Race for new UGC chief hots up
The heat is on in the race to the top post of the University Grants Commission. A search committee has finalized five names — acting UGC chairman Ved Prakash, former Hyderabad University vice-chancellor Syed Hasnain, IIM Bangalore director Pankaj Chandra, Tata Institute of Social Sciences chief S Parasuraman and India's chief statistician TCA Anant. Amid the hectic lobbying, Hasnain and Chandra were picked but Hasnain faces a CBI probe and Chandra and Anant don't have any administrative experience. What happens now could prove critical to the future of India's universities.

Who’ll be Pallam’s new secy?
When MM Pallam Raju moved from the defence ministry to Shastri Bhawan as a human resource development (HRD) minister in October-end, he brought his personal secretary Anil Kumar Singhal with him. But the 1993-batch IAS officer is in line for promotion to the rank of joint secretary. This means he would have to leave Raju. Expect rumor mills to get active on speculations over his successor.

Hindi version of RTI Act
The next time you want the civil service to do its job, move the top. That is the lesson that an RTI activist learnt recently when the department of personnel & training finally took down the Hindi version of the RTI Act and replaced it with the right one. Activist Lokesh Batra was caught in the red tape after he pointed out mistakes in the Hindi translation and sought corrections to any avoid confusion. Seven years later, the retired naval officer sought to meet the department's secretary. He didn't get the call but found corrected version uploaded.