NEW DELHI : Former health secretary Bhanu Pratap Sharma has been appointed the new Chairman of Banks Board Bureau after former CAG Vinod Rai’s tenure ended last month. Bhanu Pratap Sharma a 1981-batch retired IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, who was last appointed the chairman of Recruitment and Assessment Centre (RAC) in the DRDO in December. Besides Bhanu Pratap Sharma as BBB’s chairman, Vedika Bhandarkar, P Pradeep Kumar, and Pradip P Shah have been appointed as members.
BBB is an autonomous recommendatory body to the government on tasked to improve the governance of public sectors banks (PSBs) in the country. The BBB was set up by the Narendra Modi government in February 2016, which began functioning on April 2016. The Union Finance Ministry has reconstituted the Banks Board Bureau and has appointed Bhanu Pratap Sharma as the new chairman. Mr. Sharma was former chairman of recruitment and assessment centre of DRDO and former principal secretary (finance) in the Bihar government.

Some of the other members are Vedika Bhandarkar, former vice-chairman and managing director (investment banking and global markets) of Credit Suisse, India; P. Pradeep Kumar, former managing director of State Bank of India; and Pradeep Shah, former managing director, Crisil.
“Govt renews commitment not to interfere in Sr (senior) level appointments in PSBs,” Rajeev Kumar, secretary, financial services, tweeted while announcing the new members of BBB. “Appoints new BBB with professionals with diverse expertise to select top management in PSBs. BBB recommendations made so far including HR reforms agenda to be taken forward,” he added.
BBB, which has the responsibility to selecting board members, including MD &CEO of public sector banks, started functioning in April 2016 with former Comptroller and Auditor-General Vinod Rai as chairman. The chairman and its committee members had a two-year term which ended in March 2018. (With Agency Inputs).