Delhi Confidential: Surprise presence

PLACE ON DAIS
When the Indian government decided to depute Law Secretary P K Malhotra to attend the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, nobody had imagined that the return of the Indian representative to the conference would become a talking point at the conference. In order to welcome back the Indian representation, the Commission members offered Malhotra a seat on the dais as one of the two rapporteurs.

TRANSIT MODE
The itinerary of Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, who has to travel to SAARC countries, including Pakistan, in the next few months, is expected to take a couple of weeks to be finalised. He still has to pack up his belongings and bring his family from the US where he was posted as Ambassador. Not just that, the Americans will want to give him a good farewell. Jaishankar had come to India for US President Barack Obama’s visit and had to stay back after he was named Foreign Secretary the day after Obama left the country. So, the former Indian envoy has been living out of a suitcase for the last two weeks. Now, after he gets his stuff together, he will be back in action. Although, for the next two days, he will be busy with Sri Lankan President’s visit.

THE FLIP-FLOP
NEARLY two months after he resigned amid controversy, the resignation of IIT-Delhi Director Raghunath K Shevgaonkar is yet to be accepted by the HRD Ministry. Even though the ministry had initially said an inquiry was going on against him regarding an allegedly “violative” MoU between Mauritius Research Council and IIT-Delhi for setting up an International Institute of Technology Research Academy in Mauritius, officials now say no such inquiry is on. Thus, the delay in taking a call on his resignation has puzzled many. An IIT Director has to serve a three-month notice period after resigning. Shevgaonkar’s notice period will get over on March 22, after which he may be technically free to leave.