IAS Suryawanshi Mayur Vikas belongs to the 2018 batch, Odisha cadre, and is currently posted as District Collector Balasore, Odisha. Before this, he served in various administrative capacities in the government and has been widely appreciated for his transformative approach.

Regarding His Vision for Balasore, his focus is on developing the district as a vibrant tourist destination. “The major target for me in the district is tourism,” he stated. Elaborating further, he added, “Chandipur is the best location in the district. We are exploring ways to make it more tourism-friendly by providing basic facilities and promoting it as a vibrant destination for travelers.”

Additionally, he is keen on enhancing the district’s rich art, craft, and handicrafts. “Baleswar boasts diverse art and craftsmanship. With the involvement of self-help groups, we are seeing good progress. However, these artisans need better branding and skill enhancement through training and handholding,” he explained.

Hari Shankar Verma, DG Safety, Railway Board, is expected to be appointed as next Member (Operations & Business Development), Railway Board upon the superannuation of present incumbent Ravinder Goyal on November 30, 2024.

Mukul Saran Mathur, Additional Member (Commercial), Railway Board, has been assigned an additional charge of Member (Operations & Business Development), Railway Board. He is an IRTS officer.

Kailash Makwana has taken over the charge as Director General of Police (DGP), Madhya Pradesh. Makwana, who belongs to a 1988 batch IPS officer, succeeded incumbent Sudhir Saxena retired in November.

Deepam Seth has taken over the charge as Director General of Police (DGP), Uttarakhand. Seth, who belongs to a 1995 batch IPS officer, succeeded incumbent Abhinav Kumar retired in November.

Sunil Chaudhary has been appointed as Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Head of Forests in Uttar Pradesh. He is a 1989 batch IFS officer of UP cadre.

As per the government's policy, the Army Day function will be held in Pune. The Day falls on January 15 every year.

The Ministry of Defence is not going to organize the Defence Expo this year. The Defence Expo is organized every two years.  The Expo was held during the Covid in 2020. But in 2024 the Ministry skipped. The Expo 2022 was organized in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

The Ministry of Defence will organize the next Aero India in Bangaluru from February 10-14, 2025.

With a view to deal with cyber crimes including digital arrest in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the MHA has taken up various steps. It has set up the ‘Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre’ (I4C) as an attached office to deal with all types of cybercrimes in the country. As per information, more than 6.69 lakhs SIM cards and 1,32,000 IMEIs as reported by Police authorities have been blocked by the Government. At I4C, representatives of major banks, Financial Intermediaries, Payment Aggregators, Telecom Service Providers, IT Intermediaries and representatives of States/UTs Law Enforcement Agency are working together for immediate action and seamless cooperation to tackle cybercrime.I4C has imparted cyber hygiene training to 7,330 officials of various Ministries/ Departments and to more than 40,151 NCC cadets.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has shortlisted 20 candidates for the post of Senior Administrative Officer, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in the Ministry of Defence. The marks of interviewed candidates, cut off marks, etc. will be uploaded on the commission’s website after the completion of recruitment process or within thirty days, whichever is later.

General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), has launched an online learning platform for the Indian Army nicknamed as “Eklavya”. This enables Headquarters Army Training Command to seamlessly integrate any number of training establishments of the Indian Army, each capable of hosting an extensive range of courses. Student officers are permitted to register for multiple courses simultaneously. A total of 96 courses by 17 Category ‘A’ Training Establishments of the Indian Army have already been hosted on the platform. There are three categories of courses hosted on the Eklavya platform. The Eklavya also has the functionality of a searchable “Knowledge Highway”, wherein various journals, research papers, articles, etc are uploaded under a single window.

As many as 23 Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS) officers have been given placement in the (Non-Functional Selection Grade) of Junior Administrative Grade with effect from January 1, 2025. These officers are: Mayank Tyagi, Ms Amrita Panda, Ms Pooja Bhat, Prashant Dubey, Nidhi Sharma, Vasud Ganesh Torsekar, Abhinav Dudi, Rejoy Krishnan, Ms Yashasvi Bansal, G P Praveen Reddy, Sandeep Kumar Yadav, Manivelan K, Ashish Kumar Verma, K Purushothaman, Ashish Yadav, Kamal Singh Choudhary, Dhiraj Kumar, Ashwini Kumar Pandey, Pankaj Prakash D Singh, Saurabh, Manender, Siva Sankar Bandi and Premsagar Meena.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi has invited applications for three posts of Accounts Officer in the Central Armed Police Forces Institute of Medical Sciences (CAPFIMS), Maidangarhi, New Delhi.

The Internal Grievance Committee (IGC) for the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) has been constituted. The committee now constitutes Chairperson Dev Kumar- Pr Controller, O/o the PCDA, (BR), New Delhi; and members Sumit Gajbhiye-Addl IFA O/o PIFA (N/CG), New Delhi; Mohan Lal Meena DCDA, O/o JCDA (AF), Delhi Cantt; Geetika Singh Battu, Sr ACGDA (Admin) O/o CGDA Delhi

The Ministry of Jal Shakti has advertised for the engagement of retired government officials for Consultant posts. Applications for the same must reach before December 10, 2024.

IAS officers have been reshuffled in W Bengal. Khalil Ahmed has been appointed as Principal Secretary, Fire and Emergency Services Department, while Dushyant Nariala takes over as Additional Chief Secretary, North Bengal Development Department with additional charge of Principal Secretary, GTA and Manoj Kumar Agarwal was made ACS, Forest Department with additional charge of ACS, Disaster Management & Civil Defence Department. Similarly, Anshul Gupta was posted as Special Secretary, Mass Education Extension & Library Services Department; Sana Akhtar as Director, Child Rights & Trafficking; Sumant Sahay as Joint Secretary, Department of Information Technology & Electronics; Anindya Mitra as Special Commissioner in the rank of Special Secretary, Food & Supplies; Mrs Tejasvi Rana as Director, Social Welfare; Goutam Kumar Ghosh as Special Commissioner in the rank of Special Secretary, Finance Department and Shaikh Ansar Ahamad has been shifted as Additional District Magistrate, Malda.

Samrat Bandopadhyay is the top Karmayogi of the Ministry of I&B for the month of November 2024. As per result, Om Prakash Gupta and Vishnu PS have been declared second and third respectively. Samrat is a 2010 batch IIS officer and posted as Director , PIB, New Delhi.

Girish Gopnathan Nair, ED, Coal India Limited, has been selected for the post of Director (Technical), Eastern Coalfields Limited at a Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) meeting held on December 2, 2024. As many as 11 persons were interviewed for the same.

C Arvind will look after the charge of Advisor, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) along with the charge of CEO, NDMC Smart City Ltd. He is a 1996 batch DANICS officer.

Charges have been re-allocated to officers at the level of Director in New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). 2010 batch DANICS officer Shubhakar Ghosh has been relieved of the charge of Enforcement (North & South) and gets new assignment of EO Court, while 2011 batch DANICS officer Krishan Kumar will also hold charge of Enforcement (South) including all subjects relating to TVC. Similarly, CSS officer Radha Krishan gets additional responsibility of Enforcement (North); IOFS officer Ms Kritka Chaudhary will also hold responsibility of Director (Law). Besides, 2013 DANICS officer Mohit Mishra will hold charge of Coordinating Officer (Election), Transport, Fire and Parking Management System.

Mrs. Sherry Bhavesh Shah has been appointed as Additional Director (Non-Executive Non-Independent) and Chairman of Asya Infosoft Limited.


 

Deepak Purshottambhai Prajapati has been appointed as Additional Independent Director of Asya Infosoft Limited.

Mrs. Nirali Parth Shah has been appointed as Additional Independent Director of Asya Infosoft Limited.

Puneet Renjhen has been appointed as Non-Executive Director of Tech Mahindra Limited.

Sudarshan Sen has been re-appointed as Independent Director of Federal Bank Limited.

Ms. Kapila Tanwar has been appointed as Additional Non-Executive Independent Director of Fourth Generation Information Systems Limited.

Anees Ahmed has been appointed as Independent Director of Avalon Technologies Limited.

Janardhana Reddy Yeddula has been appointed as Additional Director (Non-Executive Independent) on the Board of Sigachi Industries Limited.

Chanakya Chirag Agarwal has been appointed as Additional Director (Non-Executive Independent) of Aris International Limited.

Prithviraj Natrajan Kokkarne has resigned from the position of Independent Director of Morarka Finance Limited.

Mrs. Rahelakhan Pathan has resigned from the position of Independent Director of Palm Jewels Limited.

Venkata Sarvarayudu Thota has ceased to be Non-Executive Independent Director of National Fertilizers Limited upon completion of his tenure.

Mr. Sarweswara Reddy Sanivarapu has resigned from his position as Chairperson of the Board and Independent Director of Sigachi Industries Limited.

Make digital transactions secure

This figure is worrying that the amount of fraud related to Unified Payment Interface (UPI) increased to Rs 1,087 crore in 2023-24, which was 85 percent more than Rs 573 crore in 2022-23. That is, with this extraordinary growth in the country's digital payment landscape, the cases of fraud have also increased. The figures recently presented by the Union Finance Ministry before the Parliament confirms this. Cases of payment fraud also increased from 7.25 lakh in 2022-23 to 13.4 lakh in 2023-24. In the first half of the current financial year, 6.32 lakh cases of UPI payment fraud were reported in India. These involved an amount of about Rs 485 crore. These figures are worrying and may affect those who use it in future.

Aditya Malviya

Information about the GST returns

Information about GST returns were denied by the PIO taking recourse to the Section 158 (1) of CGST Act, 2017. The CIC referred to the Delhi High Court judgment in Chief Information Commr. v. High Court of Gujarat, (2020) 4 SCC 702, dealing with the disclosure of information under the Right to Information Act, 2005 with reference to Section 138 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. It was observed that while the Right to Information Act is a general law concerning the disclosure of information by the public authorities, Section 138 of the Income Tax Act is a special legislation dealing with disclosure of information concerning the assesses. The CIC agreed with the stand taken by the Respondent in denying the information and held that intervention is not warranted in the matter.

Comments

The supremacy of RTI Act by virtue of Section 22 has been the issue for interpretation in different cases. Section 22 provides that the provisions of RTI Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. The proponents of the RTI Act have vehemently argued that information can be denied to an applicant by taking recourse to only section 8 or section 9 of the RTI Act.

Citation: V Bethuran v. O/o the Commissioner of CGST & Central Excise, Madurai, File No: CIC/DGSTX/A/2023/130359; Date of Decision: 03.10.2024

Dr Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is a RTI Consultant currently working with IIM Vishakhapatnam. She has co-authored the books PIO’s Guide to RTI and Right to Information – Law and Practice. Her weekly article is being published since 2008 on this site. She offers consultancy on RTI matters and third party audit to individuals / organisations. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation at the link https://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/

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