PESB finds no candidate fit to head HPCL; to re-advertise post

Government headhunter PESB today failed to select a new Chairman and Managing Director of state -owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) as it could not find a suitable candidate among the 9 persons it interviewed.
The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) "decided to see more candidates", the headhunter said in a notice after interviews today.
Those who PESB interviewed included HPCL Director (Human Resources) P K Joshi and gas utility GAIL Director (Projects) Ashutosh Karnatak.
PESB said other candidates who appeared for interviews today included Deepak Kumar Hota, Director (Human Resources), Bharat Earth Movers Ltd and M P Eshwar, Chairman and Managing Director, Instrumentation Ltd.

Four Executive Directors of HPCL - G Ganesh, S Jeyakrishnan, Ajit Singh and V V Rama Narasimham, as well as Rajeev Bhardwaj, Director (Human Resources), Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) were interviewed by PESB.
PESB conducted interviews to select a candidate who would have replaced incumbent Nishi Vasudeva on her retirement in March end next year.

Oil Ministry officials said the post will be re-advertised for a fresh set of candidates to be interviewed by PESB.
In the case of Oil India Ltd (OIL), PESB last year found no candidate, including the company's Director (Finance) Rupshikha Saikia Borah, suitable for the job. But when fresh interviews were held in February, it selected Borah for the job.

However, her elevation the top job was stalled by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) which sought to know what had changed between November last year, when PESB had not found Borah and others suitable for the job, and February when it picked her up to head the nation's second biggest state explorer.
With the PMO questioning the selection, the ministry has restarted the hunt for the chairman and managing director of OIL and re-advertised the post to replace S K Srivastava who superannuated at June end.
On Srivastava's superannuation, the ministry handed over the charge of Chairman and Managing Director of OIL to senior IAS officer in the ministry, U P Singh.