139 top PSU jobs including 46 CMD posts are lying vacant; Govt's keen to rope in private sector honchos

IT’S official now. As many as 139 top posts of Central public sector enterprises — 46 posts of chief executives and 93 posts of directors — have been lying vacant, and the government is keen to rope in suitable candidates from the private sector as well. In a recent reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, minister of state in the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises Babul Supriyo listed out the criteria for private sector executives to apply for the posts of CMDs and directors. According to that, an executive from a…

private sector company with an annual turnover of Rs 10,000 crore for three years, can apply for the post of CMD in a Maharatna company such as ONGC, NTPC, Coal India, Sail etc. The other criteria for candidates from private sector are the same as for the candidates from other categories, viz., CPSEs, state public sector enterprises and government. To apply in Navratna companies such as Oil India, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation etc, the private company in which the applicant works has to have an annual turnover of Rs. 5,000 crore or more for preceding three years. For Miniratna companies (for example Airports Authority of India, India Tourism Development Corporation etc.), the threshold needs to be Rs 2,000 crore or more. 

Almost two years ago, the government for the first time had appointed two private sector professionals to run Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank. Managing Director and CEO of VBHC Value Homes PS Jayakumar was appointed as CMD of Bank of Baroda. Jayakumar is a former Citi Bank executive. Also, the then CEO of Laxmi Vilas Bank Rakesh Sharma was appointed to run Canara Bank.

The government approved the guidelines regarding the selection of MD and CEO in five public sector banks, viz. Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, IDBI Bank and Punjab National Bank. According to those guidelines, candidates from public sector banks and private sector banks with at least 15 years of mainstream banking experience of which one year at board level within the age group of 45-57 years were made eligible to apply for the post. The post of MD and CEO in those five banks was advertised and three candidates from public sector banks and two candidates from private sector banks were appointed about two years ago. 

But then, the top government officials said, there would be no more hiring from private sector for public sector bank top jobs.
In that backdrop, the minister's reply in the Rajya Sabha highlighting the guidelines of private sector executives for top jobs in public sector enterprises is significant.