It’s all in the family: The incoming Joint Secretary (JS) of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), is going to be Anjali Prasad, who also happens to be the wife of the outgoing JS, N N Prasad. A comment on an earlier post on the 50 most influential people in IP led us to a blog appropriately named Babus of India from where the note was lifted.
Apologies for the slight delay in reporting this, but I was personally awaiting confirmation, which we since have. Anjali Prasad is a 1983 batch IAS officer from the Uttarakhand cadre. She was previously posted as Secretary in the Higher Education Department of the Uttaranchal administration. An economist trained at the Delhi School of Economics, she also has a WIPO diploma in IPR.
For those of you not in the know, NN Prasad will be moving to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, as the the Chef De Cabinet to the Director General of WIPO, Dr Francis Gurry. The blog had reported this a couple of months ago. The Chef de Cabinet in WIPO is the equivalent of the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister in India.Whether Ms Prasad’s tenure will be as pioneering as Mr Prasad’s will be seen in the months to come. On our part, we hope that she furthers the project of increasing transparency in Indian IP policy and institutions. And of course, we wish her all the best.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/oppn-to-officials-takingplum-posts-in-wto-wipo/366312/
I just came across your article on the appointment of NN Prasad and hailing his projected contribution to the current course of global IP and strengthening of Indian presence in WIPO. Sadly your assumptions are proved wrong:
1.Within a short span of his arrival, India’s dominant position has already been lost within the developing countries block. It is feared India’s bargaining position in IP negotiations is going to be further weakened with the presence of his wife Mrs. Anjali NN Prasad in Geneva.!!2.Indian presence in WIPO is progressively depleted with the active connivance of NN Prasad. It started with the unceremonious ouster of Ram Kishan Singh, a junior official with over ten years of service, as reported by Ravi Kanth in Business Standard dated …..July 2009. Subsequently Pushpendra Rai (a very senior Indian Government official)was exiled to an insignificant position in Singapore. Narender Sabharwal has already been served notice to pack-up and leave. It is also in the grapevine that the third Indian Official mentioned by you, Guriqbal Singh Jaiya, Senior Director, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Division, a Division which he has assiduously built up is going to have his wings cut very soon. All of this within a very short span of NN Prasad’s arrival on the spot!!
3.It is reported by Joe C Mathew, in Business Standard dated 09 August 2009 that the unethical appointment of NN Prasad in WIPO as Chef de cabinet of Francis Gurry, Director General, WIPO had flouted all the established procedures applicable to foreign postings of Indian Government officials; and the subsequent posting of his wife Anjali Prasad to the slot vacated by him in the Ministry of Commerce is reported to be to help cover up his misdeeds while he was in the Ministry. It is indeed strange that N.N.Prasad’s appointment in WIPO was cleared in haste in the interregnum between outgoing minister Kamal Nath and incoming minister Ananad Sharma. Strange indeed are the ways of Indian officialdom!!
4.The added role of ex-Ambassador Swaspawan Singh in these episodes have not been highlighted. It appears for his role in undermining India’s position and interests he has been amply rewarded with a lucrative contract in WIPO for a suspect project with dubious terms of reference. Indian staff in WIPO and the Indian community in Geneva arelivid at these developments.An urgent inquiry need to be conducted by the Minister concerned or the Parliamentary Committee before a hue and cry is raised in Parliament and since media is already focusing on these matters. 5.An urgent inquiry need to be conducted by the Minister concerned or the Parliamentary Committee before a hue and cry is raised in Parliament and since media is already focussing on these matters.
I just came across your article on the appointment of NN Prasad in WIPO Geneva and hailing appointment of his wife Anjali Prasad in the same slot in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and their projected contribution to the current course of global IP and strengthening of Indian presence in WIPO. Sadly your assumptions are proved wrong:
1. Within a short span of NN Prasad’s arrival, India’s dominant position has already been lost in the developing countries block. It is feared India’s bargaining position in IP negotiations is going to be further weakened with the presence of his wife Mrs. Anjali NN Prasad in Geneva.!!
2. Indian presence in WIPO is progressively depleted with the active connivance of NN Prasad. It started with the unceremonious ouster of Ram Kishan Singh, a junior official with over ten years of service, as reported by Ravi Kanth in Business Standard dated 21 July 2009. Subsequently Pushpendra Rai (a very senior Indian Government official) was exiled to an insignificant position in Singapore. Narender Sabharwal has already been served notice to pack-up and leave. It is also in the grapevine that the third Indian Official mentioned by you, Guriqbal Singh Jaiya, Senior Director, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Division, a Division which he has assiduously built up is going to have his wings cut very soon. All of this within a very short span of NN Prasad’s arrival on the spot!!
3. It is reported by Joe C Mathew, in Business Standard dated 09 August 2009 that the unethical appointment of NN Prasad in WIPO as Chef de cabinet of Francis Gurry, Director General, WIPO had flouted all the established procedures applicable to foreign postings of Indian Government officials; and the subsequent posting of his wife Anjali Prasad to the slot vacated by him in the Ministry of Commerce is reported to be to help cover up his misdeeds while he was in the Ministry. It is indeed strange that N.N.Prasad’s appointment in WIPO was cleared in haste in the interregnum between outgoing minister Kamal Nath and incoming minister Ananad Sharma. Strange indeed are the ways of Indian officialdom!!
4. The added role of ex-Ambassador Swaspawan Singh in these episodes have not been highlighted. It appears for his role in undermining India’s position and interests he has been amply rewarded with a lucrative contract in WIPO for a suspect project with dubious terms of reference. Indian staff in WIPO and the Indian community in Geneva are livid at these developments.
5.An urgent inquiry need to be conducted by Minister Anand Sharma and the Parliamentary Committee before a hue and cry is raised in Parliament and since media is already focused on these matters.
Anon(s)-
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Actually, this skipped my radar.
Thank you for drawing attention to the other changes that are happening at WIPO, at the ministry and elsewhere. I am not in a position to say who is responsible for the goings-on. It could well be that ‘the time has come’ for some folks. It could also be that those who substitute them will contribute in equal or perhaps greater measure than those who have moved out.
At the end of the day, I think it inappropriate to focus so narrowly on the nationalities of the individuals at an international organisation. What we ought to attend to more is the quality of the work that the organisation is doing. That is my fundamental concern, and will remain so in the future, regardless of which national holds what post.
Having said that, if there is dubiety in the functioning of either the Indian bureaucracy, or the IGO, or both, I am confident that inquiries will be conducted to place everything above board. With groups having made explicit their concerns with certain appointments, indeed, I hope the powers that be are listening.
Ms. Sumathy While we thank you for your response, sorry to say this kind of pervasive response is not helping anyone, least of all the country for which we and you care very much. At the end of the day one should reflect, what did we contribute to make things a little better for the silent majority, the voiceless majority, the faceless majority. Easiest way would be to accept the status quo and hope others will follow up. Look what Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther King did; they challenged the status quo as it was unfair to the country, people, environment. Without offence, may I request you to be a little more forthcoming in your indictment , so that the powers that be do correct before it is too late and nip in the bud such all in the family kind of things in future. Thank you.
Wood said….
Ms. Sumathy While we thank you for your response, sorry to say this kind of pervasive response is not helping anyone, least of all the country for which we and you care very much. At the end of the day one should reflect, what did we contribute to make things a little better for the silent majority, the voiceless majority, the faceless majority. Easiest way would be to accept the status quo and hope others will follow up. Look what Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther King did; they challenged the status quo as it was unfair to the country, people, environment. Without offence, may I request you to be a little more forthcoming in your indictment , so that the powers that be do correct before it is too late and nip in the bud such all in the family kind of things in future. Thank you.
Hi Anon (wood?) – thanks for your comment. Again, this is from so long ago, I had nearly forgotten. Apologies.
I actually can’t understand the concern – is it against (1) the fact that a particular person has been appointed to a specific post, as against, in your view, other deserving individuals?; or (2) is it generally against the act of replacing a person with their spouse?
If the former, I can only say I find it ironic that you should draw parallels with MKG et al. A bit grandiose, in my books, but I am tempted to pick up the gauntlet.
Whatever I have read by, and of, MKG, and for all his flaws, he never made the mistake of fighting against individuals. Instead he always chose to fight against principles or institutions that he believed were unfair or incorrect. (I having only a passing familiarity with the others, so I can’t say much). Which is why I maintain it is of primary importance that the institution (whether DIPP, IPO, or WIPO) works well, regardless of who is where.
If the latter, well, that may be closer to the ethic you refer to, but again, I put a counter-argument: both the individuals in the present case are members of the administrative services, in their own right. I know there increasingly exist corporate policies to prevent the employment of both spouses in the same department or even the same organisation, but I personally do not subscribe to that, for it undermines the potential ability of the affected person to deliver the goods – such pre-emptive undermining, merely due to a relationship, is, in principle, objectionable.
Now if the quality of work is questionable, or if matters of nepotism emerge, that is another matter entirely, and ought to be subject to appropriate review. In which case, I do believe there are systems in place in India that allow such examination. So, if you or someone else has specific concerns with the kind of work being done by individuals, do consider the RTI. I honestly don’t have a case to use it yet, so if you do, please go ahead. And let us know the results. We’ll be glad to run a story. 🙂
warm wishes
sumathi
Ms.Sumathy, Thank you for taking time to respond. To be frank I was not expecting any.
1. We are also not against any individuals as such, but yes, we do not approve the way replacement candidate is selected ignoring other deserving candidates.
2. Don’t you think there is something fishy that a person is replaced by his wife, in this whole country of a billion people and thousands of IAS personnel in the civil service?
3. Yes, Gandhi (please don’t think I am sarcastic, I prefer to be old-fashioned, though not old, while mentioning our Father of the Nation, not just by initials) did make sense ages ago, and still makes sense today in our country, I am assuming you being young and probably being born in the seventies may not be aware of the impact he just one individual had on the country as a whole and the world. Even now, just the other day Obama was telling, in an answer to an hypothetical question, that of all the people dead and gone, Gandhi is the one he would like to have dinner with. With all due respect, don’t you think institutions ,governments of the day etc are made up of people and as such to get these institutions and governments work and serve their constituents well we have to point out the shortcomings and mistakes of the individuals at the helm of affairs.
4. We are not precluding individuals and spouses working for us the citizens. What we are objecting to is the fact of keeping or making relationship the only abiding principle of qualification for succession. Is it advisable in a country like ours, do ponder and tell us. The country has the history of Rama even sacrificing his wife for the sake of the will of the citizens. In today’s India I have heard people criticizing his action, but the fact is he kept the views of the people above that of his own personal interests.
5. Be pragmatic, Ms. Sumathy, the system of checks and balances that are available in the country that you talk about, are they really working? Is it available to the common man? Unfortunately, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Tamilnadu are far away from Janpath. And incidentally you must have also seen the report of even the Chief Justice of India objecting to RTI when it concerns His Honour.
Ms. Sumathy, thank you again for your frankness, let us agree to disagree. Best regards, Wood
Indeed, Anon. It’s a truce.
Anonymous, you seem to be a lunatic. Please fight for the right things and the right reasons. Stop getting personal and trying to insinuate all kinds of nonsense. If you are in the right you should have got justice by now. obviously you are barking up the wrong tree and have no evidence whatsoever of any kind. By now hundreds of people should have joined your so called “fight” if you had even an iota of truth behind it. Please try and do something sensible and useful with your life if at all you can. Writing nonsensical comments about people is the easiest thing to do but a complete waste of time for yourself and everyone who is unfortunate enough to read it.
Spicy IP – i know you need to make your articles “spicy” but please don’t encourage or promote lunacy. This man/woman who doesn’t even have the courage to disclose his/her identity obviously has written this nonsense without any strong evidence or facts. yes it has been a long time since this post but please keep this in mind for the future.