Centre set to allow fixed terms for Navratna CMDs

The government’s top companies can look for better working conditions and governance norms to compete with private sector as the Centre is set to allow fixed tenures to CMDs (chairman and managing directors) of the Maharatna and Navratna to be selected by a committee having experts. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jun 3, 2013, 24:51:57 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government’s top companies can look for better working conditions and governance norms to compete with private sector as the Centre is set to allow fixed tenures to CMDs (chairman and managing directors) of the Maharatna and Navratna to be selected by a committee having experts.

A Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) has decided that age for appointment of independent directors in these public sector companies would be 45 to 70 years as compared to norm of 45 to 65 years. The GoM in the last meeting earlier this month has also decided that the independent directors will consult the government on the issues and would help the board to work for welfare of CPSEs. In case the government is not able to provide opinion the directors would consider public interest before delivering their judgment, the ministerial group said.

The group also decided on detailed procedure on appointment of CMDs and Chief Executive Officers (CEO) in CPSEs and Ratna companies. The new procedure says each body will have to appoint a separate selection committee having two expert members and secretary of the concerned ministry as members to consider the applicants for the post. It also said the selection process should be comprehensive.

In another decision, the GoM decided that 3% of the vacant posts above the level of deputy general manager and below director can be filled by giving extension to officers working in the companies. The extension will, however, be for two years.

The GoM has rejected the Planning Commission proposal to allow companies to set up an internal committee for departmental proceedings against officers against whom there is complaint of corruption or in-discipline. It said the Central Vigilance Commission rules would continue to apply. The group also did not agree with another proposal to delink monitoring system in CPSEs from performance pay of the officials.

The government sources said there was more or less consensus on five year fixed term for CMDs but a decision in this respect is expected to be taken at its next meeting.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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