Hunt for new IOC chief takes off

The hunt for the new chairman and managing director of IOC took off on Monday with the government holding interviews of the selected candida...

The hunt for the new chairman and managing director of IOC took off on Monday with the government holding interviews of the selected candidates for the post. According to sources associated with the process, after the interview, S Behuria, the present chairman and managing director of BPCL has emerged as the frontrunner for the post.

Besides Behuria, others who were called for the interview on Monday included M .B. Lal, CMD of HPCL, A.M. Uplenchwar, director (pipelines) IOC, H. K. Nayyar, director (planning and business development) IOC and S V Narasimhan, managing director of CPCL.

Sources said it is believed that after the interview the Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) has forwarded Behuria’s name as the likely candidate.

Story continues below this ad

Though there was a thinking that a panel of at least two names instead of one should be sent before the Cabinet Committee on Appointments (ACC), sources said the Board finally sent only one name instead. This is in keeping with the practice being followed for the last few years.

The basic idea of sending one name is to ensure that the process takes less time, sources added.

The present CMD of IOC, M.S. Ramachandran is scheduled to retire in February 2005. The government had started the process to ensure that the new candidate is selected in advance. However, the name of the selected candidate will now be forwarded to the ACC after the mandatory vigilance and other clearances, from agencies are completed.