Anil Kumar Chaudhary is the new Chairman and Managing Director of Steel Authority of India Limited
KOLKATA: The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved Anil Kumar Chaudhary's name as the new Chairman and Managing Director of Steel Authority of India Ltd. While an official announcement from SAIL is likely soon, a top government source said this clears the way for Chaudhary, currently the company's director finance, to take charge at the helm of the country's largest state owned steel company, shortly. Chaudhary's tenure as CMD of SAIL is likely to be for a little over 2 years, since he is due to retire on December 31, 2020, according to the official notification issued on September 21, a copy of which was seen by ET.
With Chaudhary's appointment pending, the ACC had assigned additional charge of the post of Chairman & Managing Director, SAIL to Saraswati Prasad, Special Secretary & Financial Adviser, Ministry of Steel, following the superannuation of previous chairman Prakash Kumar Singh on June 30, 2018.
The decision had 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 for the industry.
Chaudhary has been holding the charge of director finance at SAIL since September 2011. Prior to this, he was working as Executive Director, Finance & Administration (F&A) at SAIL's Bokaro Steel Plant.
Earlier, the country's top head hunter Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) had recommended Chaudhary for the top job at SAIL in March this year. Besides him, 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's appointment comes at a time when SAIL, which is nearing completion of its balance Modernization & Expansion Program, managed to trim its losses by around 83% in FY'18 and posted a standalone net loss of Rs 482 crore against a loss of Rs 2,833 crore in FY’17. The consolidated net loss stood at Rs 281 crore for FY’18 as against Rs 2,756 crore in FY’17. SAIL was recently in the news when it sought permission to skip paying dividend to the government of India for the third year in a row, citing losses suffered by the state-owned company in 2017-18.
With Chaudhary's appointment pending, the ACC had assigned additional charge of the post of Chairman & Managing Director, SAIL to Saraswati Prasad, Special Secretary & Financial Adviser, Ministry of Steel, following the superannuation of previous chairman Prakash Kumar Singh on June 30, 2018.
The decision had 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 for the industry.
Chaudhary has been holding the charge of director finance at SAIL since September 2011. Prior to this, he was working as Executive Director, Finance & Administration (F&A) at SAIL's Bokaro Steel Plant.
Earlier, the country's top head hunter Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) had recommended Chaudhary for the top job at SAIL in March this year. Besides him, 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's appointment comes at a time when SAIL, which is nearing completion of its balance Modernization & Expansion Program, managed to trim its losses by around 83% in FY'18 and posted a standalone net loss of Rs 482 crore against a loss of Rs 2,833 crore in FY’17. The consolidated net loss stood at Rs 281 crore for FY’18 as against Rs 2,756 crore in FY’17. SAIL was recently in the news when it sought permission to skip paying dividend to the government of India for the third year in a row, citing losses suffered by the state-owned company in 2017-18.