Lessons on Birbal!

Arjun Ram Meghwal may be new to the Ministry of Finance as a junior minister, but sure knows how to connect with the audience. At a recent event of the Indian Cost Accounts Service, rather than sermonise on service related issues, Meghwal, speaking in Hindi, regaled officers with tales of Birbal, a legend known to have given sane advice to Akbar.

The minister, a former civil servant, also asked the Cost Accountants if they had grievances against the IAS. He wanted to know their expectations from the government. Not surprisingly, the corridors of North Block were filled with tales of how well he spoke!

Roars and whimpers

A giant tri-coloured model of the `Make in India’ lion sits prominently and majestically at Udyog Bhawan — the sombre pink building housing the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, which is driving the initiative to promote domestic manufacturing. While visitors regard the imposing lion with interest, it does not seem to inspire much awe among the police officials on duty.

On a sweltering afternoon a uniformed officer was heard complaining to his colleague that while the lion rested in its elegant and transparent case, the government had not spared a thought for those guarding the building. It seems that when lions roar, minions whimper.

The Art of acronyms

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s knack for coming up with catchy acronyms is no secret. But others in the government too seem to have picked up a thing or two. At a recent conference on biofuels, Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines, came up with an interesting acronym for a technology ‘open house’ that he had proposed. Biofuels is called Jaiv Indhan in Hindi. Goyal suggested that the open house can be called ‘JIVAN Spardha’ or ‘Jaiv Indhan Vikas Aur Navikarniya urja Spardha’.

Ease of robbing ATMs

Those who have been crying themselves hoarse over the need to raise ‘ease of doing business’ may draw cold comfort from what a bunch of Romanian ATM thieves demonstrated in Kerala. In a broad daylight and in full view of the security cameras, the group of three walked into an ATM in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram city, planted sophisticated gadgets to ‘skim’ account details of at least 400 persons, and passed the information to accomplices in Mumbai who would clone debit cards and drain money to the tune of at least Rs 2.5 lakh. The youths had entered the ATM in turns, never bothering once to cover their face. This was business as usual for them, made ‘easier’ thanks to lax ATM protection in these parts.

On a wing and a prayer

Air Pegasus, the regional airline which has suspended its services for over two weeks now has been furiously looking around for a white knight. Its move to woo a major logistics company has failed to yield any response. In spite of approaching the company quite a few times, the airline management was informed that its policy has always been to launch a venture on its own rather than ride on someone else’s back. Does it mean that this logistics company will start its own airline?

Yes and no. It made an announcement only to withdraw it in haste.

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