Saraswati Prasad gets additional charge as SAIL chairman and managing director

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has given Saraswati Prasad, who is special secretary and financial adviser in the steel ministry, the additional charge of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) chairman and managing Director. The decision was taken on June 30, according to an official notification issued by the Secretariat of the ACC, seen by ET.

This follows the superannuation of Prakash Kumar Singh as chairman of SAIL on June 30.

The decision has surprised industry circles who questioned the move to give a senior bureaucrat additional charge of the country's largest steel company at a particularly challenging time.


The country's top head hunter Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) had recommended SAIL's director finance, Anil Kumar Chaudhary for the post earlier in March this year. Besides Chaudhary, other candidates who were interviewed by the PESB were MOIL Director Tanmaya Kumar Pattnaik, SAIL Executive Director Alok Sahay, SAIL Director (Commercial) Soma Mondal and Central Electronics Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Nalin Shinghal.

Chaudhary has been holding the charge of director finance since September 2011. Prior to this, he was working as Executive Director Finance & Administration (F&A) at SAIL's Bokaro Steel Plant.