To rope in talent available outside for running public sector companies, the government is considering making the selection of functional directors and chairmen more open.
"Discussions are being held on making the process of selection of chairman and managing directors of central PSUs more open so that persons from outside the government could also be considered for the job," sources said.
At present directors, chairman and managing directors of public sector companies are selected from that company itself or from other companies in the same area of operations.
The posts are advertised only in exceptional circumstances when suitable talent is hard to come by within that company or other public sector companies.
"Now the government is thinking of advertising all the posts of CMDs and functional directors," sources added.
The demand from public sector companies, owned by the state governments, that their managers should also be considered for top jobs in the central government PSUs has also worked as a catalyst for the government to think on these lines, they said.
By opening up the jobs of top managers of PSUs for persons from outside, the government will also solve the problem of lack of enough people to man the top posts at PSUs.
Barring a handful of Navratna companies, manay posts of chairmen and managing directors and functional directors are lying vacant in other PSUs. The problem is more acute in companies that are not performing well.
© 2025