Govt to pack oil cos with top ex-babus, bankers

NEW DELHI: The oil ministry is set to pack three top companies under its wings with former top guns from the bureaucracy and banking industry as independent directors.

The ministry has sent to the Cabinet's appointments committee a list of names that include former home secretary G K Pillai, former foreign secretary Shyam Saran and former expenditure secretary Susma Nath.

Among the bankers, former SBI chairman O P Bhatt and RBI deputy governor Shyamala Gopinath top the chart. All of them had retired earlier this year. IIM-Ahmedabad director S K Barua is the only academician in the list. 

Sources said Pillai has been shortlisted for the Hindustan Petroleum board, while Saran and Nath has been chosen for IndianOil Corporation. Nath will also be on the board of flagship explorer ONGC along with Bhatt and Barua.

Gopinath, along with former department of industrial policy and promotion secretary R P Singh, former minority affairs secretary Vivek Malhotra and former Bank of Baroda chairman Anil K Khandelwal have been proposed for gas utility GAIL.

For HPCL, former revenue secretary P V Bhide, IIM-A professor G Raghuram and Canara Bank chairman A C Mahajan have been recommended, besides Pillai.

Ministry sources said the names have been approved by government head hunter, Public Enterprises Selection Board.