New Delhi: New Chairperson of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) Mallika Srinivasan and new Member Sailesh (IAS) have taken charge of their respective positions at the top public sector organisation on Monday. Prior to assuming office, while Srinivasan was Chairman and Managing Director of Tractors and Farm Equipment (TAFE) Limited, Sailesh was serving as the Secretary of the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE). The appointment to the PESB Chairperson post is especially significant because the body had been functioning without a chief since August 2020.
In the absence of a Chairperson, CMD and Director level vacancies had been piling up at PSUs.
With Srinivasan taking charge as the new PESB Chairperson, the selection process for top level PSU appointments will once again start rolling at PESB, however they may resume in a new way. Immediately before demitting office, former PESB Chairman Rajiv Kumar had proposed sweeping reforms to bring in greater transparency and optimise the process for senior-level PSU appointments. The new reforms proposed breaking away from the practice of post-specific advertisements and holding interviews for the said posts at the start of the year instead of conducting interviews for individual companies ahead of the vacancy of the post.
In order to expand the pool, the plan proposed including all Central Government services, including unorganised services/ government companies (as defined in Indian Companies Act, 2013) in the slot earmarked for government. The government is already in the process of inviting comments from various PSUs on the proposed reforms.
The PESB consists of one chairperson and three full-time members. Apart from Sailesh, the other two PESB Members are MK Gupta and Rear Admiral (Retd) Shekhar Mital.
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