Alka Mittal becomes first woman to lead energy giant ONGC as Chairman and MD

Dr Alka Mittal has been appointed as Chairman and Managing Director of the state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). Alka Mittal, the current Director for Human Resources (HR) of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has been given additional charge as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the public sector undertaking. The news was announced on the ONGC's official Twitter account on January 3.

Maharatna ONGC is India's largest crude oil and natural gas company, accounting for over 71% of domestic output. Crude oil is the raw ingredient used by downstream firms such as IOC, BPCL, HPCL, and MRPL (the latter two of which are ONGC subsidiaries) to make petroleum products such as fuel, diesel, kerosene, naphtha, and cooking gas LPG.

Mittal becomes first woman to lead the energy giant

This late-night development comes just two days after Subhash Kumar, the Director (Finance) who also served as CMD, retired on December 31, 2021. According to the news agency ANI, she is the first woman to lead the energy giant. Mittal was assigned the additional duty, after incumbent Subhash Kumar retired last month.

Kumar's retirement on Friday evening had left ONGC without a leader for the weekend, as neither the Appointments Committee of Cabinet nor the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had named a successor. After Shashi Shankar, the company's last full-time CMD, departed on March 31, 2021, he took on the role of CMD as an extra obligation beginning April 1, 2021.

ONGC is governed by a Board of Directors, which develops plans, policies, and evaluates the company's performance on a regular basis. Further, Alka Mittal holds a master's degree in economics, an MBA in human resource management, and a doctorate in commerce and business studies. She began her career with ONGC as a Graduate Trainee in 1985. She was the company's Chief Skill Development (CSD) before to entering as Director (HR).

Image: Twitter/ONGC_