The Hindu Business Line : M.S. Srinivasan is new Govt nominee on ONGC board

SPECIAL Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr M.S. Srinivasan, has been appointed on the board of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

However, his appointment would not increase the number of Government directors on the board from the current three because the Government has withdrawn one of its present nominee Mr Sunjoy Joshi, who is joint secretary for exploration. Mr Joshi has put in his resignation from the board of ONGC, paving way for Mr Srinivasan.

Therefore, the Ministry, which was earlier considering increasing strength of Government nominees on the company's board from the current three to five has restricted it to three. The issue of additional Government nominees on the ONGC board had led to a spat in September between the Chairman of ONGC, Mr Subir Raha, threatening to resign over the choice of Director-General of Hydrocarbon, Mr V.K. Sibal, as one of the additional nominees.

Mr Srinivasan was proposed as another additional Government nominee on the board of the company. The ONGC Chairman had protested not only over the inclusion of Mr Sibal on the company board but also to having too many Government nominees on the board.

The Petroleum Ministry had withdrawn Mr Sibal's name in September.

Other Government nominees on the board are Mr Ashok Chawla from the Finance Ministry, Mr P.K. Sinha, who is Financial Advisor in the Petroleum Ministry.

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