 billion so far this year, with $3.31 billion coming since the beginning of May.

At $1.52 trillion as of Monday's close, the market value of the National Stock Exchange and the smaller Bombay Stock Exchange makes India the second largest among emerging markets in Asia, ahead of South Korea, but still below the market cap of $2.4 trillion for Shanghai-listed shares, according to Thomson Reuters data.

India's market capitalisation, however, remains below a peak average of $1.82 trillion hit in December 2007, according to data from BSE

Modi Meeting Obama

Narendra Modi, Barack Obama will meet in Washington in September-Times of India
NEW DELHI: In what is probably the most significant foreign policy decision taken since he became Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has confirmed to US President Barack Obama that he will have a bilateral meeting with him in Washington in the last week of September this year.

Obama had invited Modi to the US when he called up the PM to congratulate him.

Significantly, the meeting won't happen on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly in New York but in the form of a full-fledged bilateral summit in Washington.

The two sides are finalizing the date for the meeting which will be in the last week of September, TOI has learnt. The Modi-Obama summit promises to be one of the foremost international events of the year and will overshadow Modi's presence at UNGA, if he decides to go to New York too.

In taking the decision, Modi has shown that his own predilections, if any, won't come in the way of ties with the US.

He has, in fact, acted with alacrity and decisiveness on what many believe is going to be one of the biggest immediate challenges for India's foreign policy — that of mending India-US ties which had tapered off under UPA-2 and then nosedived with l'affaire Khobragade.



Modi's decision underlines the significance of the US in India's strategic matrix. There was speculation that Modi could focus more on China and South Korea for economic gains and on an improved security partnership with Japan but these are not likely to come at the expense of Washington.



Modi was thought to be inadequately equipped to mend India-US ties because — as some reckoned — he could find it difficult to come to terms with the US hostility towards him after the 2002 Gujarat riots, and the resultant revocation of his US visa. He remained the only person to be barred from traveling to the US for many years under the country's controversial International Religious Freedom Act.



While the UK and EU were quick off the blocks in reaching out to Modi, US was late in responding, but once it did in the form of a meeting former US ambassador Nancy Powell sought with him, Modi has been generous in his response.

In an interview to TOI, before he took over as PM, Modi had said that relations between the two countries cannot be allowed to be "even remotely" influenced by incidents related to individuals.

Describing the US as a natural ally, he said it was in the interest of both countries to further develop the relationship.

Modi's decision to confirm the Obama bilateral is also the second big surprise he has sprung on his detractors who thought he would be straightjacketed by his own election campaign, and the baggage he was supposed to have come with on relations with the US.

Despite Pakistan featuring in his speeches, and his admonition of UPA for its 'biryani' diplomacy, Modi successfully invited Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif for his swearing in.

Link times of India