Early bird

Following in the footsteps of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is keeping officials in the ministry on their toes. He wants clipping of all news articles related to his ministry at his residence by 9.00 am. It is learnt that Singh asks questions - that are not so easy to answer in most cases - after reading the newspaper cuttings. This has forced Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami to seek the same clippings to be placed before him by 8.45 am, so that he is ready to face the minister's queries. As a result, the media staff has to reach office by 8.00 am, a practice that was stopped after former home minister P Chidambaram was shifted to the Union finance ministry in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.