Ex-bureaucrat Kelkar to head key panel of research institute

The Maharashtra government today appointed former Union finance secretary Vijay Kelkar as chairman of the advisory committee of the proposed Policy Research Institute.
The general administration department issued a government resolution (GR) announcing Kelkar's appointment as chief of the key committee.
The retired bureaucrat will have a two-year tenure, it said.
According to the GR, the committee is mandated to recommend administrative functioning, scope, vision, mission, short and long-term goals of the institute to the state government.
The panel should also carry out a comparative study of other similar agencies, the GR noted.
The government has already sanctioned Rs 5 crore expenditure for the committee's working.

In June this year, the state cabinet cleared a proposal to set up the institute at Tathavade in Pune.
The institute will carry out regular assessment of government policies, research, adopting best practices and administrative reforms via continuous training of officials, said a statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) in June.