P K Purwar appointed as Chairman and Managing Director of MTNL

P K Purwar was on 1 March 2017 appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of state-run telecom major Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL).

His appointment was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) for the duration of five years.

Purwar is currently working as Director (Finance) in MTNL. Purwar held the additional charge of the post of MTNL CMD between June 2014 and June 2015. In June 2016, he was again given this additional charge.

Background
MTNL had been without a full-time Chairman and Managing Director since the superannuation of A K Garg in May 2014.

Narendra Kumar Yadav, Member (Services) in the Department of Telecom (DoT), was given the additional charge of CMD of MTNL on 8 June 2015, however, as per the rules, he relinquished the post after serving for a year.

For the purpose of appointing the CMD of MTNL, a search-cum-selection committee was constituted under the Chairman of Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB). Purwar’s name was recommended for this MTNL’s top post by PESB in November 2013, but the government did not go ahead with the recommendation at that time.