A non-upstream executive, Ranjit Rath has been selected by govt. head-hunter PESB to head India's second largest state oil and gas producer, Oil India Ltd. Rath, 50, who is currently chairman and managing director of Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL), was selected after interviews of five applicants on March 9, a notification from the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) said. He was selected for the post of chairman and managing director ahead of two directors on the Oil India board and another executive director of the company. Oil India's current chairman and managing director Sushil Chandra Mishra will superannuate on June 30 this year.

A practitioner Geoscientist, Dr. Ranjit Rath, is an alumnus of IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar and IIFT, New Delhi. He has a portfolio of multifarious roles spanning from strategy formulation, business development, upstream oil & gas assets management and application of geosciences & exploration geology in several important projects including creation of Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPRs) a first of its kind initiative of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Govt. of India entailing underground unlined rock caverns for strategic storage of crude oil – An intervention towards energy security. He has co-authored an important book on “Underground Storage Technologies” and has published several technical papers and participated in conference in India and overseas.