Indian Bank May Get New Cmd

Ranjana Kumar, the executive director of Canara Bank is slated to join as the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Indian Bank. Sources said she has already given her consent to join the bank and the final clearance in form of a notification from the finance ministry is awaited. She will replace T S Raghavan who retired on April 30.

Ranjana Kumar would be the first woman chairman of the public sector bank and would also have a long tenure of about 7 to 8 year before retiring.

Earlier, the appointments committee chaired by the RBI governor, Bimal Jalan had recommended that Ranjana Kumar to take charge of Corporation Bank as CMD after the current chairman R S Hugar retires on May 31. However, sources said there was a disbalance created since N S Gujaral, executive director of Corporation Bank was senior to Ranjana Kumar and would have to report to her. Gujaral, former general manager at Punjab and Sind Bank, joined the bank in October 1999.

In case of Indian Bank, a special search committee headed by HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh to find a `suitable chairman' to head the distressed bank failed to make much headway. Sources said the `competent bankers' were not keen on joining the bank on the ground that the annual remuneration was too low compared to the task of turning around the bank.

Meanwhile, P S Shenoy, executive director of Bank of Baroda has been appointed as the chairman for the same bank, while K V Krishnamurthy, CMD of Syndicate Bank has been appointed as the CMD of Bank of India. R J Kamath, CMD of Andhra Bank has been appointed as the CMD of Canara Bank. The notifications on the appointments were issued on Friday night.