Third eye:Centre of Arts and Theatrics

Call it the irony of all ironies. Rajiv Gandhi had set up the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts as an autonomous organisation in 1985, and named it after his mother. Now, BJP has now chosen author-journalist Ram Bahadur Rai as its president. Incidentally, Rai shot to fame when he was part of an 11-member committee of the JP movement launched to oust Indira Gandhi.

Keep It Simple: Modi to Babus Investments need to come and how! In a recent meeting with secretaries of all Union ministries as well as chief secretaries, PM Modi directed them to take “strict action” for improving ease of doing business. He said all official procedures should be simplified with online processes, repetitions avoided and professional help be taken in designing userfriendly websites and apps.

Cleared Deputations: The name of another IPS officer from Jharkhand has been cleared for Central deputation at theMHA. SN Pradhan, who headed the anti-Naxal operations is likely to take over the new joint secretary (internal security). The post has fallen vacant following repatriation of MA Ganapathy to Uttarakhand. The number of IPS officers on deputation with MHA at present is the highest in past few years.

Governing Anecdotes: This appears to be a season for writing books. The latest is the buzz around two former RBI governors who are writing books on their tenure. Interestingly, one of the governors has actually written it originally in Telugu and getting it translated in English to reach out to a wider audience.