ONGC names Arunangshu Sarkar as its first director for strategy

The board of Oil and Natural Gas Corp. of India Ltd (ONGC) has appointed Arunangshu Sarkar as its first director for strategy and corporate affairs, the state-run energy firm informed the exchanges on Sunday.

Sarkar, who has been appointed with effect from 15 September, Sunday, will stay on in the post till his retirement or until further orders, the company said

The appointments committee of the cabinet approved the oil ministry’s proposal to appoint Sarkar, who was group general manager of production, to the company board, the oil ministry told the company in a statement on Saturday.

The new director for strategy and corporate affairs will be in charge of joint ventures, downstream petrochemicals, new energy, corporate strategy, corporate marketing and legal, an office order dated July 2023 said.

“Present corporate strategy and planning group will be split into two verticals: corporate planning and corporate startegy. Corporate planning would continue to report to the chairman, whereas as corporate strategy group would report to the director (strategy and corporate affairs,” it said.

The corporate affairs group under corporate strategy and planning has been renamed as the ministry and parliament coordination group and will report to chief corporate planning, it added.

Sarkar is not debarred from holding the office by virtue of any order by market regulator Sebi or any other authority, the ONGC statement said.

Sarkar holds a B. Tech. degree in petroleum engineering from IIT (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, and an MBA in marketing from IGNOU, Delhi.

He has completed senior management programs at MDI in Gurgaon, Energy Delta Institute (Netherlands), University of Antwerp (Belgium), IFP Training School (Paris) and Frankfurt School of Finance and Management (Germany).

He also completed various IHRDC (International Human Resource Development Corporation) Training on Strategic Planning & Management at Boston USA.

Sarkar has more than 37 years of experience in domestic and international business functions, and has widely travelled and contributed in exploration and production projects in the US, Russia, Venezuela, Canada, Germany, Sudan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Dubai, among others, the company said.