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Hasmukh Adhia Appointed As Non-Executive Chairman Of Bank Of Baroda

The bank has been left without a chairman after Ravi Venkatesan retired from his post.

Former Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia (Photo: BloombergQuint)
Former Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia (Photo: BloombergQuint)

The government has appointed former Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia as part-time non-executive chairman and non-official director of the Bank of Baroda, it said in a notification on Friday.

A statement released by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet said that it had approved the proposal by the Department of Financial Services and that Adhia's appointment will be for a period of three years.

Adhia has been credited for the key role he played during the implementation of Goods and Services Tax. He has also served as secretary of the Department of Revenue and was earlier the principal secretary to the Gujarat Chief Minister.

He has a doctoral degree in Yoga, and is an MBA gold medalist from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Adhia joins Bank of Baroda at a time when the bank is close to completing a merger with two other public sector lenders—Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank. The merger is expected to make Bank of Baroda the third largest bank in the country, with a loan book of over Rs 6.4 lakh crore and a deposit base of over Rs 8.4 lakh crore.

The bank has been left without a chairman since August 2018, when Ravi Venkatesan retired from his post. Venkatesan had joined Bank of Baroda with PS Jayakumar acting as managing director and chief executive officer. Both were appointed in 2015, when the government was experimenting with private sector talent at public sector banks.

Jayakumar continues to lead the bank after the government gave him a one-year extension in October, to finish the three-way merger.