Oil India i/vs for CGMs and EDs
Well-groomed Oil India officers in crisp blazers milled around in the corridors of its R&D wing within the Duliajan field headquarters, which houses the offices of the chairman and directors on December 10-12 (2022).
As darkness fell outside, they waited anxiously late into the evening, preparing to be called in by a panel of Oil India chairman Ranjit Rath and other full-time directors for interviews. Oil India is presently reviewing promotions from general manager to chief general manager rank or from chief general manager to executive director.
Expect results to be declared on January 1 (2023). As many as 97 general managers were interviewed for 24 chief general manager positions.
For the less than ten executive director positions, as many as 37 chief general managers were called for interviews. "The candidates came in from Delhi, Kakinada, Rajasthan and even Gabon," says an Oil India source.
"The odds of being selected are one in four." Rath did not interview candidates for the CGM position but was present for the ED rank promotion interviews.
Among the interviewers were directors finance Harish Madhav, human resources Ashok Das, exploration MK Sharma, operations PK Goswami, and resident chief executive Prasanta Borkakoty and Ashok Varma, ONGC's former director onshore hired as an outside 'expert'. Interviews carried on until 8pm on December 12 (2022).
But in between the interviews, Rath found time to hear several presentations, including one by a team from IIT Mumbai, his Alma Mater. "We can create opportunities by collaborating," Rath told this report later, about MoUs signed with universities in northeastern India, among them Manipur University, Nagaland University and the Rajiv Gandhi University in Arunachal Pradesh.
Himself an award-winning geophysicist, Rath is expected to pursue more alliances with educational establishments.