The Indian Oil Officers’ Association has written a letter to Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, urging the minister to review and disapprove the proposal to abolish the post of Director (R&D) at Indian Oil Corporation. According to the letter accessed by PSU Watch, the officers’ association has questioned the rationale behind the decision to do away with the top-notch post by arguing that it acts as an important interface between the industry and the academia and a Director-level post ensures representation from the R&D department on IOC’s Board of Directors.
The association has said that the Indian Oil R&D Centre has been engaged in indigenising technologies and products that give cutting edge advantage to India as a country and reduce the country’s dependence on foreign technologies for the last 50 years. “This progressive and delivery was only possible through the commitment and untiring sprit of the past and the present workforce belonging to the scientific community operational at R&D Centre,” said the letter. “The post over the past two decades not only acted as an interface between industry and academia but also represented country on various international forums highlighting the technical prowess of India,” it added.