After shortlisting 12 candidates for the put up of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of state-run telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Restricted (BSNL) earlier this month, the Public Enterprises Choice Board (PESB) has not beneficial any a type of folks following a variety assembly Thursday. The PESB has requested the Division of Telecommunications (DoT) to determine a future plan of action for the choice.
Present BSNL CMD, Robert Jerard Ravi, is anticipated to proceed in his place. Ravi, deputy director common within the telecom division, was initially given the extra cost as CMD of BSNL and Mahanagar Phone Nigam Restricted (MTNL) in July 2024, following the rejection of his predecessor PK Purwar’s extension. In January 2025, Ravi’s tenure on the place was prolonged for 3 extra months, till April 14.
The PESB had began promoting for the put up beginning December final yr. The event comes as BSNL appears at introducing 4G companies within the nation. BSNL, fighting poor infrastructure, has been battered by intense competitors from Jio, the wi-fi arm of Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Thought which have rolled out 4G and 5G companies at low costs.
On March 20, the PESB shortlisted 12 candidates for the put up: Sandeep Govil, Director (Shopper Mobility), BSNL; Rajiv Kumar, Director (Finance) and CFO, BSNL; Sunil Kumar, Principal Common Supervisor (CFA-F & IA), BSNL; Nitin Ravindra Mahajan, Principal Common Supervisor, Ahmedabad, BSNL; Devendra Kumar Agrawal, Principal Common Supervisor, BSNL; Rajesh Kumar, Principal Common Supervisor-Community-Pune Enterprise Space, BSNL; Vivek Jaiswal, Chief Common Supervisor, BSNL; Heera Singh Bisht, Principal Chief Engineer (Civil), Dehradun, BSNL; Sanjeev Singhal, Principal Common Supervisor Transmission, BSNL; Daya Nand Katyayan, Senior Common Supervisor (EB-I & BP Ent), BSNL; Anil Kumar Gupta, Principal Common Supervisor (CFA/Gross sales & Advertising), Odisha, BSNL; Murali Krishna, Further Director Common, DoT.
On Thursday (March 27), following a variety assembly, the PESB didn’t advocate any candidate for the put up of BSNL’s CMD and suggested the DoT to decide on an acceptable course of additional motion for the appointment. Of the 12 candidates shortlisted, solely 10 have been interviewed by the PESB, as two of them didn’t seem for the choice assembly.
BSNL and DoT didn’t reply to an instantaneous request for remark.
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The CMD’s total duty is to handle the corporate efficiently, which incorporates technique formulation, planning, improvement and operations of its community, in addition to administration of its personnel, finance, business and advertising actions. The job additionally contains profitable execution of presidency tasks in addition to reaching the goals of the revival bundle given by the Centre.
Since 2019, the federal government has introduced three revival packages value Rs 3.2 lakh crore for BSNL and MTNL. Not too long ago, the Cupboard permitted an extra Rs 6,000 crore for BSNL’s 4G rollout. Within the October-December interval final yr, BSNL reported a quarterly internet revenue of Rs 262 crore, for the primary time in 17 years. Nonetheless, that was primarily as a consequence of a pointy discount in depreciation and amortisation bills, together with a rise in different revenue, and doesn’t essentially mirror a elementary enchancment within the monetary well being of the corporate.
As per the PESB’s commercial for the put up, an applicant ought to possess cumulative expertise of no less than 5 years over the past ten years in finance/enterprise improvement/manufacturing/operations/advertising/ challenge administration in a big organisation of reputation.
The applicant should be employed in an everyday capability, and never in a contractual/ad-hoc capability, in one of many following: (i) Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) (together with a full-time purposeful Director within the Board of a CPSE); (ii) Central Authorities Group ‘A’ Officers together with the Armed Forces of the Union and All India Companies and officers from Public Sector Banks/ Monetary Establishments/ Autonomous Our bodies, and so forth; (iii) State Public Sector Enterprise (SPSE) the place the annual turnover is Rs 2,000 crore or extra; (iv) in a personal sector firm the place the annual turnover is Rs 2,000 crore or extra.
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Group ‘A’ officers of the Central authorities together with All India Companies (AIS) and autonomous our bodies ought to maintain a put up of the extent of Further Secretary or carry an equal scale of pay.