Ranbaxy Chief To Join Sail Board

Ranbaxy chairman Parvinder Singh, former State Bank of India chairman Dipankar Basu and South-based HRD expert Y R K Reddy will soon be nominated as part-time directors on the board of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).

The Appointment Committee of Cabinet (ACC) has cleared all the three names, recommended by the steel ministry.

According to steel ministry officials, the official notification on the appointment of the three part-time directors will be issued in a fortnight.

It is learnt that initially Singh was not agreeing to the ministry's proposal on his nomination to the SAIL Board. The ministry, however, persuaded him to accept the offer. This, apparently, has delayed the whole process of appointment.

The steel ministry had earlier nominated Mr Atul Sharma, director of Indian Statistical Institute, as a part-time director on the SAIL Board. With the appointment of three more part-time directors, the steel major has become the first public sector undertaking to attain the full `Navaratna' status.

Under the Navaratna proposal, the selected public sector undertakings will be eligible for the full autonomy package when they complete the appointment of four experts from various fields as part-time directors on their boards.

The SAIL board will now be empowered to take all investment decisions, domestic or overseas, and setting up of joint ventures without going through the time-consuming ministry approval process. The steel ministry is represented on the SAIL board by the additional secretary and a joint secretary.

Under the existing norms, the board of directors of PSU which come under schedule A category are empowered to take investment decision only upto Rs 100 crore and these companies have to seek the prior approval of the administrative ministry and the Cabinet for all their investment plans above Rs 100 crore.

The induction of outside experts, particularly Singh and Basu on the board are expected to be of immense help to the steel major at a time when it is set to undertake a major restructuring plan to come out of the present financial mess the company is in.