Govt approves 6% DA hike for Central staff

Thursday, February 26, 2009
New Delhi: The cabinet Thursday approved a six percent hike in the dearness allowance paid to central government employees and pensioners, entailing additional expenditure of Rs.6,020 crore (Rs.60 billion) till March 31, 2010.

"The hike will be effective Jan 1 and will be payable from March 1," Home Minister P. Chidambaram said.

He was briefing reporters after a cabinet meeting chaired by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the absence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is recuperating from coronary bypass surgery.

"The outgo for fiscal 2009-10 will be Rs.5,149 crore. For the 14 months from January, the outgo will be Rs.6,020," Chidambaram added.

There are some four million central government employees and some three million pensioners.
Source: Indo-Asian News Service
Govt approves 6% DA hike for Central staff

Towards Improving Governance

To: The Chairman IESM

Dear Sir,

1. I am attaching herewith a copy of the document which was emailed to the PM on the night of 22 Dec 08 well before closing of the last session of the Parliament. It was also released to the Press,(TOI and HT). This document is an open letter, the theme for which is defined by the subject heading itself. The letter was sent on behalf of Club-20. No response has been received from any quarter so far.

2. This document is now sent to the IESM with the hope that its publication through its channels will also have wider circulation and additional impetus on the subject matter which also dwells on Morale of the Armed Forces.

3. With regards and good wishes,

I Jairath
Gp Capt (Retd)
Club 20
Letter to PM: Towards Improving India and its Governance

Likely Hike in the Grade Pay of Armed Forces Officers

Grade Pay
The increase in grade pay is as per chart given above. The basic pay scales of the armed forces as well as civilian officers as recommended by the SPC were increased after a review committee put in fresh suggestion.

Approved 6CPC has good news in store for people who desire to quit, a development that could well encourage more armed forces personnel to opt for careers in the private sector, the government has decided to grant full pension benefits to all employees who leave after 20 years in service, against the current 33 years.

Officials said the final award for pensioners accepted by the government implied that central government pensioners would receive an overall increase of 40 per cent in pension. As a result the total estimated pension liability of nearly Rs 29,900 crore of the central government will go up by nearly Rs 1,400 crore annually.
gconnect: SCPC Updates

Who is behind GConnect?
Hi, This is Raman and Suresh. We are presently working in Customs, Trichy, Tamilnadu. The idea of GConnect was born one afternoon after we had our lunch and were chatting. We don't exactly remember how the topic came up, but somehow the idea of starting a website which could be both useful and entertaining to all officers in various Govt. departments just came up. Frankly, we hadn't actually decided then. It was just a thought. But over the days, the thought grew stronger and then we seriously discussed about putting the plan into action. And soon enough, GConnect was born.

Flogging a Horse

"When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount and get a different horse."

However, in government, education and corporate India, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:

Buying a stronger whip.

Changing riders.

Appointing a committee to study the horse.

Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.

Lowering the standards so that the dead horse can be included.

Reclassifying the dead horse as 'living impaired'.

Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.

Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.

Providing additional funding and/ or training to increase dead horse's performance.

Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.

Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overheads and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.

Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horse.

Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position!
If you understand the above, then you are obviously residing in India.

We thank Lt Gen Raj Kadyan (Retd) for this anecdote.
Forwarded by Brig PT Gangadharan (Retd)

Comments: Flogging will certainly invite attention of animal activists.