The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) led by its newly-appointed and first-ever chairperson from the private sector, Mallika Srinivasan, has picked Vartika Shukla to be the next chairperson and managing director of navratna public sector enterprise Engineers India Ltd (EIL).
The government’s head-hunter picked Shukla, currently director (technical) at the company during interviews held on Friday from a short-list of eight candidates, including six from Engineers India.
This is the first selection by PESB headed by Mallika Srinivasan and the first by the head-hunter in eight months. The last selection by the PESB was that of the director (liner and passenger services) at Shipping Corporation of India Ltd on August27 last year.
Engineers India is a top global engineering consultancy and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company, focused on the oil and gas and petrochemical industries.
The company has also diversified into sectors such as infrastructure, water and waste management, solar and nuclear power and fertilizers to leverage its strong technical competencies and track record.
Shukla has over 32 years of extensive consulting experience comprising design, engineering and implementation of complexes in refining, gas processing, petrochemicals, fertilisers etc, according to the company website.
She has led the successful completion of many prestigious projects for clients in oil and gas and petrochemical industry, both in India and overseas.
Vartika is overseeing several new initiatives in the areas of biofuels, digitalisation, energy efficiency, Make in India and start-up initiative at EIL. She is also credited with forging several collaborative partnerships for expanding the technology portfolio of EIL.
Vartika’s selection will have to be signed off by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet led by Prime minister Narendra Modi.
She will join a list of other women who are heading PSUs such as H K Joshi at Shipping Corporation of India and Soma Mondal at Steel Authority of India Ltd.
