Ratan Tata on HAL board

Even as the government is trying to park politicians on the boards of 'Navratna' companies, an official committee has cleared names of people like Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata for appointment as independent directors on the board of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, adhering to the existing guidelines.

The appointment of Tata and two others (on HAL board) was cleared at the same meeting, in which the search committee rejected the department of heavy industry's recommendation for appointing three people to as many posts of independent directors on Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd's board, informed sources said.

Apart from Tata, the search committee of department of public enterprises has recommended the names of former home secretary N N Vohra and extension of the tenure of former chairman of Industrial Development Bank of India G P Gupta.

In the case of HAL, all the guidelines of selection of independent directors on the board of state-owned companies were followed.

As per the present guidelines, only senior bureaucrats - having served not less than 10 years as joint secretary – or university professors, technocrats, institute heads and corporate leaders, could be appointed as independent directors of PSU boards.