New Delhi, May 14 (pti): A committee formed to select the ONGC chairman will not send interview calls to executives of private firms such as Shell and Blackstone who had not formally applied for the job.
The committee, headed by N. K. Sinha, chairman of the Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB), will interview the 27 candidates who had applied for the top job, sources said.
The committee, however, could not decide on the date of the interview as former finance secretary and a member of the panel, Vijay Kelkar, was not available.
Kelkar wanted to invite Shell India chairman Vikram Singh Mehta, Haldia Petrochemicals managing director Swapan K. Bhowmik, Blackstone’s India chairman Akhil Gupta and a board member of L&T, among others, for the interview.
The interviews may take place in the first or second week of June, sources said.
Among the candidates who have applied are Najeeb Jung, a former joint secretary in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, and R.S. Sharma, ONGC’s acting chairman.
ONGC Videsh managing director R.S. Butola, ONGC director (onshore) A.K. Hazarika, director (hr) A.K. Balyan, director (exploration) D.K. Pandey, director (technical) U.N. Bose and GAIL director (hr) M.R. Hingnikar are also in the fray.
Sources said the meeting of the search committee on April 17 was inconclusive, as Kelkar’s suggestion of inviting people who had not applied was not supported by Sinha and other members.
A total of 27 candidates met the eligibility criteria and all of them would be interviewed.
Sharma was the first choice of the pesb in the initial interviews held in August last year. Hazarika was the second best choice, but the Prime Minister’s Office scrapped the panel and asked for a broader selection process by inviting candidates from the private sector.
The pmo did not make any adverse remarks against Sharma or Hazarika but questioned the selection process, making it explicit that they were eligible for future selections.
Hindustan Petroleum’s subsidiary Prize Petroleum’s ceo M.N. Prasad, Essar Oil vice-president H.N. Belawat and Surya Roshi president B.B. Pradhan are among the other candidates.
