Power ministry to set up selection panel to look for NTPC chief

The power ministry has decided to set up a search-cum-selection committee to look for the head of state-owned electricity generator NTPC, as Government headhunter PESB failed to identify a suitable candidate.

The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB), under the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which is responsible for hiring candidates for top management posts of central public sector enterprises (CPSES), interviewed a dozen of candidates for the post of CMD of NTPC.

The incumbent, Gurdeep Singh, was to superannuate on July 31, 2025, but his service as NTPC’s CMD was extended till August 1, 2026, in the absence of a successor. The power ministry, in a notice issued on February 28, said the appointment to the post of Chairman and Managing Director, NTPC Limited, will be done through a “Search-cum-selection Committee”.

Candidates can apply for the post on or before March 28, 2026, it said.

The search-cum-selection committee route is taken when PESB fails to find a suitable candidate.

Since 2021, PESB has failed to find a suitable candidate for at least four other public sector enterprises — Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL). Singh, too, was chosen to head NTPC by a search-cum-selection committee in 2016.