Born to divide - ONGC's leadership scheme

Vol 27, PW 26 (16 Jan 25) People & Policy
 

ONGC’s decision to select 120 officers last month (December 2024) for the leadership development scheme Unnati Shikhar has become embroiled in controversy.

Nishant Kumar, the central working committee president of the officers group ASTO, wrote to HR director Manish Patil on January 10 (2025) with a stark warning: "There is significant apprehension among senior officers that those selected for the Unnati Shikhar programme may be given preferential treatment for fast-track promotions in the future; if this is true, it would be deeply unfortunate and perceived as a grave injustice to those senior officers not even shortlisted for the online evaluation." Kumar stressed that all 2289 eligible executives at E6 and E7 (GM and CGM) levels in January 2024 should have been given equal training and development opportunities.

ONGC launched the programme on December 14 (2024). By the afternoon of December 21 (2024), 265 officers appeared for a 90-minute online assessment test at its Mumbai and Delhi offices.

ONGC tested the officers for analytical thinking, logical reasoning and problem-solving skills, says a source. On December 27 (2024), ONGC selected 120 officers for an offsite training event to be held on January 16 (2025) at its Goa training institute.

Of these, 60 will go to top business schools abroad and the others will be enrolled for programmes in Indian institutes. Only E6 and E7 level executives with 12 and eight years of remaining service, respectively, from their last promotion, were called for the assessment.

One source believes the selected officers will benefit from accelerated promotions in the next six years to the E9 (ED) level. Attempts to contact an ONGC spokesperson for comment were unsuccessful.