Newsmaker: Erubothu Venkataiah

This bureaucrat from Karnataka is making a daring bid to own a slice of oil pie

As a director of the Karnataka Maharishi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, Erubothu Venkataiah, 62, has been working for the betterment of the weaker sections of society, particularly the Valmiki community, for the past three years. He has also worked to improve opportunities and allocate work to Dalit contractors.

And when he found that an entrepreneur was budding in his own home, he seems to have decided to play along. Venkataiah, a 1985 batch IAS officer, not only encouraged his son, Akhil Teja, in his daring entrepreneurial venture, he also chose to become a shareholder and lend his residence as the official address for his new company.

The two-week-old company named after Teja, Akhil Teja Natural Resources, surprised many in the government and the petroleum sector with its bids for 17 discovered oil blocks that were up for grabs — this is half the blocks that attracted bids. 

Records with the Union ministry of corporate affairs show that the company was floated by three principal shareholders — Erubothu Akhil Teja, Erubothu Venkataiah and P Lakshmi — and was incorporated on November 18. The family had filed the incorporation papers only a week earlier.

Records submitted with MCA show that the company has a paid up capital of Rs 1 lakh. Akhil Teja is the largest shareholder with 5,100 shares, which translates into a 51 per cent stake. Venkataiah owns 3,900 shares, while his wife, Polukonda Lakshmi, owns the remaining 1,000 shares.

Oil exploration and production requires huge investments. Though the government has said that it wants to see start-ups in the sector, Akhil Teja Natural Resources’ bid has caught everybody by 

surprise. 

If they get all the onshore blocks they bid for, the company will have to find at least Rs 510 crore to make it operational. Even if it gets 10 blocks, it means the investment figure will be about Rs 300 crore. “We are not that big people? My son will have to find some way out for the investments required. I am even ready to mortgage my house for this,” adds Venkataiah, who, before his retirement in 2014, was in charge of the public works department and has also served as the principal secretary to the Karnataka government.

Twenty-seven-year-old Akhil Teja, an engineer by qualification and an alumnus of the National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, recently quit his job with State Bank of India to pursue his interests in oil exploration. Teja is said to have been inspired by the roadshows by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas.

Bureaucrats in Karnataka who have worked with Venkataiah remember him as a man capable of building lasting relationships. He is known to get along well with people across the board. 

Apart from being a director of the Karnataka Maharishi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, Venkataiah also serves as a special adviser to the social welfare department of the state government.

A lady at Venkataiah’s home says that the family does not have anything to say on the bids Venkataiah and his son have submitted.