Four SBI Group DMDs appear for interview for MD's post

A Krishna Kumar who was MD and Group Executive (International Banking- IBG), retired on November 30

Four senior executives of SBI group have appeared for interviews for one post of Managing Director at State Bank of India (SBI), which is lying vacant after the retirement of A Krishna Kumar last month.

Kumar, who was MD and Group Executive (International Banking- IBG), retired on November 30.

The interviews were conducted earlier this month, sources said.

Those who appeared for the interview include Praveen Kumar Gupta, SBI's chief financial officer, Rajnish Kumar, managing director of SBI Caps), NK Chari, head of medium corporate group at SBI, and S A Ramesh Rangan, MD at State Bank of Patiala.

Currently, there are three serving MDs at SBI -- Pradeep Kumar (Corporate Banking Group), B Sriram (National Banking Group) and VG Kannan (Associates and Subsidiaries).

The outcome of the interviews, conducted by three different sub-committees of the selection panel, could not be ascertained.

While the first committee comprised Indian Institute of Management (Indore) director Rishikesha T Krishnan and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor R Gandhi, the second committee includes S Viswanathan (former managing director of SBI) and additional secretary in the department of financial services (DFS), Snehlata Srivastava.

Financial services secretary Hashmukh Adhia and former chairman and managing director of Allahabad Bank Shubhalakshmi A Panse are part of the third sub-committee.

After going through the reports of the three sub-committees, the RBI governor will forward a report to the Department of Financial Services (under Finance Ministry) and then its clearances would be sought subsequently from the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) and finally from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

The chances are that the person who is selected for the MD post this time may also be eligible for the post of the bank's chairman in future.

Current SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya's tenure will end in September 2016.