PowerMin to consult DoPT on hiring pvt execs for top PSU jobs

With key power and coal PSUs going headless, Ministry of Power plans to consult the Department of Personnel and Training for hiring private professionals for top jobs in public sector companies.
This move comes after the state-run Coal India's Chairman and Managing Director Narsing Rao resigned to take up a role in the newly-formed state of Telangana.
Rao is awaiting final government approval to be relieved from his post and has been provisionally allotted the state cadre along with 43 other IAS officials.
Chairman and Managing Director of state-run THDC India R S T Sai has been given the additional charge of state-run NHPC. Till now, G Sai Prasad Joint Secretary (Hydro) in the Ministry of Power was holding the additional charge of the company's CMD.

Prasad had wanted to shed his additional portfolio so as to help him concentrate on his role in the ministry.
According to sources, Ministry of Power will seek information from the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) for speeding up the process of selection of top level officers and also bringing in talent from the corporate world.

Nandan Nilekani, the founding member of IT giant Infosys, had joined the the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as its Chairman. He resigned to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
Government headhunter PESB's norms do not prohibit private individuals from applying for vacancies in central PSUs. In the past, Najeeb Jung, who currently is the Lt Governor of Delhi, had applied for the top job at ONGC.

Jung, a former bureaucrat who was then based in London, lost out to R S Sharma in PESB interviews.
Prabhat Singh, an executive at UK energy group BG Group, however made it to the grades when he got appointed as Director (Marketing) in state gas utility GAIL India Ltd in November 2011.
Some in the industry, however, see the appointment of executives from private firms which have direct dealings with the PSU concerned, as a conflict of interest. And Power Minister Piyush Goyal by approaching the DoPT may be wanting to address them so as to avoid controversies at a later date, they added.