The hunt for a new top boss for the merged Air India-Indian Airlines — now known as National Aviation Company of India Limited — has finally ended with surprise candidate Raghu Menon trouncing 51 other applicants in the race. In a complete turnaround of the nearly three-month-long selection process, Ministry of Civil Aviation chose not accept the search committee’s recommendations due to ‘lack of consensus’ and named its special secretary and financial advisor Raghu Menon as chairman and MD for NACIL, though he had withdrawn his application in the early stages of the selection process. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the name of Menon. His selection means its curtains down for present CMD V Thulasidas, who retires on March 31, and MD Vishwapati Trivedi. More so for the latter who was being considered a strong contender for the job and had, in fact, made it to the last round of the selection process. There was also speculation that current incumbent — Tripura cadre IAS officer Thulasidas — may be given an extension for another few months. Now, both will complete their tenure in the MoCA at their present designations by March 31. Trivedi is likely to be accommodated in some PSU.Menon who was promoted as special secretary in January this year was being considered a bit ‘over-qualified’ for the job that required an additional secretary level official, as per eligibility conditions framed by the ministry. Accordingly, he withdrew from the race. The committee is said to have recommended the name of Arvind Mayaram, joint secretary in department of economic affairs, for the CMD’s job. Arvind Jadhav, GAIL’s chief vigilance officer, was also being considered for the post. But no consensus could be arrived at on the issue. Also, the committee’s recommendations are in no way binding. That is when Menon is said to have re-entered the picture at the last minute.Menon, born in 1954, is from Kerala and a 1974 batch IAS officer from the Nagaland cadre. He had first joined MoCA as a joint secretary in 2002 and rejoined it in 2006 as additional secretary after a stint in I&B Ministry. While it was being speculated that Menon would soon move to another ministry as secretary, he is said to have asked for an extension and that cleared the way for his candidature as NACIL CMD.
