Ministry shortlists 16 candidates for NACIL’s top job

From the 51 applications for the top job at National Aviation Company of India Ltd.

From the 51 applications for the top job at National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL), the entity formed by the merger of Air India and Indian, the race is now down to 16. Big contenders like Raghu Menon, Additional Secretary in the Civil Aviation Ministry, Ranjan Mukherjee, a former joint secretary in the ministries of civil aviation and defence, and K Jairaj, who is credited for the Bangalore turnaround, are out of the race.

The Civil Aviation Ministry began the hunt for a new CMD for NACIL in December 2007 to replace V Thulasidas who retires on March 31 this year. The Ministry is likely to decide on the man very shortly with the screening already under process.

Raghu Menon, a strong contender, has withdrawn his application for the job, while Ranjan Mukherjee does not meet the age criterion and so is no longer in the reckoning. K Jairaj is also unable to meet the eligibility criterion.

Now the ministry is left with a handful of IAS officials in the fray, besides its own men. Arvind Mayaram, joint secretary, department of economic affairs, Ranjan Chatterjee, Chief Secretary, Meghalaya, and S N Mohanty, principal secretary, Andhra Pradesh Government, who shot to prominence as municipal commissioner, Hyderabad, under the Chandrababu Naidu Government, are now among the applicants being considered for the top job.

Vishwapati Trivedi, joint MD and currently second-in-command at NACIL, and functional directors Anup Srivastava (Personnel), S Chandrashekhar (Finance) and Amod Sharma, Strategic Business Unit (SBU), are a few other contenders left in the race.

While the eligibility criteria for the post requires officials of the level of additional secretary in the Government of India or its equivalent, including Lieutenant General in the Army and equivalent posts in the Navy and the Air Force, could be considered on deputation for the NACIL CMD’s post, provided there was cadre clearance.

The post is also open to applicants with technical/MBA qualifications and familiarity with commercial and financial operations in the air transport sector.

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The last criterion seems to have drawn a large number of non-serious applicants like bank managers, HR managers and even lower division clerks, maintenance engineers, ground liaison officers from the Army, professors from universities, advocates, retied officials and even those running their own establishments and with nothing even remotely related to air transport.