#selection board

The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) is headless for over a month now. It has seen five chairmen in the last five years (between June 2015 and April 2020) and the chair has successively become fragile and unstable.

Keeping in view the designated three years term (or till 65 yrs of age) of its chairman, PESB would have ideally had only two chairmen between 2015-2021, but the story is quite different. If one goes by the incumbency chart of PESB Chairman frequent changes at the top makes one curious about the objective and seriousness towards public-sector giants.

PESB has the mandate to evolve a sound managerial policy for the Central Public Sector Enterprises and, in particular, to advise the Government on appointments to their top management posts. However, ironically, the background and career progression of the previous chairmen indicate that the PESB chair is now either consideration or meant for the transition.  

It is worth checking the incumbency chart for the last five years.

After completing 4 years' extended tenure as Cabinet Secretary on 13 June 2015, Ajit Kumar Seth (Retd IAS:1974:UP) on 14.08.2015 had replaced Atul Chaturvedi as PESB Chairman. Seth headed PESB for 365 days and moved on after he attained 65 yrs of age. He was succeeded by  Sanjay Kothari (IAS:1978:HY) on 30.11.2016 and lasted till July 2017. Within 210 days at the helm of PESB, Kothari was moved to the Raisina Hills as the Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind.

As if there was none to fit into the shoes of Seth and Kothari the next senior-most member of PESB, Anshuman Das (Ex CMD, NALCO) was asked to act as interim Chairman until Kapil Dev Tripathi (IAS:1981:AM) became Chairman on November 19, 2018. However, his term lasted only for 150 days as he was on 20 April 2020 moved to Raisina Hills as Kothari’s successor.

Thereafter, Rajeev Kumar (Retd IAS:1984:JH) headed the Board from 29.04.2020 to 28.08.2020 before he moved to Central Election Commission as a member.

Ideally, beginning June 2015 the second Chairman should have continued till 2021 but now it is waiting for its sixth Chairman in six years.

Public-sector executives and officers aspiring for Board-level positions have become a little pessimistic. Many of them say PESB that is mandated to ensure continuity and stability in the top management of CPSEs managing the country’s resources (net-worth) to the tune of 25 lakh crores, has become unstable.

Below is the number of Royal Signals Foreman of Signals and Foreman of Signal (IS) applicants for 2014.

Table 1: Royal Signals foreman of signals applicants Term 2014 Total number of applicants 117 Number called forward to selection board [Note 1] 40 Number of candidates selected for Foreman of Signals 14 Number of candidates selected for Foreman of Signals (IS) 12 Notes:

Candidat…