The government on Wednesday cleared the appointment of M Damodaran as the interim chief of Industrial Development Bank of India with a tenure till May this year.
It also appointed AK Khandelwal, executive director, Bank of Baroda as the new chairman and managing director of Dena Bank.
Khandelwal is slated to hold the post till March 31 2008. In the coming days the government is expected to clear a host of appointments in the banking sector before the Lok Sabha is dissolved and the model code of conduct is in place which would ban appointments by caretaker governments.
Officials said that Punjab National Bank executive director TS Narayanasami is expected to move over as the chairman and managing director of Andhra Bank.
However, Prakash Singh, ED, Punjab & Sind Bank, may have to wait to be promoted as chairman and managing director.
Singh was to replace Madhukar as the United Bank of India chairman following his superannuation later this month. But with the model code of conduct in place and Singh officiating as chairman of P&SB his promotion may get deferred. Appointment of executive directors in various banks is also expected to suffer due to the general elections.
However, Damodaran, who is also the head of UTI AMC, has not been appointed as the full-time chief of the financial institution.
Government officials said that the clearance by the appointments committee of cabinet superseded the government order which had not specified any tenure.
The finance ministry has, however, not decided on appointing Damodaran as the full-time IDBI chief since he would continue to head UTI AMC till early next year.
Officials said that the government may come out with advertisements inviting applications for IDBI chairman and managing director's posts. IDBI has been without a full-time chairman since PP Vora retired on September 30 last year.
The ministry had earlier decided to constitute a four-member committee headed by Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Rakesh Mohan to scout for Vora's successor.
While the committee held informal interactions with candidates shortlisted by it, the department of personnel and the cabinet secretariat are learnt to have questioned the process.
