Letters are in the process of being despatched to the list of part-time directors who will be on the boards of these companies. The names apparently include top industrialists like Rahul Bajaj, SM Datta (former chairman of Hindustan Lever), management guru, MB Athreya, director of the Tata Energy Research Institute, RK Pachauri, former CMD of Cochin Refineries, J Jayaraman and others. No confirmation could, however, be got from any of them on the offer.

The part-time directors are an essential component of the navratnas and the ministry of industry had stressed that each PSU should have at least four on their boards. All these top names will be offered separate positions in each of the oil PSUs and unconfirmed reports have, in fact, indicated that Bajaj has been roped in for IOC and Datta for BPCL.

It remains to be seen if eitheraccepts the offer as Bajaj is already the CMD of Bajaj Auto and has his hands full for the present in other group companies also. Likewise, Datta is heading Castrol and may think twice about being a part-time director on the board of a PSU. If they decline the invitation, the centre will need to think of suitable alternatives who will fit the bill.

The process will take some time but the good news is that the oil companies will in due course of time be granted the navratna status. The wait has been long and painful as the announcement on their status was made nearly two years ago. To the oil PSUs, this has only spawned enormous anxiety as the first phase of deregulation has kicked off and it would be very difficult for them to work "with both hands tied behind their backs."

The official announcement of the navratnas was made by former finance minister, P Chidambaram in his budget speech of 1997. Towards the end of July, the centre decided to recast the boards of these hand-picked PSUs by inductingprofessionals and officials as non-official part-time directors.

A search committee was set up for this purpose and its recommendations forwarded already to the administrative ministries concerned (petroleum and natural gas, chemicals and fertilisers, steel, industry, power and telecommunications). This committee was headed by the then chairman of the public enterprises selection board along with the secretary of the particular administrative ministry and secretary, department of public enterprises.

There was also an "eminent" person(s) to be nominated by the then industry minister. The final selection based on the recommendations of the search committee was to be made by the administrative ministry concerned. Interestingly, the committee was also given the mandate to consider taking up other PSUs, apart from the navratnas, under its purview in its task of recommending these part-time directors.

The ministry of industry made it clear in its notification that induction of these directors would precedeany move to exercise autonomy/authority by these nine PSUs. Each of these corporations were to induct initially at least four of these directors who had an "impeccable stature and background."

The number was to be more for those companies which had a very large number of functional directors. The ministry said that within six months of their induction, the number of non-official part-time directors must be increased to reach at least one-third of the total strength of the board. Selection of full-time and part-time government nominee directors would continue as per the existing procedures, the notification added.

The ministry of industry reiterated that performance of the navratnas would be done with "utmost seriousness" following their board restructuring. It was of the opinion that such monitoring should be done primarily by the boards of these PSUs. The administrative ministry should also continue to monitor the performance of the companies preferably on a quarterly basis.

The navratna status wouldallow the PSUs to invest up to Rs 200 crore in any one project, 5 per cent of their net worth in any single project and 15 per cent in all joint ventures/subsidiaries put together. While normally the investment would be done directly by the parent PSU, in cases where it proposes to invest through a subsidiary into another joint venture and also provides additional capital for the purpose, the stipulation mentioned would apply.

The boards of the navratnas would also be allowed to: