Six candidates, including Bharat Petroleum Corporation chairman Arun Kumar Singh and Engineers India head Vartika Shukla on Saturday appeared for an interview before a search-cum-selection committee that is looking for a new head for India’s top oil and gas producer ONGC, sources said.

The panel had called nine candidates, including ONGC’s outgoing chairperson Alka Mittal and Indian Oil Corporation’s head S.M. Vaidya for interviews, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Mittal and Vaidya chose not to appear for the interview, the sources said.

Prominent among those who appeared were Singh and Engineers India’s chairman and managing director Vartika Shukla.

Singh is due to retire from the top job at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd at the end of October and has already been selected to head regulatory body Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board.

Others who appeared for the interview included ONGC directors Pankaj Kumar and Rajesh Kumar Srivastava.

Two of the three external candidates called for the interview appeared before the panel, they said.

The choice of the selection committee was not immediately known and the appointment will take at least 2-3 months as the candidate selected will have to be cleared by anti-corruption bodies such as CBI and CVC before the name is put up to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet for final vetting and approval.

For now, ONGC will next week get a record third interim chairman. ONGC is without a regular chairman and managing director since April 2021.

Subhash Kumar, the senior-most director on the board and the director for finance, was named officiating head after Shashi Shanker superannuated on March 31, 2021.

And when Kumar retired on December 31, 2021, Alka Mittal, director for human resources, was given additional charge. Mittal is due to retire at month end and unless she is given an extension, the next senior most director — Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, director (exploration), is likely to be named as interim head, sources said.

Future Lifestyle loss narrows

Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd (FLFL) on Saturday said its consolidated net loss narrowed to Rs 135.96 crore in the April-June quarter of FY23.

The company had posted a net loss of Rs 348.08 crore in the year ago period, said FLFL, the fashion and apparel retailer arm of the Future group, in a BSE filing.

Revenue from operations was down 8.42 per cent at Rs 272.88 crore during the period under review against Rs 297.99 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, the company said.

FLFL’s total expenses stood at Rs 436.56 crore, down 33.45 per cent in Q1/FY23 against Rs 656.07 crore a year ago.