The government has invited applications for the new chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), ending uncertainty over the survival of incumbent Shrikant Madhav Vaidya.
In an advertisement on its website, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has invited applications by July 3 from engineers, chartered accountants and cost accountants with postgraduate management degrees from leading institutions and with at least five years of experience in leadership roles.
The age limit has been set at not more than 58 years for internal candidates and 57 years for outsiders, with a retirement age of 60 years, the report said.
Vaidya, who took over as chairman of India’s largest oil company on July 1, 2020, was scheduled to retire on August 31, 2023 when he reaches the retirement age of 60. But he found himself in a rare move “redeployment on contract basis” for one year “after the date of his retirement, i.e. with effect from September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2024,” according to an official order dated August 4. , 2023.
A three-member search and selection committee was then formed to determine who will lead the IOC after August 31, 2024. The panel is headed by the chairman of the government’s headhunter Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) and includes the oil secretary and former Hindustan Petroleum. Corporation Ltd (HPCL) chairman MK Surana as members.
However, the committee could not pay much attention to the issue of age.
Sources said the ministry had initially proposed that anyone who has not attained the age of 61 years would be considered for the job. This made Vaidya eligible for the job.
However, the proposal did not find favor with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The government then returned to the old system of appointing the head of the PSU, with the retirement age being 60 years.
Before Vaidya, no Maharatna PSU chairman was given an extension of more than 60 years in recent years. In fact, the government had last year denied Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra an eight-month extension as IOC director (human resources) till his retirement age.
The oil ministry has recommended an extension of service for Vaidya after PESB failed to make any recommendation for the next IOC president after interviewing 10 candidates, including Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL) managing director Arvind Kumar, in May last year.
The IOC marked the second time in recent months that PESB failed to find a suitable candidate for the top position at leading oil companies and retired personnel were put in charge.
On June 3, 2021, out of nine candidates, including two serving IAS officers, PESB did not find anyone suitable to head ONGC.
The ministry then formed a search-cum-selection panel and appointed Arun Kumar Singh, who had retired from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) after reaching the age of 60, as the head of ONGC. Singh was not eligible to apply in the first place, but the eligibility rule was changed to take into account persons who have completed the age of 60 years.
A similar but greater age relaxation was sought for the IOC (whereby persons up to 61 years of age could be eligible).
The existing rules for recruitment to board level positions in PSUs allow consideration of the candidature of an internal person with at least two years of service before retirement and three years in case of external candidates.
The ministry’s advertisement stated that the new IOC president would be selected by the search and selection committee.
IOC refines crude oil into products such as gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and aviation turbine fuels. It also makes petrochemicals and sells CNG.
The IOC is not only the backbone of India’s fuel supply, but is also driving India’s energy transition – the shift from fossil fuel-based energy production and consumption systems – including oil, natural gas and coal, to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy. as well as lithium-ion batteries.
The IOC owns and operates ten oil refineries with a combined capacity of 80.6 million tonnes, accounting for almost a third of India’s 251.2 million tonnes of refining capacity. It also owns 36,285 petrol pumps out of 86,855 pumps in the country. Moreover, it owns half of the country’s 25,386 LPG distributors. It operates 131 of the 283 aviation fuel stations in the country.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: June 6, 2024 | 12:34 pm IST