 "Will HPCL's next CMD be a woman?")
Will the top job at state-run oil marketing company Hindustan Petroleum Corporation go to a woman?
According to The Economic Times, HPCL’s marketing director, Nishi Vasudeva, is a frontunner for the post of chairman and managing director (CMD) in 2014, when current CMD S Roy Choudhury retires.
Vasudeva, a graduate from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, became the first woman to be appointed a director in a state-run oil firm last year.
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Company officials told the newspaper that she is tipped to head the company since several other senior directors were retiring before 2014.Vasudeva, according to the newspaper, has a no-nonsense approach towards work, is a tough manager and not exactly easy going.
A report in Indian Express last year noted that only 16 percent of senior and middle management employees in public-sector undertakings are women. In state-run oil companies, women account for less than 10 percent of the workforce.
Only the banking sector seems more open to hiring women at the top. A _DNA_story , quoting other media reports,suggested that Central Bank of India executive director (ED) Vijayalakshmi R Iyer could be appointed as the next chairman and managing director (CMD) of the Bank of India. Vijaya Bank ED Shubhalakshmi Panse has been short-listed for the top job at Allahabad Bank, while Archana Bhargava, the ED ofCanara, Bank is expected to be the head of United Bank of India.
The story also noted that more than 40 percent of applicants for bank jobs this year are women, much higher than what it was two decades ago.