Four independent directors appointed to ONGC board

KOLKATA: The government has appointed four new independent directors on the board of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the country’s largest oil exploration and production company.

These new directors are RK Pachauri, director general, Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI); VP Singh, former chairman and managing director, IFCI; PK Choudhury, managing director, ICRA; and Bak ul Dholakia, director, IIM Ahmedabad.

With this development, the number of independent directors on the board of the oil major increases from three to seven. The number of independent directors can go up to 50% of the total board strength.

At present, the ONGC board has a total strength of 13. As per the stipulations, the maximum number of directors on the company’s board can go up to 21. The ministry of petroleum and natural gas communicated the appointment of these
‘non-official part-time’ directors in its letter dated June 8, ’06, addressed to ONGC chairman and managing director.

The new directors have been appointed for ‘a period of three years, or until further orders, whichever is earlier,’ a three-paragraph letter from the ministry added.

The newly-inducted directors are slated to participate in the next board meeting to be held on June 22, ’06, in order to consider the audited annual accounts of ONGC for ’05-06 apart from other items on the agenda, the company said in a statement issued on Monday.

Incidentally, the issue of the appointment of government directors in place of independent directors, has in the past, been a reasonably contentious one for the company.