Austerity is not only clipping the wings of ministers this season, now top bureaucrats are also feeling the pinch.

It is learnt that the Finance Ministry has shot down the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry’s proposal to send its secretary, higher education, on a trip to USA this week. Secretary R P Agarwal was to lead a high powered delegation to USA this week to hold discussions with Ivy league institutes and academicians of Indian origin for possible tie ups for the proposed world class innovation universities to be set up in India.

The Finance Ministry’s screening committee, it is learnt, shot down Agarwal’s trip saying that the secretary had visited USA only last month, and that such frequent trips were hardly required. Further, the Finance Ministry is said to have pointed out that since the secretary’s retirement is nearing, it made little sense to depute him to forge partnerships abroad. The Ministry is also learnt to have suggested that Indian missions in the US be put on the job instead.

Agarwal will retire as secretary, higher education in the HRD Ministry on October 30 this year. His weeklong US itinerary reportedly had San Francisco, Boston and New York on the agenda and plans to visit Harvard, Stanford, Yale universities among other institutes.

With HRD Minister Kapil Sibal quite keen to forge educational partnerships with the Ivy league institutes for the 14 Innovation Universities of world class standards , it was decided that Agarwal would lead a delegation comprising IIT Kanpur Director Prof S G Dhande and Hyderabad university VC Seyed Ehteshem Hasnain, towards that end. Sibal is also set to visit the US later this month, just ahead of the PM’s visit in November. It was envisaged that Agarwal would help finalise an agreement with institutes abroad ahead of Sibal’s visit so that it could be signed during the minister’s visit.