PSB may get its first non-Sikh at the helm, vigilance clearances awaited.
M V Tanksale of Punjab National Bank (PNB) may head Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) and R M Malla of the Small Industries Development Bank of India may take charge at IDBI Bank if the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Cabinet approve the list for public sector bank chiefs prepared by the finance ministry.
The ministry selected 10 executive directors to fill the top slots at public sector banks, since 10 Chairmen-cum-Managing Directors (CMDs) retire this year. It also prepared a list of 12 general managers to be elevated to the post of EDs at 11 banks.
The committee, headed by financial services secretary R Gopalan, recommended Tanksale for heading Delhi-based PSB, which had hitherto always had a member from the Sikh community as its head. The bank’s current CMD, G S Vedi, retires in June. Tanksale’s colleague in PNB, Nagesh Pydah, has been identified for replacing T Y Prabhu at Delhi-based Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC).
A finance ministry official said, “The selection of PSB chief was on merit and the government is open to a non-Sikh heading the bank.” An executive in PSB said the bank staff, which mainly comprises Sikhs, did not seem to have any concerns about the appointment of a non-Sikh at the bank’s helm.
The panel suggested M Narendra of Bank of Baroda for Indian Overseas Bank, H S U Kamath of Canara Bank for Vijaya Bank, Pradeep Ramnath of Central Bank for Corporation Bank, Arun Kaul of Central Bank for UCO Bank, A S Bhattacharya of Indian Bank for Bank of Maharashtra, R Ramachandran of Syndicate Bank for Andhra Bank, and S Raman of Union Bank for Syndicate Bank.
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Of the 18 people the selection panel interviewed last month for the post of CMD, 10 were identified for heading specific banks, whereas two executive directors (S C Kalia of Union Bank and B A Prabhakar of Bank of India) were kept as standby, if there was a problem with the first lot of names. A shortlisted candidate would need CVC clearance before his name is put up to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.
For the post of executive director, the committee interviewed about 40 general managers and shortlisted 16, of which four are in the waiting list. While Ravi Chatterjee of UCO Bank may move to Syndicate Bank, his colleague R K Murgai is yet to be assigned a bank, along with M S Raghavan of IOB, A P Ghuggal of Bank of India and B Rajkumar of Andhra Bank. V R Iyyar of Union Bank and R K Dubey of PNB may go to Central Bank, while PNB’s Archana Bhargav has been selected for Canara Bank.
Besides, the panel selected Ashwani Kumar of Allahabad Bank for Corporation Bank, Rakesh Sethi of Andhra Bank for PNB, S S Mundra of Bank of Baroda for Union Bank, N Badrinarayan of Bank of Baroda for UCO Bank, N Kannan of Bank of Maharashtra for OBC, N Seshadri of Canara Bank for Bank of India, Rajiv Rishi of OBC for Indian Bank and A K Bansal of Union Bank for IOB.
This time, the government had relaxed the selection criteria. It reduced the period of residual service from two years to a year and three months, and the total experience as an executive director to six months from the earlier one year.