1. Prologue
2. Functions of Pension department
3. Pensioners’ Portal
4. Functions of DoPT
   1. Recruitment /Appointment boards
   2. Recruiting agency vs Personnel agency
   3. Reservation in recruitment
   4. Training
   5. Administrative Vigilance
   6. UNCAC
   7. Integrity Pact
   8. Stability of Tenure
   9. Commercial Employment
   10. RTI related work
   11. Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM)
   12. BOARD OF ARBITRATION (BOA)
   13. Administrative Tribunals
   14. Employee transfer to successor states
   15. STAFF WELFARE
5. Fodder Points: Vigilance/HRM
   1. Vigilance: How to improve?
   2. HRM in Govt jobs: Obstacles
   3. Best Talent: How to attract?
   4. Training: How to improve?
   5. Performance: How to boost?
6. ICT initiatives in recruiting agencies
7. Cadre transfer
8. Ranks in Central secretariat services
9. Mock Questions

Prologue

UPSC SYLLABUS	TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
(GS2) Ministries and Departments of the Government	Department of Personnel & Training (DOPT) Department of Pensions & Pensioners’ Welfare
(GS2) e-governance: applications	Pensioners’ Portal
(GS2) transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures.	Integrity Pact by CVC CVOs in Multi State Societies United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC)
(GS4) accountability and ethical governance. strengthening of ethical and moral values in governance	lot of fodder points

+Same topics also relevant for Public Administration Syllabus.

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Has three departments.

1. Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG)
2. Department of Pensions & Pensioners’ Welfare (DOP&PW)
3. Department of Personnel & Training (DOPT)

In the previous article we saw the first department. In this article, we see the remaining two departments.

Functions of Pension department

1. Formulates general policy on pension-retirement benefits: Invalid Pension/ Disability Pension/Family Pension/ etc.
2. Grievance redressal for pension-retirement benefits.
3. Implements 6^th Pay commission’s recommendations for pensioners. On a related note: Chindu announced 7^th Pay commission, it’ll be implemented from with effect from 1.1.2016.

Pensioners’ Portal

• Under National e-Governance Plan there are many “Mission Mode Projects”
• One such Mission Mode Projects= ‘Pensioners’ Portal’ (pensionersportal.gov.in)
• Falls under this department, gives following services:

1. Database of pensioners.
2. Online calculation for pension, family pension, etc.
3. Pensioners can register their complaints/grievances online and seek redressal.

Anyways, the importance of Pension department has declined because all the AIS and central service employees recruited after 1-1-2004 fall under the New Pension Scheme (NPS)

Functions of DoPT

1. Department of Personnel & Training (DOPT) is the Nodal agency of the Government of India for personnel polices- their formulation and implementation- Promotion, seniority, leave travel concession (LTC), deputation, child care leave, pay & allowances, holiday policy, age relaxation, reservation policy etc.
2. Reservation policy in public services: formation and implementation
3. Personnel matters of:
   • Three All India services (IAS, IPS, IFS Forest).
     1. DoPT is the cadre controlling authority for IAS.
     2. DOPT frames rules for Indian Police Service (IPS) and India Forest Service (IFS), in consultation with the home ministry and Environment ministry respectively.
   • Three Secretariat Services:
     1. Central Secretariat Services (CSS)
     2. Central Secretariat Stenographers’ Services (CSSS)
     3. Central Secretariat Clerical Services (CSCS).
4. Places of Successful candidates to various Services/Cadres
5. Training/ Capacity Building
6. Administrative vigilance- Maintaining staff discipline, removing corruption.
7. R.T.I related policies and implementation
8. Strengthening Administrative Tribunals.
9. Joint Consultative Machinery.
10. Welfare of Central Government Employees.
11. Bills framed by DOPT:
    • Right to Information bill (which later became act in 2005)
    • Lokpal Bill
    • Protection of Whistle-blower Bill
    • Foreign Bribery Bill

Recruitment /Appointment boards

DoPT coordinates with following:

UPSC	Constitutional body set up under Article 315 of the Constitution. functions listed in Art 320 of the Constitution
SSC	executive body, setup by Resolution of the Government it has the status of an attached office of the Department of Personnel and Training HQ:Delhi and 09 Regional/Sub Regional offices located at different parts of the country. Regional/Sub-Regional offices look after receipt and processing of applications for various examinations, issue of admit cards to the candidates and conduct of examinations, Interviews and physical endurance tests  either at the Regional Headquarters or other major cities in the regions.
PSEB	PUBLIC ENTERPRISES SELECTION BOARD (PESB) For recruitment of Chairman, MD, Directors of Central Public Sector Undertakings (PSU).
Civil Services Board	Chaired by the Cabinet Secretary. For appointments of Deputy Secretary, Director and Joint Secretary under the Central Staffing Scheme.

Recruiting agency vs Personnel agency

UPSC	Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT)
Central recruiting agency	Central personnel agency
Constitutional body	executive body
Conducts the civil service exam for the recruitment of three All India Services (IAS, IPS, IFoS) and other group A, group B officers in central services.	No
Not concerned with salary, service condition, cadre-management, training etc. It merely conducts the exam, prepares the merit list and forwards it to government.	Looks after these ‘personnel’ matters.

• You can see we’ve two different organizations working for recruitment + personnel matters.
• but in Japan, they’ve only one organization “National Personnel Authority(NPA)” it is responsible for both recruitment + personnel matters.
• Food for thought: Should UPSC +DoPT combined? Yes/No/Why?

Reservation in recruitment

• Article 335: Claims of the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes shall be taken into consideration, consistently with maintenance of efficiency of administration, in the making of appointments to services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of a State.
• DoPT is responsible for implementing this reservation policy in government recruitment.
• SC|ST|OBC=15|7.5|27
• In case of direct recruitment to Groups C and D posts
  • percentage of reservation for SCs and STs is generally fixed in proportion to the population of SCs and STs in the respective States/UTs
  • reservation for OBCs in such cases is fixed keeping in view their proportion in the population of the State/UT and that it is not more than 27%
• Total reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs does not exceed the limit of 50% (for all India services and Central Services).

Reservation in promotion

• There is no reservation for OBCs in the matter of promotion.
• 1992: Indra Sawhney case, SC says promotion in reservation is unconstitutional.
• 1995: the central government had amended the Constitution and inserted Article 16(4A).  This provided for reservation in promotions for SC/ST.
• Related topics
  • SC, ST promotion quota in Uttar Pradesh (click me for Indianexpress article)
  • 117^th Constitutional amendment bill 2012, by Personnel Ministry (click me for PRSIndia summary)

Reservation for minorities

• Government had decided to carve out a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for minorities, from within the 27% reservation for OBCs for education and government jobs, including IITs.
• This was to come in effect from the 1st January, 2012. But Andhra HC had struck it down and SC refused to give stay order on Andhra HC’s decision.

Reservation for PH

Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 (PWD Act) provides minimum 3% reservation for persons with disability.

Accordingly government provides 1% reservation to following three categories

1. blindness or low vision
2. hearing impairment
3. locomotors disability or cerebral palsy

=total 3% reservation.

Reservation for Ex-Servicemen

Reservation for Ex-Serviceman	job
no reservation. Only age relaxation	Civil Service Exam
10%	CAPF assistant Commandant
10%	Group C posts
20%	Group D posts

• Reservation for ex-servicemen and physically handicapped persons is termed as “horizontal” reservation and reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs is termed as “vertical” reservation.
• Example: an ex-serviceman from OBC can claim the combined benefit of both being Ex-serviceman + being OBC under UPSC exam.

Related Topic (GS4) case study:

First read the news here: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/shaurya-chakra-awardee-demoted-for-being-medically-unfit/1166412/0

Question: In the name of medical fitness, is it ethical for CRPF to treat its disabled officers in such manner this? Yes/No/Why?

Training

DoPT looks after:

1. Training policy, reforms for Central services and All India services.
2. In-service/ Mid-Career Training of IAS Officers
3. Foreign Training of government officials
4. Capacity Building of State Civil Service Officers of North Eastern Region
5. Training programs for Interaction between Armed Forces and Civil Services Officers
6. DoPT has framed the New National Training Policy, 2012. (important for Public administration but not much for GS, hence not going into details.) but you can see the report by clicking me

Training institutes related with DoPT

LBSNAA	Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration Mussoorie, Uttarakhand A common Foundation Course for All India Services and all Group “A” services of the Union training to officers in Royal Bhutan Service in-service and Mid-Career training for IAS Induction Training program for officers promoted to the IAS from State Civil Services
ISTM	Institute of Secretariat Training and Management, Delhi Training to officers in Central Secretariat.
IIPA	Indian Institute of Public Administration, Delhi advance training programmes for administrators as well as researchers on issues relating to public administration Autonomous, but DoPT gives ca$H.

Administrative Vigilance

• The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) advises the Central Government on all vigilance matters. more on CVC, read M.Laxmikanth.

• DoPT collaborates with CVC.
• DoPT is the nodal agency for formulating and implementing vigilance and anti-corruption policies of the Government  (But given the mega scams in last few years, we can say DoPT = #epicfail in this function.)

• DoPT examines the disciplinary cases in respect of IAS officers and officers in Central Secretariat Service (CSS).
• DoPT also examines the proposals from state governments to impose major penalty/dismissal/ removal/compulsory retirement on IAS officer of their state cadre.
• if there is disagreement among CVC/UPSC/Respective depts. for disciplinary action against any officer, then DoPT tries to resolve the disagreement
• Department also looks after United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) related provisions for India.

UNCAC

2005	India signed the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC)
2011	India ratified this convention. meaning our government agreed to implement following anti-corruption measures prescribed by this convention

Let’s check the progress:

Measures suggested by UNCAC convention	action by Indian government
implement effective anti-corruption policies and practices	lolz
Setup anti-corruption bodies	lokpal stuck. CBI autonomy pending.
Adopt transparent system for recruitment, promotion etc.	Regular news of paperleaks and corruption in State PCS exams proves that lot needs to be done in this area.
setup criteria of candidature for election to public office.	Govt was moving in the totally opposite direction- by bringing ordinance to shield convicted legislators from disqualification!
Ensure transparency in the election funding	Political parties refusing to come under RTI so their source of funding remains a mystery.
setup Code of Conduct for public officials	for namesake
setup transparent-competitive system for public procurement.	CWG scam proves that lot needs to be done in this area.
setup transparent-competitive system for exploitation of natural resources	Coalgate and 2G scam proves that lot needs to be done in this area.
Give public the access to information and decision making in government.	RTI implemented, working fine except some Lord Curzons such as UPSC.
prevent corruption opportunities in judiciary	Judicial accountability bill pending. For more visit Prsindia.org
enhance transparency and proper conduct of business in the private sector	US laws require their companies to disclose bribes paid abroad. We need similar mechanism.
active participation of community based organizations to fight corruption	Many government schemes have provision for social audit.
Setup regulatory and supervisory regime for financial institutions against money laundering and frauds	SEBI, RBI, KYC, Enforcement directorate etc. in place.
International cooperation and technical assistance in the prevention of and fight against corruption, including in asset recovery; Transfer of sentenced persons, legal assistance.	Quattrochi/Bofors + Our money in Swissbanks proves that more needs to be done in this area.

Integrity Pact

• initiative by CVC
• To eradicate corruption in procurement activity in large value contracts in all government organizations.
• This pact is voluntary on the part of the organization concerned.
• The Pact envisages a pre-bid agreement between the buyers and the sellers to avoid all forms of corruption influenced by any person from the bidding stage to the last payment in the contract.
• The Integrity Pact envisages appointment of an Independent External Monitor (IEM) to oversee the implementation of the pact and to examine any complaint relating to violation of the pact.

CVOs in Multi State Societies

• Earlier, Multi State Societies such as Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) and KRIBHCO were enjoying immunity from the CVC scanner.
• But in early 2013, DoPT decided to bring these multi-state societies under the ambit of the Central Vigilance Commission.
• Now in each such society, a Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) will be appointed.
• He will act as distant arms of the CVC, to conduct inquiries on complaints of corruption and report any wrongdoing to CVC.

CBI

• CBI comes under the administrative control of DoPT.
• DoPT shortlists the IPS officers to be deputed to CBI.
• DoPT also provides ca$h for improving CBI’s infrastructure, hardware etc.
• Related topic: CBI autonomy. too clichéd, newspapers have already given Ph.D thesis on it. hence not wasting space here.

Stability of Tenure

• Frequent and arbitrary transfers of officers => declining standards of administration.
• (2011) 13 States/ Joint Cadres namely Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, AGMUT, Nagaland, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Orissa, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Manipur-Tripura have adopted the policy of assured minimum tenure for all India services officesrs viz. IAS/IPS/IFS (Forest)
• DoPT trying to convince all states/UTs to provide minimum assured tenure to IAS/IPS/IFS (Forest)
• but State governments of UP, Gujarat and Punjab have shot down the DoPT’s proposal to have a two-year tenure for IAS officers. (as of Sep.2013)

Food for thought: Time to check the Khemka syndrome http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/time-to-check-the-khemka-syndrome/article4782066.ece

Commercial Employment

• DOPT is the cadre controlling authority for IAS.
• According to All India service rules, a retired IAS shall not accept any commercial employment within one year of his retirement, except with the previous sanction of the Government.
• Meaning retired IAS wanting to work in private company within first year of his retirement then he has to seek permission n from DoPT.

Food for thought: Do IAS really retire? After all Governor, Lt Governor, CAG, CEC, UPSC, CIC, Members of Various Commissions, Tribunals, Public Sector Boards all big jobs are reserved for them unofficially! Is it good? is it bad?

1. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/ias-officers-never-retire/article3646348.ece
2. http://newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/article1447135.ece

RTI related work

• provides training to Central Public Information Officers (CPIO) and First Appellate Authorities (FAA)
• Provides forum for regular exchange of views between the government, Information Commissions for better implementation of the Act.
• Reviews Government-CIC relationship for smoother functioning of CIC.
• Facilitates filing of RTI applications by NRIs through use of ICT.
• call centre to receive RTI applications for central public authorities
• Recently DoPT set up a portal for on-line RTIs and first appeals.

Related topic: RTI Amendment bill 2013

• June 2013: CIC held that six national parties- Congi, BJP, NCP, CPI-M, CPI and BSP have been substantially funded indirectly by the central government- because they get major tax concessions, large tracts of properties in prime locations at highly subsidised rates, free air time on election ads.
• Hence they are public authority under the RTI Act. (Meaning you can file RTI applications to them, seeking documents, information of election-funding etc.)
• Government came with this amendment Bill to counter CIC’s judgment. This bill removes political parties from definition of public authorities and hence from the purview of the RTI Act.

Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM)

• In private companies there is trade unions vs Management and dialogue mechanism for consultation/negotiation between them.
• Similarly in government there is JCM.
• JCM provides a platform for constructive dialogue & discussion between the representatives of the staff side and the official side
• Scheme for peaceful resolution of all disputes between the Government as employer and the employees.
• This Model based on Whitely Councils in the U.K Government

Three tier structure of JCM

National council	Apex body @National Council.	headed by Cabinet secretary
Departmental council	@Ministries/ Departments level	Secretaries of the given ministry/dept.
Office council	@the offices under various ministries/departments	head of the office.

Functions of JCM:

1. conditions of service and work
2. welfare of the employees
3. Improve efficiency and standards of work (haha)
4. Promote harmonious relation between Central Government and its employees.

JCM doesn’t cover

1. Group A officers
2. Group B officers other than central secretariat and other compatible services in HQs organisation of the Govt.
3. Officers in industrial establishments in managerial capacity and supervisions
4. Employees of the union territories
5. Police Personnel

BOARD OF ARBITRATION (BOA)

If JCM cannot reach an amicable solution then there is provision for compulsory Arbitration in cases related to:

1. Pay and allowances
2. weekly hours of work
3. leave/holidays

Structure

Chairman	independent
two members	from staff side from official (Government side)

• Board of Arbitration (BOA) Functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Labour.
• Awards of the Board of Arbitration are binding on both the sides,
• Government can reject BoA’s judgment but only with approval of the Parliament.

Administrative Tribunals

Article 323-A of the Constitution of India

• empowers Central Government to set up Administrative Tribunals
• For adjudication of disputes about recruitment and service conditions of government employees.
• accordingly govt. enacted Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985

for central services and All India services	Central Administrative Tribnals DoPT provides ca$h to strengthen CAT’s infrastructure.
for state services	Nine States Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala have setup their own State Administrative Tribunals.

for more details, refer to M.Laxmikanth’s chapter on Tribunals.

Employee transfer to successor states

When a new state is created (from an existing state), staff will also need to be separated.

But who/how will it be decided? Central government setups State Advisory Committees to finalize the allocation of the employees between the successor States: example

employees from	sent to successor state
Madhya Pradesh	Chhattisgarh
Bihar	Jharkhand
Uttar Pradesh	Uttarakhand

DoPT responsible for this matter as well.

Food for thought: How creation of new state affects the working of old state secretariat and causes staff rivalry:

1. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/andhra-pradesh-secretariat-caught-in-the-telangana-tussle/1172416/0
2. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/andhra-staff-will-have-to-leave-hyderabad-once-telangana-is-created-kcr/1150594/

STAFF WELFARE

• falls under DoPT
• promote social, cultural and recreational activities in government colonies.

Central Civil Services Cultural and Sports Board	for organizing sports/tournaments among civil service employees.
Kendriya Bhandar	Central Government Employees Consumer Cooperative Society Ltd., New Delhi – similar to Army Canteens. It is the largest Consumer Cooperative Society in the country. (As claimed by ‘their’ website.) provides goods, medicine, stationary daily needs at reasonable,
SANSKRITI SCHOOL	for education to the children of the Government servants particularly those coming on transfer to Delhi. 25 % seats are reserved for children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections, as defined in the Right to Education.
CIVIL SERVICES OFFICERS’ INSTITUTE	to promote welfare of the officers of the Civil Servicespromote integration/cooperation among officers in different services/cadres.

DoPT provides the ca$h to ^all of above organizations.

Fodder Points: Vigilance/HRM

These are lifted from DoPT’s strategy/vision document. Use these points as and where applicable in Essay, GS2, GS4, Public Administration and interview:

Vigilance: How to improve?

1. Introduce a culture of zero tolerance towards corruption.
2. Psychological profiling during recruitment to prevent wrong elements from getting the job.
3. Providing training on ethics at all levels.
4. Court cases take years. Provide for Alternate Dispute Resolution and negotiated penalty for speedy disposal of corruption cases.
5. Erring officers are subjected to departmental inquiries. But these proceedings are time consuming. So review the rules and procedures regulating Regular Departmental Action (RDA) cases to ensure that violators are dealt with surely and swiftly.
6. Strength the institutional mechanism (CBI, CVC, Lokpal, Lokayukta) to detect and prevent corruption amongst public servants.
7. Departments must make an example of guilty officials. This will improve public and media perception about bureaucracy and deter other officers from misconduct.
8. Use E-governance, ICT tools:
   1. They will reduce discretion in Decision Making=less chances to demanding bribe
   2. They will improve transparency government.
9. awareness generation of Right to Information Act through movies / serials, collaborating with creative media personalities
10. Since corruption does not stop at countries’ borders, there is need to conduct multi-jurisdictional corruption investigations and prosecutions.
11. Need to improve Informal channels, such as police-to-police contacts among various countries.
12. Use non-criminal law enforcement agencies, such as tax agencies to provide leads in corruption cases.
13. Public Procurement in the Asia Pacific is prone to corruption. New technologies, such as e-procurement could simplify procurement procedures, and ensure the highest level of transparency
14. Efforts by civil society and media often lead to important anticorruption reforms in Asia-Pacific. Need to strengthen them further.

HRM in Govt jobs: Obstacles

1. Lack of forward thinking. Still confine themselves to traditional personnel matters: recruitment, posting, promotion, pay, leaves and pension.
2. Poor Awareness and understanding of HR procedures, practices. Unable to keep pace with the ever changing world.
3. Decision Making highly centralized.
4. multiplicity of agencies involved in personnel management, and poor coordination among them.
5. Good worker has no incentives. Pay and Promotion depend on seniority.
6. Lack of vision for manpower forecasting.
7. Forced decision making/ short term decision making in a fire fighting mode.
8. Rules are selectively applied. Administrative law is not codified.

Best Talent: How to attract?

1. Introduce the requisite reforms in Civil Services Examination to attract candidates right Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes. (lolz)
2. Build the brand image for all levels of service.
3. Specify job description to make recruitment and placement process more objective.
4. Enrich the work environment to maximize system effectiveness and optimize Human Resource utilization.

Training: How to improve?

1. make each line manager to be responsible for training staff – reflect in their Performance Appraisal Report (PAR).
2. Stipulation that each job is performed by a person with requisite competencies
3. Induction as well as refresher training at least once in five years.
4. Training Manager to be designated in each Department /Organization/District
5. Set up a National Training Council  to improve training infrastructure for government employees.
6. Ensure at least 2.5% of the salary budget of each office/organisation being spent on employee training.
7. Mandate training of frontline personnel such that Each job is performed by a person with requisite competencies.
8. Training for work-life balance, stress management.
9. conferences/seminars/ international best practice
10. innovative tools for capacity development, including mentoring, on-line training, on-the job training.

Performance: How to boost?

1. Introduce Performance Management systems review, 180/360 degree feedback, Mid – Year review.
2. The individuals who provide strong leadership and direction for the Department- they must be recognized and suitably rewarded.
3. Earmark a specified percentage of outstanding officers/employees every year and reward them through specially designed incentive schemes.
4. Introduce new schemes of monetary/non-monetary incentives for extraordinary performance.
5. Make use of Human Resource Information System (HRIS) to recognize performance and recommend incentives.
6. Redress employees’ grievances related to promotion, pension etc. in a time bound manner.
7. Optimize of existing Human Resources at the top and senior management to the Government.
8. Convergence of personal aspiration of officers/employees and needs of the Government.

ICT initiatives in recruiting agencies

In 2011, UPSC asked in Mains exam:  “E-governance initiatives by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).” 5marks. Although questions don’t usually repeat in UPSC but for the sake of timepass here goes the answer:

UPSC: ICT initiatives

1. 2011: UPSC introduced a new common one page form for all competitive exam under a Project code named “SAMPERA”. (Screening and Mechanised Processing of Examination and Recruitment Applications). It can be scanned by using OMR/ICR technology, helps in high speed scanning of data from forms eliminating manual entry.

• 2012: on-line application all the 14 structured examinations conducted by UPSC. Link: http://www.upsconline.nic.in.
  1. The candidates have the facility to pay the fee on-line through secured payment gateway.
  2. An online application requires one to pay only 50% of the fee required otherwise while applying offline.
  3. Thus, cost of buying paper application from the Post Office as well as postal charges is also saved.
  4. Lower risk of rejection of one’s application on account of wrong/incomplete data entry since online application system has built-in self-scrutinizing features not allowing an applicant to leave any column blank.
  5. One can view and take a print out of one’s application for future reference.
• Uploaded question papers of all exams on its website.
• Gives Information about marks obtained by successful + unsuccessful candidates after the exam thru its website.
• Commission has recently developed user friendly software for generating e-admit card which will be downloadable by the candidates themselves through the Commission’s website.
• Signed MoU with Canada and Bhutan’s civil service commissions for exchange of best practices and ideas.

~202 words.

Staff Selection Commission: ICT initiatives

SSC shares following information through its website:

1. All results, including intermediate stages.
2. Marks of candidates: selected / non-selected.
3. Placement of detailed Notice for Examinations, schedules and other matters of importance and concern for the job applicants.
4. answer keys of question papers used by the Commission on the website along with scanned data from OMR answer sheets in order to afford an opportunity to the candidates to verify for themselves
5. Its nine Regional Offices have their own website for the benefit of the public.
6. Aksar Naveen: a new Hindi software, being used by the Commission regularly.

~80 words

–end of article, remaining topics are for informative/educational purpose only–

Cadre transfer

Cadre transfer applies only to the three All India services (IAS, IPS and IFS-forest)

#1 Marriage

1. Inter-cadre transfer is normally permissible to an All India Service Officer on the ground of his/her marriage to another officer of the All India Service.
2. The couple is normally transferred to one of the two cadres on which they are borne except home State of the officer whose cadre is changed
3. In the case of refusal by both the cadres the matter is formally taken up for a second time with both the cadres.
4. In case of continued refusal by both the cadres to accept the officers concerned, possibilities are explored for transfer of the officers to a third cadre where there is a deficit, subject to concurrence of the State Government concerned.

#2 Hardship

1. Another ground for cadre transfer of All India Service officers is ‘extreme hardship’
2. threat to the life of the officer or his immediate family
3. Severe health problems to the officer or his immediate family due to the climate or environment of the state to which he is allotted.
4. In the case of a lady officer borne on any of the North Eastern cadres marrying an officer borne on another cadre the lady officer is mandatorily transferred to her spouse’s cadre if she so requests provided it is not her home cadre.
5. All India Service officers belonging to North Eastern cadre may be allowed transfer of cadre to any other cadre in the North East in relaxation of the existing conditions, subject to availability of deficit in the insider quota

Ranks in Central secretariat services

We saw DoPT is responsible for personnel matters of 3 central secretariat services

1. Central Secretariat Services (CSS)
2. Central Secretariat Stenographers’ Services (CSSS)
3. Central Secretariat Clerical Services (CSCS).

but who/what are the ranks/promotion hierarchy in these services?

Group	CSS	CSSS	CSCS
A	Director Deputy Secretary Under Secretary	Principal Staff Officer (PSO) Senior Principal Private Secretary	—
B	Section Officer Assistant	Principal Private Secretary (PPS) Private Secretary (PS) Personal Assistant (PA)	—
C	—	Stenographers	Upper Division Clerk (UDC) Lower Division Clerk (LDC)

Note: Ranks highlighted in bold =Gazetted officers

Mock Questions

• 5 marks
  1. Department of Personnel & Training (DOPT)
  2. Department of Pensions & Pensioners’ Welfare
  3. Joint consultative machinery
  4. board of arbitration
  5. United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC)
  6. Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB)
  7. Civil Services Board
  8. Integrity Pact
  9. Administrative Tribunals
• 12 marks
  1. There is need to balance the government’s inherent right to transfer a civil servant against the requirement for effectiveness and independence in policy implementation. Comment
  2. India can become corruption free, if United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), is implemented in the letter and spirit. Comment
  3. For good governance, DoPT should be transformed from a personnel agency to an HR agency. Comment
  4. Should Political parties be brought under the purview of R.T.I? Yes/No/Why?
  5. UPSC is central recruiting agency but not central personnel agency. Comment
  6. Write a note on the government policy for reservation in recruitment.
  7. 117^th Constitutional amendment bill 2012
  8. Discuss the role of DoPT in Administrative vigilance.
• Essay
  1. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
  2. No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.
  3. For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.