India's Energy Push
New Delhi   26-Apr-2018

His brief is clearly spelt out. Dinesh Kumar Sarraf, appointed Chairman of the beleaguered Petroleum Natural Gas Regulatory Board, or PNGRB, in December, has to debottleneck and ensure a ramp-up of the infrastructure required for gas transportation in the country. Sarraf is central to Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's plans to reduce India's consumption of oil and scale-up the gas component in the energy basket - from the existing 6.2 per cent to 15 per cent over the next decade.

The attempt to empower PNGRB signals that Pradhan means business.

Along with Sarraf, the government appointed former director at Oil India Ltd. (OIL), S. Rath, and legal expert S.S. Chahar as its other members. Earlier, Sarraf's former colleague at ONGC, S.K. Garg, was alone on the board that was defunct for all practical purposes. Sarraf, who retired as CMD of ONGC recently, is the first non-bureaucrat to head PNGRB and, being an insider, this is an extension of his previous job.

Click here to read more