Oil India Ltd chairman and managing director Ranjit Rath is amongst greater than half a dozen candidates who’ve utilized for the highest job at state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), individuals conversant in the matter stated.
Rath, 54, is looking for the ONGC chairman and managing director‘s submit for a second consecutive yr after the federal government relaxed eligibility standards, together with the utmost age for the place.
The Oil India chief was among the many candidates shortlisted for the ONGC submit final yr, however the authorities selected to increase the tenure of incumbent Arun Kumar Singh by a yr.
Rath has headed Oil India, India’s second-largest state-run oil and fuel explorer, since August 2022.
Others who’ve utilized embody ONGC Videsh Ltd managing director Rajarshi Gupta, who turned eligible after the federal government raised the utmost entry age to 59 years.
Gupta, 59, who is because of superannuate in July 2027, is the senior-most amongst all the inner candidates making use of for the place.
ONGC’s director for know-how and discipline companies Vikram Saxena and the agency’s director for technique and company affairs Satyam Kumar in addition to OVL’s director for operations Dulal Halder are the opposite inner candidates making use of for the place, sources stated.
Additionally in fray are MRPL director (finance) Devendra Kumar, and Indian Oil Corporation‘s (IOC) director for advertising and marketing S P Shrivastava.
The Public Enterprises Choice Board (PESB), the federal government’s headhunter for appointments to state-run corporations, had invited functions for the submit, which can fall vacant on December 7 when incumbent Arun Kumar Singh completes his prolonged tenure. Functions closed on July 22.
As per the commercial, candidates shouldn’t have attained the age of 59 years on the date of prevalence of the emptiness — December 7, 2026. The chosen candidate will initially be appointed for 3 years, with the tenure extendable by one other two years after a efficiency evaluation.
“Any employment or extension of tenure past the age of 60 shall be on a contract foundation,” the commercial stated.
The choice might be made by a search-cum-selection committee constituted by the oil ministry as an alternative of the traditional PESB choice course of.
The revised age restrict marks a departure from the norms adopted for many board-level appointments in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs).
Whereas current appointments have largely been ruled by a residual service criterion reasonably than mounted age limits, the ONGC commercial prescribes a most entry age of 59 years, permitting each inner and exterior candidates who would in any other case have been ineligible to be thought-about.
The tenure situations are additionally a departure from the prevailing observe of appointing PSU chiefs till the age of superannuation, which is mostly 60 years. Beneath the revised framework, a md could proceed past that age on a contractual foundation.
Whereas the unique commercial listed engineering graduate, CAs or price accountants or a graduate with full time MBA/PGDIM as instructional qualification, an addendum said that “the applicant must be a first-class graduate with a level in Engineering/ Chartered Accountancy/Price Accountancy or Put up Graduate or a Graduate with a full-time MBA/PGDIM from a number one institute.”
The federal government had made an identical leisure when appointing Singh in 2022.
A search-cum-selection committee constituted by the oil ministry picked him in August that yr, barely two months earlier than he turned 60, making him the primary govt of that age to be appointed chairman of a blue-chip state-run firm.
Singh, who retired as chairman and managing director of Bharat Petroleum Company Ltd in October 2022, took cost of ONGC on December 6, 2022, after the federal government relaxed the eligibility standards. Final yr, the Centre granted him a uncommon one-year extension, permitting him to proceed as ONGC chairman till December 6, 2026, by which era he might be over 64 years outdated.
The federal government had initiated a seek for a daily chairman final yr.
PESB invited functions in April 2025 and greater than a dozen candidates, together with OIL’s Rath, utilized. Nonetheless, no interviews have been held, and the choice course of remained inconclusive with none official rationalization.
ONGC had remained and not using a full-time chief between April 2021 and December 2022, throughout which the corporate was headed by three interim chairmen earlier than Singh’s appointment.
In line with the job description, the chairman might be liable for the general administration and strategic course of the corporate, together with driving development in income and profitability, main ONGC’s exploration and manufacturing enterprise, overseeing enlargement into new vitality and petrochemicals by acquisitions and joint ventures, and steering know-how adoption throughout the organisation.
