Ashok Kumar Panda, currently serving as Director (Finance) at the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), is going to be its new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), as his name has been recommended for the post by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PSEB). Panda also held an additional charge of Director (Commercial) at the public sector enterprise before T N Natarajan was deputed to that post.
Starting his career as a Management Trainee with SAIL after completing his electrical engineering, Panda brings with him three decades of experience in different plants and units at SAIL.
He holds a specialization in Finance from XIM, Bhubaneshwar, and later acquired a Ph.D. in Business Finance.
His achievements include reducing borrowings by Rs 20,000 crore through deleveraging efforts and implementing cost reduction initiatives that include identification of shop-wise technical levers and implementing action plans to resolve inefficiencies towards improving the bottom line.
Panda is also said to have played a key role in determining the fair price of rails supplied to the railways. Besides, he was also instrumental in revising the Fixed Asset Sales Accounting Policy in the public sector undertaking.
In order to overcome bureaucratic crunch, the Chandigarh Administration has sought recommendations of officers from the Punjab government, following which the Punjab govt sent panels of four IAS officers and six PCS officers to it for deputation. One IAS officer and two PCS officers are to be selected to the UT administration from these panels.
The IAS officers whose names have been forwarded include 2013 batch officers Harpreet Sudan and Amit Talwar and 2014 batch officers Preeti Yadav and Jaspreet Singh. Except Amit Talwar, who was promoted to IAS from the Punjab Civil Services (PCS) cadre, the remaining three—Harpreet Sudan, Preeti Yadav, and Jaspreet Singh—are direct recruits.
Among the four IAS officers proposed, Talwar is the only one with previous experience serving in the Union Territory, holding several key positions, including additional deputy commissioner (ADC) and Director, transport. The other three officers have never served with the Chandigarh administration.
But all four IAS officers have held important administrative assignments in Punjab, including postings as Deputy Commissioners (DCs). Harpreet Sudan and Amit Talwar served as DCs of Amritsar, while Preeti Yadav and Jaspreet Singh served as DCs of Patiala and Jalandhar, respectively.
According to official sources, the Punjab govt forwarded the IAS panel at the request of the Chandigarh administration.
Besides the IAS panel, the Punjab govt has also sent a panel of six PCS officers to the Chandigarh administration to select two officers. Officers nominated in the PCS panel are Avneet Kaur, Avikesh Gupta, Balbir Raj Singh, Ravinder Singh Arora, Inder Pal, and Deepankar Garg.
Sources in the UT administration said as the panel has been officially forwarded, the selection process would take place at the highest level, with the final decision to be taken by Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria.
These officers will be scrutinized on several parameters, including work experience, professional image, service conduct, past service record, and other relevant aspects.
The fresh panels were sent after the Chandigarh administration recently returned earlier panels received from Punjab and Haryana, citing anomalies. While Punjab has now sent a revised panel, the Haryana government is yet to send a fresh panel.
Bihar is soon going to receive a batch of 25 new IAS officers in its kitty, which include 11 directly recruited and 14 promoted to the IAS from the Bihar Administrative Service (BAS). With this induction, the number of IAS officers holding positions in the state will increase from 280 to 305, besides 30 IAS officers currently on the central deputation. The sanctioned posts for IAS officers in the state are 359. It means Bihar still has a shortage of 24 IAS officers.
The IAS officers joining directly in April 2026 and those promoted between May and June 2026 will be posted in the state. This will provide some relief to the overburdened bureaucrats in Bihar and accelerate development work.
According to reliable information, four of these directly recruited IAS officers are natives of Bihar, two of Rajasthan, and one each of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. Having passed the UPSC exam in 2025, these officers are currently undergoing training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LASANA). They will be deployed after completion of their training.
These officers include Rajkrishna Jha, Kumud Mishra, Prince Raj, and Deepak Kumar from Bihar, Saurabh Sinha from Dumka, Jharkhand, Farkhunda Qureshi from Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh, Ketan Shukla from Uttarakhand, Nilesh Goyal from Rajasthan, Amit Meena from Rajasthan, and Ankur Tripathi from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. Their tenures will be from 2056 to 2061.
These officers are supposed to begin their service in Bihar until April 17th. Afterward, they will be deployed by the state government to various positions in the districts, where they will work under the guidance and direction of senior officers.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Asia’s largest and richest civic body, is likely to get its next chief on Monday as the incumbent Commissioner, Bhushan Gagrani (IAS:1994:MH), is retiring on March 31 and is unlikely to get an extension.
According to reliable sources, there are three senior-most IAS officers, Ashwini Bhide (IAS:1995:MH), Aseem Gupta (IAS:1994:MH), and Sanjay Mukherjee (IAS:1996:MH), who are vying for this coveted post. All these three, Bhide, Gupta, and Mukherjee, had earlier served in the BMC as additional municipal commissioners.
Bhide is said to be leading the race. She is currently posted as ACS in the CM’s Office (CMO) and is also MMRCL’s Managing Director. She has led major infrastructure projects, like Metro line 3. As additional municipal commissioner, she played a crucial role in executing the Coastal Road project.
Mukherjee, known as ‘infrastructure man,’ is currently MMRDA Metropolitan Commissioner. He is credited with having led key projects like Atal Setu, metro lines, several flyovers and bridges in MMR, and BMC projects, including critical water supply works, as additional municipal commissioner.
The importance of this post is highlighted by media reports of differences between Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde over who will be the next MBC chief. While CM Fadnavis has been batting for IAS officer Ashwini Bhide, Shinde is backing Asim Gupta.
The main reason behind Gupta’s closeness with Shinde is said to be that he comes from Deputy CM Eknath Shinde’s home place and is currently posted as ACS to him, holding the charge of the Urban Development and Housing departments. Plus, he was earlier posted as the Thane Municipal Commissioner as well.
If Bhide is appointed as BMC chief, as the CM has to take a final call on it, she would become the first woman BMC Commissioner besides being able to get a full three-year term before her retirement in 2030.
It is often said that every IAS officer in the Maharashtra cadre aspires to become either the Chief Secretary of the state or Commissioner of the BMC, just as every IPS officer wants to be the DGP of the state or the Mumbai Police Commissioner.
A young bureaucrat, Kannan Gopinathan (IAS: 2012: AGMUT), rues being unable to contest Assembly elections in Kerala by accusing the central government of deliberately refusing to process his resignation for the last six and a half years. Gopinathan resigned from the elite service over denial of freedom of expression to the people of Kashmir in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370, which accorded special status to J&K.
Gopinathan took to social media handle X to shoot off a letter directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dubbing his plight “pure harassment.”
He has shared his plight in his post, saying, “Your government has refused to process my resignation for 6.5 years. No salary and no release. This has stopped me from professionally moving on. This is pure harassment and nothing else.”
Gopinathan joined the Congress Party in October last year.
He says that he refrained from raising the matter earlier as he was aware of the hardships millions of Indians face under the NDA government.
He made a pointed attack at the ongoing delay in his release from the service. He tells the PM that denying him his right to resign and take part in the democratic process is pathetic and petty and asks him to stop this pettiness. He accuses the Centre of being lethargic and urges him to direct his govt to process his resignation immediately.
The Calcutta High Court has reserved its verdict after completing hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed against large-scale transfers, replacements, and deputations of key bureaucrats in West Bengal by the Election Commission of India (ECI) after announcing elections.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen concluded the hearing on Friday by directing the Election Commission to submit all documents related to the transfers, replacements, and deputations of bureaucrats and police officers to the court on March 30.
The verdict will be pronounced after EC submits documents.
The ECI argued that such transfers, replacements, and deputations of bureaucrats were regular features and that similar measures had been undertaken in other poll-bound states as well.
The Commission also countered the allegations of the state govt that the scale of transfers in Bengal was disproportionately higher compared to other poll-bound states by saying that 48 officials were transferred in Bihar before the last Assembly elections there. Besides, a total of 61 officials were transferred in Maharashtra, 83 in Uttar Pradesh, and 49 in Madhya Pradesh before Assembly elections in those states.
The Commission added that only 23 IAS and police officers were transferred in West Bengal.
After hearing both sides, the bench decided to reserve its verdict.
But it did not stop Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from lashing out at the commission on Friday again over these transfers, saying such large-scale reshuffles were creating hurdles in the smooth administrative functioning of the state.
A parliamentary panel has recommended that the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) should strengthen its sales network, improve revenue realisation and enhance market competitiveness. The suggestion came after the panel noted that several advanced and specialty steel grades are still missing from the company’s product portfolio.
These recommendations were presented in Parliament by the Standing Committee on Coal, Mines, and Steel for 2025–26, as part of the report titled ‘Organisational Structure and Performance of SAIL—A Review.’
The panel report says that SAIL must accelerate structural reforms to remain competitive in an increasingly demanding steel market.
The panel has suggested the need for improving SAIL’s sales and marketing system to ensure smoother movement of raw materials and efficient distribution of finished steel products.
The committee also flagged delays in expansion projectsdespite board approvals for projects at IISCO, Durgapur, and Bokaro Steel Plant.
According to panel recommendations, the SAIL needs to strengthen digital sales mechanisms and improve customer-focused sales models.
With an aim to enhance both profitability and market position, some of the panel’s specific recommendations include expanding digital sales platforms, deepening key account management, increasing share of value-added products, and focusing on high-margin steel grades.
The committee has recommended extra deep drawing (EDD) steel, interstitial-free (IF) steel, cold-rolled grain-oriented electrical steel, advanced alloy steels, and specialty steel grades currently imported. These recommendations are based on its observation that although SAIL has developed several high-grade steel categories, important products still remain outside its portfolio.
The committee also urged SAIL to place greater emphasis on research and development to develop new steel grades and reduce import dependence, besides ensuring raw material security through coking coal blocks. The aim is to reduce dependence on imported coking coal.
SAIL has made a major capacity expansion plan, like 35 million tonnes per annum by 2030-31 and 50 million tonnes per annum by 2047.
Besides, the panel has also asked SAIL to prepare a phase-wise modernisation roadmap after noting that 6 of SAIL’s 11 plants recorded losses in the last financial year. The panel also stressed the need for plant-specific turnaround plans with measurable targets.
The controversial bungalow of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has reportedly been allotted to Chief Secretary Rajeev Verma (IAS:1992:AGMUT). This government accommodation is located in the Jal Vihar area of south Delhi.
According to media reports, Verma has already moved into it and has been residing there for about a month.
Verma was appointed Delhi’s Chief Secretary in last October and had not been staying in a government-allotted accommodation due to its non-availability.
The bungalow came into controversy in 2023 when former DJB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Udit Prakash Rai (IAS:2007:AGMUT) was handed a show-cause notice by the vigilance department over allegations of getting this 15th-century protected monument demolished to make way for the residence.
The bungalow, said to have been constructed at a cost of nearly Rs 4 crore, was built on a site measuring 700 sqm on a plot of 5,500 sqm.
According to Delhi govt officials, the Public Works Department (PWD) is the nodal agency for allotting houses to officers of the Delhi government, including the Chief Minister and other ministers. But bureaucrats are required to apply to the PWD for allotment of official accommodations.
A significant disclosure made in Parliament two days ago indicates that the governance in Northern Indian states is reeling under an acute shortage of IAS and IPS officers, with Kerala leading the country in vacancy rates.
According to the data submitted by Union Minister for Personnel and Training Jitendra Prasad in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, 482 posts of IAS and IPS are lying vacant in Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and the AGMUT cadre (which includes Delhi also) against a combined sanctioned strength of 2,010. It is about 24 percent of their combined sanctioned strength.
As per data, the average shortage of these officers in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab has been recorded to be 18.6 percent for the IAS and 15.59 percent for the IPS officers, though there is no backlog in the reserved category posts across the two services in the country.
The Union Govt has attributed these vacancies to retirements, expanding governance needs, and cadre restructuring across states.
According to the data, Kerala, AGMUT, and Himachal Pradesh are the top three regions in the country with the highest vacancy rate for IAS officers.
Kerala has the highest vacancy rate of IAS officers, amounting to 32 percent, with 74 IAS posts lying vacant against the sanctioned strength of 231.
Similarly, the AGMUT cadre ranks second, with 136 vacancies against 542 sanctioned posts (25.1 percent), while HP is third, with 36 of 153 IAS posts lying vacant (23.5 percent).
Himachal Pradesh is virtually the worst-affected among all northern states, which has only 117 IAS officers working against a sanctioned strength of 153 and 84 IPS officers working against the sanctioned strength of 96.
This translates into an IAS vacancy rate of 23.5 percent and an IPS vacancy rate of 12.5 percent for Himachal. Overall, the state has reported 48 vacancies against 249 sanctioned positions, leading to a 19.3 percent vacancy rate.
In Haryana, there are 172 IAS officers against a sanctioned strength of 215, with 43 vacancies (20 percent), and 127 IPS officers against 144 sanctioned posts, leaving 17 posts lying vacant (11.8 percent). Overall, 60 of the 359 sanctioned posts are lying vacant in Haryana, translating to a combined vacancy of 16.7 percent.
The story is no different for Punjab, where 33 of 231 IAS posts are vacant (14.3 percent) while 34 of 172 IPS posts are lying vacant (19.8 percent). In this way, Punjab has a total shortfall of 67 officers against a sanctioned strength of 403, amounting to a 16.6 percent vacancy rate.
The minister ruled out any backlog vacancies in the reserved IAS or IPS posts, saying recruitment was done strictly as per reservation guidelines of the UPSC.
The Chhattisgarh government suspended senior IPS officer Ratanlal Dangi (IPS:2003:CG) on Thursday for misusing his official position. Dangi was serving as Inspector General (IG) in the state police. The suspension of such a high-ranking IPS officer has created ripples in the state police and administration.
Dangi has been attached to a designated headquarters and has been barred from leaving it without prior permission from the competent authority. Further departmental action will be initiated after the completion of the ongoing inquiry against him.
The suspension order was issued after serious allegations were leveled against him, which gained wide publicity. Though nothing specific has been mentioned about the allegations, the suspension order simply states that the officer exhibited immoral conduct by misusing his position, which is unbecoming of his high position and rank. And the state govt placed him under suspension with immediate effect in order to ensure a fair and impartial investigation.
The case against Dangi originated from a written complaint filed by a woman in November last year. The complainant, reportedly the wife of a sub-inspector in the Chhattisgarh Police, made serious allegations against Dangi, which went viral on social media, generating wide public attention.
It was when the departmental inquiry was initiated into the matter.
Though the senior IPS officer strongly denied all the allegations, terming them baseless and false, the govt was unrelenting and proceeded with his suspension.
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