Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan is going to be the least protected chief ministers in the country. At his instruction recently, the security establishment has drastically scaled down the security cover him as well as for members of his Cabinet.

When the CM is on the move, there will be only one escort vehicle, which will carry not more than five policemen, accompanying him. And there will be no ‘pilot jeep’ that clears the way for the chief minister’s car. And, the ministers will neither be accompanied by a police vehicle, nor a pilot jeep — only a police ‘gunman’ sitting in the minister’s car. During the previous Oommen Chandy regime, both the CM and the home minister were protected by Z-Plus security. Is the Communist government is breaking barriers between its ministers and the people?

In-house push for Panagariya

 The guessing game over who will succeed Raghuram Rajan at the RBI is still on, and names of various contenders are doing the rounds. But in a strange turn of events, the NITI Aayog website had a news report on its Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya also being in the fray for the post. While Panagariya is being perceived as a possible candidate, many found it strange that the Aayog’s website had a news story on the issue.

Mallya, mountain and...

The executive director of Punjab National Bank had to face some inconvenient questions from members of a joint committee of Parliament recently. The members of the panel on the Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Bill asked the official about the loans PNB had given to Vijay Mallya.

The official, members said, was unprepared and could not answer their queries. “He gave some weird reasons for the absence of the CMD from the meeting. He cut a sorry figure before us,” a member said.

Now, the panel has decided to go to Mumbai to meet the Chairman of PNB. “If the mountain won’t come to Muhammad then Muhammad must go to the mountain,” quipped another member. 

Spicing it up

The World Bank in its latest India Development Update that was released earlier this week tried to spice things up. The presentation for the report, as expected, had numerous charts and graphs to explain the crux of the World Bank’s findings.

However, what caught the eye of most reporters was that the slide on the outlook for the Indian economy had a picture of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan. Trying to sound upbeat?

 A secretary’s prayers

 The skies have become opened up with the launch of the Civil Aviation Policy. Most stakeholders have lauded the government’s efforts to take flying to the entire Indian middle class and improve regional connectivity. However, a potential sword still hangs. “Every night when I go to sleep and every morning when I wake up, I have one prayer. I pray that crude prices remain soft,” Aviation Secretary RN Choubey said at an industry chamber’s event on Thursday.

Too dear to heart

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has recently said she chooses to close her ears when anybody asks her about India losing its NSG bid. She said her ministry and the government is as focused as it was during Lok Sabha elections on this issue. 

Foreign minister can’t fix fridges

During a recent media meet in the capital the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was talking about how her ministry goes all out to solve the various problems/ issues of the NRIs.

While she elaborated on how she herself responds to every tweet asking for her help, she said “It’s a different matter that I cannot solve any problems related to refrigerators.” She was referring to the tweet by a certain Venkat who had said his Samsung refrigerator required repairing. 

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