AK Jha appointed as interim CMD of NTPC Limited

Government appoints A K Jha as an interim chairman and managing director. He was the technical director of the state run power generator and was appointed as the incumbent CMD Arup Roy Choudhury stepped down as his 5-year term came to an end.

• It had been a practice to extend the term of the retiring CMDs of PSUs by two years but the government has discontinued that and is going to set up a selection committee to scout a new head.
• As per the recommendations of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), a Search-cum-Selection Committee (SCSC) model is to be adopted for selecting heads rather than the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) model as the process under it typically takes a year or so.
• He is the second head of a PSU after SAIL CMD C. S. Verma did not get an extension.
• Jha had begun his career with NTPC as an Executive Trainee in 1977 and was involved in its flagship Singrauli project.
• NTPC has an installed capacity of 45,048MW and holds around 17% share of India’s power generation capacity of 274,817.94MW.

Big task ahead for NTPC

• NTPC has set a target of producing 128,000MW by 2032.
• It is also slated to play an important role for India’s green energy push with its plan to raise its renewable energy contribution to 28% of its planned capacity by then.
• NTPC plans to supply electricity from 10,000 MW of solar power capacity that it is setting up on its own.
• Also, the tripartite agreement (TPA) between RBI, Union and State Governments, to provide comfort to power producers against payment defaults by state electricity boards (SEBs) will come to an end in October, 2016, with no replacement as of now.