Govt to appoint chiefs of Exim Bank, IFCI, Sidbi, IIFCL by mid-July

New Delhi: The government is likely to appoint heads of four public sector financial institutions—Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank), IFCI, Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) and India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL)—by the middle of July.

The finance ministry has already concluded interviews of 32 candidates for the post of managing directors (MDs) at these institutions, and the shortlisted names will soon be sent to the appointments committee of cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Officials said the ACC approval should come by mid-July and it is the intention of the government to fill vacancies in these institutions as soon as possible.

The six-member panel comprising of financial services secretary, department of personnel and training secretary and other experts had interviewed candidates last week as Banks Board Bureau (BBB) declined to carry out the process of selection for these vacancies citing technicalities, officials said.

BBB, set up by the prime minister in April 2016, was entrusted with the task of finding candidates for the executive heads of state-owned banks and financial institutions.

Other members of the panel include a Reserve Bank of India deputy governor, former chairperson of Allahabad Bank Shubhalakshmi Panse, IndAsia chairman Pradip Shah and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore director R.T. Krishnan to select heads of IIFCL, Exim Bank, Sidbi and IFCI.

Some of these organisations have been running without full-time MDs for the past six months. The post of MD at the country’s oldest financial institution IFCI has been vacant since December 12, while vacancy for the head of IIFCL will come up in June.

At the same time, Sidbi has no regular MD since December, while additional charge of MD of Exim Bank was given to its deputy managing director David Rasquinha for a period of six months effective 21 February.

At the same time, government has given additional charge of chairman, IIFCL, to deputy managing director Sanjeev Kaushik, a 1992 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer. He has assumed charge from 12 June.

Applications from eligible candidates were invited on 20 March for IFCI and IIFCL, while the last date for applying for the post in the case of Exim Bank and Sidbi was 15 March and 17 March.