Rajasthan chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma is working on Rising Rajasthan Global Investment Summit on a mission mode. He is not only involving all senior serving bureaucrats for the success but also didn't shy from borrowing brains of retired bureaucrats who have good exposure of industries in their erstwhile tenures.
Sharma invited former bureaucrats at his residence and held a brainstorming session with them along with the key officials involved in the organising the summit including chief secretary Sudhansh Pant, additional chief secretary to CM Shikhar Agrawal, principal secretary to CM Alok Gupta, principal secretary industries Ajitabh Sharma and other officials.
Former bureaucrats shared their past experiences and also discussed about the ring side view of the preparations for Rising Rajasthan.
“The kind of rich experiences these former bureaucrats carry with them, they can well be treated as a think tank for this summit. Since they are looking at it from outside, they can give some out of box ideas for the success of summit,” said an IAS officer, who attended the meeting but doesn't want to be named.
Why these former bureaucrats were hand picked?
A look at the name of some prominent ex-IAS officers who attended the meeting, one can easily find out why they were invited from among many who had hung their boots.
Among those who were present, only Lalit K Panwar, Chandra Mohan Meena and Mukesh Sharma have not worked in industries department in their career. All others have rich experience of handling industries and commerce ministry in the past.
Lalit K Panwar is a BJP party member and Chandra Mohan Meena had contested election on BJP ticket from Bassi where former IPS Laxman Meena had won.
Panwar has good experience of tourism as he had handled the portfolio in centre as well as in the state. He also has experience of working in mines and minerals department.
Mukesh Sharma had handled urban development and housing department for quite some time but never had direct exposure to industries department during his service.
Ravi Mathur and Sanjay Dixit who attended the meeting had been CMD of Rajasthan Finance Corporation (RFC). Mathur had also handled industries department during his tenure. Later Mathur also had served as secretary in the department of disinvestment at centre.
Purshottam Aggarwal, who attended the meeting had served as commissioner Bureau of Investment (BIP), the nodal agency which organises the summit for the state. He had a major role in the first investment summit – Resurgent Rajasthan in 2008.
Shyam S Agarwal has a reasonable experience in working in commerce industries department at centre as well as state. Besides being additional secretary in union commerce ministry, he has also served as director general foreign trade in Government of India.
However Deepak Upreti, another IAS present at the meeting has experience of handling the mines department.
Rajeshwar Singh, who got retired less than two months ago, also has good exposure in industries department working in state government. Likewise Ajit Kumar Singh, who was also invited, had served industries and tourism departments during his tenure.
The power couple DB Gupta and Veenu Gupta also shared their wisdom and suggestions for the success of summit. While Veenu Gupta has a vast experience of industries department – having handled two investment summits – Resurgent Rajasthan -2015 and Invest Rajasthan -2022, DB Gupta is a former chief secretary with rich experience of all sectors.
Since Veenu Gupta, who is currently serving as RERA chairperson, has been the key to the success of previous two summits, she has hands on experience of dealing. She can share several do's and don'ts must for the success of the summit.
Prakash Bhandari is a veteran journalist with over 50 years of experience. He has worked with The Times of India for 30 years and contributed to leading publications as well as international news agency AFP.
