Race For Sbi Honcho Heads Towards Ruckus
The race for the top slot at the State Bank of India (SBI) is facing a roadblock with the senior-most official of the bank, G G Vaidya, who was expected to succeed at the helm, being recommended for the chairmanship of Nabard by the five-member Cabinet Committee on Appointments. Vaidya, who is at present deputy managing director of SBI, is likely to refuse this offer. And in Vaidya's place, V Janakiraman, another deputy managing director of the bank, has been endorsed for the position of the chairman of SBI.
The moot point is, a refusal by Vaidya will lead to an embarrassing situation for the government as he cannot be forced to take up the Nabard slot.
The chairman of Nabard is a secretary-level posting like the chairman of SBI and the Industrial Development Bank of India.
And since Vaidya has already been recommended for a secretary-level position, he cannot be slotted lower in the SBI either, once he officially refuses the Nabard posting. Both the recommendations will now go to the finance minister and later to the Prime Minister's Office for final clearance.
Sources point out that Vaidya's name was not recommended for the SBI helm due to lack of international exposure unlike Janakiraman.
Sources said Janakiraman was posted in a representative office in Tehran,
Iran for three years. They added that a posting in New York or London gives a banker international exposure but not Tehran. Vaidya, on the other hand, has the experience of running a bank as he was the managing director of State Bank of Travancore. He also handled large-scale credit for 15 years out of which three years were in the international division..
He also has 10 years of experience in the treasury function, with five years as the manaing director of Discount and Fiancne House of India (DFHI)
Vaidya has a two years of service left, which gives more continuity at SBI, while Janakiraman has one year and three months to go.
If Janakiraman is appointed, it will be in variance with the SBI's tradition of seniority coming first. Incidentally, the procedure for appointment of the SBI chairman this time saw many firsts: For the first time, the appointments committee wanted to interview the candidates. This was done despite protests from the current chairman, M S Verma.
Secondly, the full appointments committee did not interview the candidates. They met only two members of the committee _ M S Ahluwalia, the former finance secretary, and C M Vasudev, the special secretary, banking.
Sources says that if the recommendation was made on the basis of the interviews of the candidates all the membders hsould have met them .
An insider said that not all the members of the appointments committee were in favour of bypassing the seniority norm.