The Government of India has reshuffled 15 IAS officers. Those transferred include the following:

• V K Thakral, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Manipur-Nagaland cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary and FA, Fertilizers, in place of Rajiv Yadav, who is also an IAS officer from the same batch and Assam-Meghalaya cadre.
• Arun Goyal, a 1985 batch IAS officer, has been appointed as Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Cabinet Committee on investment. He has been appointed in place of Anil Swarup, a 1981 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.
• Atanu Purkayastha, a 1983 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, has been appointed as Secretary, CIC. He has been appointed in place of T Y Das, who is a 1982 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.
• R Muivah, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Manipur-Nagaland cadre, has been appointed as Secretary, North Eastern Council (DONER). He has been appointed in place of Ameising Luikham, who is also an IAS of the same cadre, 1981 batch.
• Anant Kr, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Additional Secretary & FA, Petroleum and Natural Gas, replacing SC Khuntia, who is a 1981 batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre.
• N Sivasailam, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre, has been appointed as Additional Secretary, Department of Telecom, replacing Ria A Teaotia, who is a 1981 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.
• Sudhir Tripathi, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, has been appointed as DG, IIFT, Ministry of Textiles. He has been appointed in place of P K Gera, who is also a 1981 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.
• Kavita Gupta, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, has been appointed as Additional DGFT, Mumbai, Department of Commerce. She was earlier appointed as AS, Department of Atomic Energy, which was later cancelled.
• Shreeranjan, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, has been appointed as Deputy Director General (DDG), Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
• ABP Pandey, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, has been appointed as Director General, UIDAI. He has replaced V S Madan, who is a 1981 batch IAS officer of Union Territory cadre.
• Kumar Sanjay Krishna, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, has been appointed as AS and FA, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare. He has been appointed in place of Raghav Chandra, who is a 1982 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre.
• Keshni Anand Arora, a 1983 batch IAS officer, has been appointed as Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog.
• Anup Wadhawan, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Uttarakhand cadre, has been appointed as DGFT, Ministry of Commerce and Industries, replacing Pravir Kumar, who is a 1982 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre.
• S N Tripathi, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre, has been appointed as Additional Secretary and Commissioner, Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises. He is appointed in place of Amrendra Sinha, a 1981 batch IAS officer of Uttarakhand cadre.
• Subhash Sharma, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, has been appointed as Additional Secretary and FA, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. He is appointed in place of V K Thakral, who is a 1982 batch IAS officer of Manipur-Nagaland cadre.

The Jammu and Kashmir Government has appointed senior bureaucrat B R Sharma as the new Chief Secretary of the State. The step was taken following Iqbal Khanday’s resignation.

Sharma is a 1984 batch IAS officer of J&K cadre, and has held various important positions in the state administration before being appointed to the top post. The decision to appoint him was taken by the cabinet which met under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister of the State, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Atul Sobti, 54, has assumed charge as Director (Power) at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), a Maharatna Public Sector engineering and manufacturing enterprise.

Prior to this, he was Executive Director (Power) at BHEL in New Delhi, and also held additional charge of Industrial Systems Group (ISG), a Bangalore-based unit of the equipment maker.

Sobti is a mechanical engineer with post-graduation in International Management. He possess an experience of 33 years in various BHEL divisions, including International Operations.

The Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to rechristen its Andhra Pradesh State Enterprise Architecture as ‘e-pragati’. It has been developed in association with tech giant Wipro, and is a an inclusive framework to implement eGovernance and provide e-services to the citizens of the State, as per a press release.

APSEA is an inclusive architecture to leverage the recent technologies in eGovernance tools.

The release further revealed that with e-pragati, Andhra Pradesh becomes the first State in the country to opt and execute a state-wide enterprise architecture.

Chief Minister of the State, Chandrababu Naidu said, “This will become a model in government enterprise architecture in India.”

He added, “Advanced countries like South Korea, Singapore, the United States, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand have all embraced this type of architectural approach to eGovernance.”

According to the release, e-pragati extends to 33 secretariat departments and more than 300 government agencies in the State. It attempts to provide around 745 services in the government to customer (G2C), government to business (G2B), government to enterprise (G2E) and government to government (G2G) areas.

Classified into 14 groups, it comprises a total of 72 projects, whose approximate expenditure is Rs 2,358 crore that will be funded and implemented over a period of three years. Out of this, the government will invest an amount of Rs 1,528 crore and balance the remaining amount through public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.

The Chief Minister also said, “e-pragati focuses on achieving a unified and connected government with citizen-centricity at its core. Implementation of e-pragati will lead to free-flow of information among departments, paving the way for an integrated, outcome-driven and accountable government.”

Rakesh Maria

Replacing Rakesh Maria, Ahmed Javed has been appointed as the new Mumbai Police Commissioner. Maria, on the other hand, has been promoted to DG Home Guards.

Additional Chief Secreatry K P Bakshi said, “Maria has been promoted to the director general rank and posted as the DG of Home Guards in Mumbai in place of Ahmed Javed. Javed (who was DG-Home Guards) becomes the new CP of Mumbai.”

“The post of Mumbai Police Commissioner has been upgraded to ‘Director General’ rank post”, he added.

Both Maria and Javed are 1981 batch IPS officers.

The Government of India has promoted 18 IAS officers of the 1982 batch to Special Secretary rank. The names of those promoted are as follows:

• Aruna Sundararajan, an IAS officer of Kerala cadre, has been appointed as Administrator, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
• Neeraj Kumar Gupta, an IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary (BPRSE) under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

• Avinash K Srivastava, an IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare.
• Amarjeet Singh, an IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources.
• Rashmi Verma, an IAS officer of Bihar cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary, Ministry of Finance.
• Jitendra Shankar Mathur, an IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
• Navin Verma, an IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat.
• Dinesh Singh, an IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
• Ramesh Abhishek, an IAS officer of Bihar cadre, has been appointed as Chairman, Forward Markets Commission.
• Krishan Kumar Jalan, an IAS officer of Haryana cadre, has been appointed as Central Provident Fund Commissioner, Ministry of Labour and Employment.
• G Gurucharan, a Karnataka cadre IAS officer, has been appointed as Special Secretary, Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
• Ajay Narayan Jha, an IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary, Ministry of Finance.
• Prabhas Kumar Jha, an IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary and Financial Advisor in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Distribution.
• Leena Nair, an IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, has been appointed as Chairperson, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• Hem Kumar Pande, an IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate change.
• Jai Priye Prakash, an IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat.
• M Sathiyavathy, an IAS officer of Union Territory cadre, has been appointed as Director General, Civil Aviation.

• C B Venkataramana, an IAS officer of Telangana cadre, has been appointed as Special Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy.

The Kerala Government has appointed senior IPS officer Tomin J. Thachankary as the Transport Commissioner of the State. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting.

He has been given the charge as R Sreelekha will go on a leave for three months. In addition, Thachankary will be replaced by S Ratnakumar, who is currently Director, Rubber Marketing Federation.

V Thiruppugazh, a 1991 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, has been appointed as Advisor (Joint Secretary level) in the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). He has been appointed for a period of five years. Currently, he is serving in his State cadre.

Thiruppugazh will take over from Neelkamal Darbari, who is a 1987 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, and had completed her central deputation tenure on Aug 31, 2015.

IPS officer Binita Thakur has been appointed as Director of National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), which is a robust intelligence gathering system set up to track any terror suspect and incident to enhance India’s counter-terror activities.

Binita is a 1996 batch IAS officer and has been appointed for the balance period of her central deputation ending on December 17, 2016. She had been replaced by IAS officer M Imkongla Jamir as Private Secretary to Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani in July.

The Odisha Government has appointed Mahendra Pratap, a 1990 batch IPS officer, as Additional DG of the Human Rights Protection Cell, while Jatindra Koel has been appointed as DIG (north-central range).

M Nageswar Rao, a 1986 batch IPS officer has been appointed ADG (railways) and Arun Kumar Ray has been given an additional charge of ADG (fire services and home guard). Also, Rajesh Kumar has been appointed DIG of the state police headquarters. B Radhika has been given additional charge of ADG, communications.

The Jammu & Kashmir Government has transferred three Additional Directors General of Police (ADGPs) and also confirmed posting of Ashkoor Ahmad Wani as DIG Jammu-Samba-Kathua range.

Lalat Indu Mohanty, ADGP, who had been awaiting orders of adjustment for the past five-and-a-half months after his return from the central deputation, has been posted as ADGP, Home Guards, Civil Defence, State Disaster Response Force.

Mohanty is a 1989 batch IPS officer of Jammu & Kashmir cadre. He replaces Dr B Srinivas, a 1990 batch IPS officer of the same cadre, who has now been transferred and posted as Commissioner, Civil Military Liaison.

Mohanty has also been designated as Chairman of the Police Recruitment Board.

Navin Aggarwal, a 1986 batch IPS officer of Jammu & Kashmir, who was also awaiting orders of adjustment, has been posted as Additional DGP (Training) in the Police Headquarters.

The Government further confirmed Ashkoor Ahmad Wani, who was officiating as the DIG, Jammu-Samba-Kathua range, for the past three-and-a-half months, on the same post. He will continue to hold charge of the post of DIG, Traffic, Jammu, in addition to his duties till further orders.

Uttam Chand, another IPS officer of 2002 batch of Jammu & Kashmir cadre, has returned as SSP, Jammu, after about three-and-a-half months. He was on leave during this period and in his absence, Additional SP Jammu (Rural) Rajiv Pandey was officiating as the SSP. Pandey has been relieved of the additional charge.

1984 batch IAS officer of Punjab cadre, Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi, has been appointed as Principal Resident Commissioner to the Govt of Punjab. He will now be located at Punjab Bhawan in New Delhi. Currently, he is serving as Principal Secretary, Public Works Department (Punjab). Prior to it, he served as Joint Secretary, Police II (Home) and later as Additional Secretary, Inter-State Council, with the Government of India, till March 17, 2015.

In his new assignment, he replaces Ms Kalpana Barua Mittal. She is a 1985 batch IAS officer of Punjab cadre, who has further been appointed as Additional Secretary in the Centre.

In a major reshuffle, the Uttar Pradesh Government has transferred 23 IAS and 42 IPS officers, according to an official release. Those transferred include the following:

• MP Agarwal, Secretary, Irrigation, has been posted as Divisional Commissioner, Saharanpur.
• Rama Raman, CEO, Greater Noida, has been relieved of the post, but would continue to hold the charge of Noida and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority.
• Anil Garg, Secretary, Higher Education, has been appointed as CEO,Greater Noida.
• Shyam Narain Tripathy, Member (Judicial), UP Revenue Board has been appointed as CEO, Kashi Vishwanath temple.
• Rajiv Rautela, Special Secretary, Horticulture, has been posted as District Magistrate, Fatehpur.
• Aditi Singh, DM, Sultanpur, has been appointed as Additional Managing Director, UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC).
• S Rajalingam, Special Secretary, Dairy Development, has been posted as DM, Sultanpur.
• Sharad Kumar Singh, Special Secretary, APC Branch, has been appointed as DM, Ballia.
• Brij Raj, Additional Director General, Housing, has been transferred to Meerut’s Police Training School.
• Amitabh Yash, IG, Gorakhpur Zone, has been shifted to technical services in the same capacity. He would be replaced by PC Meena, IG, Technical Services.
• Mutha Ashok Jain, IG, Public Greivance, has been transferred to vigilance establishment.
• Pramod Kumar Mishra, IG, Telecom, has been shifted to Police Welfare.
• Navneet Sikera, IG, Women Cell, has been given additional charge of Public Grievances.
• Commandant 8^th PAC Vijay Yadav has been posted as Superintendent of Police, Mau.
• Aparna Kumar has been posted as Commandant 10 PAC.
• Sonia Singh, SP, Sultanpur, has been shifted to Intelligence Department, Lucknow.
• Rajesh Krishna, SP, Sitapur, has been transferred to Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and would be replaced by SP Personnel Kavindra Pratap Singh. Moreover, Shrikant Singh, SP, Shravasti has been sent to Rae Bareli.
• Amit Verma has been posted as SP, Chandauli, replacing Muniraj, who has been sent to Hamirpur.
• Commandant 26 PAC Kripashanker Singh has been posted as SSP, Basti.
• Dinesh Chandra, SP, Mirzapur, has been shifted to CB-CID.
• Commandant 30 PAC Rohan P Kanay has been transferred as SP, Ambedkar Nagar.
• Vinay Yadav, SP, Railway, Lucknow, has been shifted to Sultanpur.
• Pankaj Kumar, SP, Ambedkar Nagar, has been transferred to Traffic Directorate.
• Subhash Singh Baghel, SP, EOW, has been posted as SP, Bijnor. He has replaced Hari Narain Singh, who is made SSP, Special Task Force.
• Pritinder Singh, SSP, Gautam Budhha Nagar, has been shifted to Agra and would be replaced by Kiran S, SSP, Jhansi.
• Akhilesh Kumar, SP, Pratapgarh, has been transferred to Kheri, while SP CB-CID Sunil Kumar Saxena has been posted in his place.
• Raju Babu Singh, who was attached to DGP office, has been posted as Commandant 26 PAC.
• Arvind Sen, SP, Kheri, has been shifted to Mirzapur.
• Pradeep Kumar Yadav, SSP, Gorakhpur, has been appoinetd as SP, UP Power Corporation.
• Suresh Rao S, SP, Ghazipur, has been shifted as Commandant 8^th PAC.
• Ram Kishore, SP, Human Rights, has been posted as SP, Ghazipur.
• Modak Rajesh D Rao, SSP, Agra, has been made Commandant 38 PAC.
• Ganga Nath Tripathi, has been posted as SP, Shravasti.
• SP (PTS) Salik Ram, has been posted as SP, Bahraich.
• Neha Pandey, SP, Bahraich, has been transferred as SP, Railway, Lucknow.
• SP ATS Subhash Chandra Dubey has been posted as SP, Jhansi.
• Aneesh Ahmad, who was also attached with DGP office, has been posted as SP, Ballia.
• Mohit Gupta, SP, Rae Bareli, has been shifted to Faizabad, replacing Umesh Kumar Srivastava, who has been shifted to STF Lucknow.
• Commandant 39 PAC Shiv Prasad Upadhyaya has been posted as SP, Kushinagar.
• Rajendra P Singh, SP, Gonda, has been moved to Gorakhpur.
• Om Prakash Srivastava, SP, Intelligence, has been posted as SP, Fatehpur.

• Atul Sharma, SP Kushinagar, has been shifted as Commandant 39 PAC.

I S Jha

I S Jha, an Electrical Engineer from NIT, Jamshedpur, has been appointed as the Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL). He is currently serving the organisation as its Director – Project. He will replace R N Nayak, whose superannuation is due on September 30, 2015.

S K Acharya

Similarly, S K Acharya, currently on the Board of Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd (NLC), has been appointed as its Chairman & Managing Director. He will take over from B Surendra Mohan, who is due for superannuation on October 1, 2015.

The 2013 batch IAS officers have been given the deadline of 30th November to come up with ideas on simplifying at least two processes of the government. The step has been taken as Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to conduct a feedback session on completion of their three-month stint at the Centre.

This lot of 170 officers, who are on deputation at the Centre before they head for the first state postings, are being kept on their toes during the training as part of an idea mooted by the PM.

Over the past one month, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has issued as many as 99 orders on how they should go about their work. However, they can fall back on three senior secretaries, who have been appointed as chief mentors.

The chief mentors include Rajiv Mehrishi, Home Secretary; Mohan Kumar, Defence Secretary and Sindhushree Khullar, Chief Executive, NITI Aayog. The 52 ministries and departments, where the young IAS officers have been posted as assistant secretaries, have been divided into four clusters – social, economic, infrastructure and regulatory. These have been assigned to Jugal Mohapatra, Secretary, Rural Development; A C Duggal, Secretary, Finance Services; Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Dept of Industrial Policy & Promotion and Sanjay Kothari, Secretary, DoPT, respectively. All four of them have been tasked with meeting every 15 days to keep an eye on the performance of the assistant secretaries.

As per a concept paper on the exercise being undertaken for the first time, “The time spent with the Central Government will help the officers acquire a national perspective and a deeper appreciation of harmonisation of diversities in national policies.”

Before the session with the PM, each of the officers will be required to prepare a ‘Paper on Innovation’ or ‘Process re-engineering to improve functioning of the Government of India’, along with identifying at least two processes for simplification and compiling the guidelines or norms pertaining to their desk.

F-Secure has released a new ad blocker that the company hopes will encourage digital publishers to adopt more user-friendly advertising practices. The new app, called F-Secure AdBlocker, is a free tool that helps users save data and browse faster by blocking traffic from known advertising servers.

F-Secure AdBlocker is a free and easy to use app that filters Internet traffic coming from advertisers. Ad blocking came into limelight after a recent report claimed that the practice will cost online publishers USD 22 billion in 2015. However, recent research conducted by F-Secure Labs suggests that this advertising revenue is costing end-users in the form of wasted time and data. Researchers at F-Secure Labs measured how blocking third-party tracking impacted web browsing on several of Alexa’s top-ranked news sites, and found that using F-Secure’s Freedome VPN to block this tracking reduced both data consumption and page loading time.

F-Secure Security Advisor Sean Sullivan said that tests like these demonstrate the need for people to have greater control over their exposure to online advertising. “There are plenty of ways advertising is regulated in other types of media. So, the idea that people shouldn’t have some way to tone down the ad content they see online, is a little silly. Turning down the volume on a TV ad is perfectly ok, and volume levels are often regulated to prevent ads from being too intrusive. Bringing ad blocking to digital media is really just giving people a way to turn down the noise.”

F-Secure AdBlocker makes browsing faster and saves bandwidth by preventing ads from loading in Safari. The product is based on the new content-blocking capabilities Apple built into iOS 9, and uses filters built and maintained in F-Secure’s Security Cloud. A list of known advertising servers is maintained in this Cloud, and the app blocks content sent from the servers on the list to the devices running the app. By blocking the incoming ads, people’s mobile devices consume less data when loading web pages, which means websites load faster and use less bandwidth.

According to Sullivan, the intent behind F-Secure AdBlocker isn’t to eliminate advertising as a revenue source for digital publishers, but to encourage them for adopting practices that respect people’s boundaries. “People opt out of ads because they don’t want a bunch of flashy banners distracting them and slowing down their browsing. However, that doesn’t mean people aren’t receptive to advertising – movie trailers are popular on YouTube, and I learn a lot about companies that sponsor podcasts and content that I search for online. Thus, hopefully ad blocking will be seen as an opportunity for advertisers to make more of the content people want, rather than the stuff people ignore and want to block.”

F-Secure AdBlocker is a free app that blocks ads in Safari and apps using Safari View. It is currently available on Apple’s App Store, and works on Apple devices with iOS 9 and ARM64 (including iPhone 5S and later models, iPad Mini/Retina 3 and later models, iPad Air and later models, and 6th generation iPod Touch).

The Madhya Pradesh Government has transferred five IPS officers, along with two SPS officers. Sanjay Tiwari, who was stationed at Special Task Force (STF), has been appointed as SP, Jhabua. The other people, including the two SPS officers who have been transferred are the following:

• Ashok Dohre, Special DG, Cyber Cell, Police Head Quarters (PHQ), has been appointed as Special DG, State Industrial Security Force (SISF), PHQ.
• Rajendra Kumar, Special DG, SISF, PHQ, has been appointed as Special DG at Cyber Cell, PHQ.
• P K Runwal, ADG, Welfare, PHQ, has been posted as ADG, Vigilance, PHQ.
• Gajiram Meena, ADG, AD Zone, PHQ, has been appointed as ADG, Welfare, PHQ.
• Sanjeev Kumar Sinha, Additional SP, Dhar, has been appointed as Additional SP, Vidisha.

• Rai Singh Narvariya, Additional SP, Vidisha, has been appointed as Additional SP, Dhar.

Contributed by- Hitesh Vaidya, Practice Head (Urban Reforms), IPE Global

The urban sector at present is going through a lot of action and upheaval. Every state and city in the country wants to hop on to the ‘Smart City’ bus. Every state is struggling intra-political and administrative battles in order to include their best horses in the “Urban Premier League”. I have never witnessed such a feeling of euphoria and fierce competitiveness amongst states and cities on discussing urban challenges and branding their best horses for undertaking this journey.

However, surprisingly, the names which are emerging as potential candidates for this premier list are not big cities but small and medium towns. Further, a surprise factor is that erstwhile Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM ) cities are struggling to find their way into this league.

One would have thought them as ‘low hanging fruits’, where huge infrastructure investments and reforms have already happened during the last five years and only a minimum push to introduce smart solutions was required to take them to the next level. Even the conditions laid down for participation in this race provided a clear advantage for JNNURM cities.

The rules suggested for taking this journey towards smartness calls on cities to address two broad parameters (1) Physical Smartness: Retrofitting, Redevelopment, and Greenfield; and (2) Operational Smartness: Incorporating smart solutions for bringing operational efficiencies in cities, and responsiveness to citizens’ needs and requirements.

Once each state has earmarked/identified their suitable candidates, the race for smartness will begin. Out of 100, only 20 will be qualified in round one to take this journey forward and the rest will be asked to prepare and again come up for the subsequent rounds. It is the first time that states and cities are competing not only in branding themselves as smart, but also in creating a unique identity for themselves. This not only represents a paradigm shift which is taking place in addressing the challenges of urban transition witnessed by India, but also sending serious policy signals to state and local governments to work in converged and coordinated frameworks for addressing the urban menace.

However, to embark and sustain this journey is not going to be easy. Looking at the existing governance and service delivery frameworks, it is surely a daunting task and cities will require huge handholding and implementation support ranging from knowledge products, expert consultant services, hands-on training, peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing platforms. But the journey offers an opportunity to discard old ideas and mind-sets in changing the way we plan, implement and develop longer visionary approaches for managing cities rather than short term knee-jerk reactions, which have started haunting our governance systems at local levels.

Deepak Agarwal, a 2000 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as the new acting CEO of the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA). In addition to it, he will also be holding the post of Additional CEO (ACEO) of the Authority. However, he will officially be promoted to the post of CEO, GNIDA, in January 2016.

This is Deepak’s second stint in Gautam Budh Nagar District. He was earlier posted as District Magistrate here from February 2009 to March 2013. Later, he was appointed at the Centre on deputation as Private Secretary (PS) to Jitin Prasad, Union Minister of State for HRD till June 2014. After that, he was posted back in Uttar Pradesh and has been holding the position of Distrcit Magistrate of Moradabad.

Deepak has replaced Rama Raman, who is a 1987 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre and relinquished charge as its CEO. However, he still holds the post of Chairperson.

The Himachal Pradesh Government has transferred 10 IAS officers. The transfers are as follows:

• Deepak Sanan has been appointed as Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Forest, Environment, Science & Technology.
• Upma Chawdhry, a 1983 batch IAS officer, has been appointed as ACS, Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry.
• Tarun Shridhar is ACS-cum-FC, Revenue, Personnel, MPP and Power, NCES and Horticulture.
• Sanjeev Gupta has been apppointed as ACS, IT, RPG and Training, Foreign Assignment.
• RD Dhiman gets additional charge of Principal Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.
• Anuradha Thakur has been appointed as Secretary, Home and Vigilance, with additional charge of Secretary, LAC.
• Onkar Chand Sharma, Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, has been appointed as Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment.
• Dr Sandeep Bhatnagar, Director, SC, OBC and Minorities Affairs, has been appointed as Director of Ayurveda.
• M Sudha Devi has been posted as Director, SC, OBC and Minorities Affairs.

• Yunus, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, has been made Deputy Commissioner, Chamba.