The government has appointed seasoned bureaucrat and gas sector expert Anil Kumar Jain as the new chairman of the oil and gas sector regulatory body, PNGRB, an official order said.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the appointment of Jain, who retired as coal secretary in October last year, as the new chairman of the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).
The ACC has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, based on the recommendations of the Search Committee, for the appointment of Anil Kumar Jain.
Jain has been appointed as the Chairperson PNGRB "for a period of five years from the date of assumption of charge of the post or till attaining the age of 65 years, or until further orders, whichever is the earliest, on a consolidated pay package of Rs 4,50,000 per month (without house and car) or as revised by the Ministry of Finance from time to time," the ACC order of May 15 said.
A Bihar-born, 1986-batch Indian Administrative Service officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre will fill a position that has been vacant since Dinesh Kumar Sarraf retired on Dec. 4, 2020.
Jain was selected after three failed attempts. On June 2, 2021, former power secretary Sanjeev Sahai headed a list of three shortlisted candidates, but the list was turned down as the oil ministry had not firmly recommended a single candidate.
In November 2021, the government re-advertised the post and held interviews on Feb. 2, 2022.
Tarun Kapur, who retired as oil secretary on Nov. 30, 2021, was recommended for the job, but his name too was blocked. In May last year, Kapoor was appointed advisor to the Prime Minister to handle energy and infrastructure issues for two years.
In August 2022, the search committee selected the then-BPCL chairman Arun Kumar Singh to head the PNGRB, but his name wasn't processed, and he was appointed chairman of ONGC on Dec. 7, 2022.
Sources said Jain was selected by the oil ministry's search committee. The panel invited three candidates for interview on March 31 this year: Jain, GAIL director of business development M V Iyer, and former secretary in the electronics and information technology ministry A P Sawhney.
