The government has appointed D P Singh, an IAS officer, as the new CMD of Punjab & Sind Bank (P&SB), ending the 16-month search for a Sikh candidate to head the public sector lender. Singh's appointment is part of a rush to fill up posts in state-controlled financial services companies - ranging from Life Insurance Corporation of India to State Bank of India and IDBI Bank - following a directive from the appointments committee of cabinet (ACC). Although a final decision on appointing D K Mehrotra as the next LIC chairman is awaited, sources said he was the frontrunner following an interview conducted last week.

With top jobs taken care of, the finance ministry is now moving to fill the slots in the second rung. Over the next fortnight, it intends to conduct interviews to appoint a managing director in SBI and a deputy managing director each in IDBI Bank and SIDBI.Sources indicate that the rush to fill up top slots follows an October 24 letter from the ACC asking all ministries to speed up the exercise as they were not sending the proposals requiring ACC approval two months in advance.

Source: The Times of India