Capt B B Sinha gets additional charge as SCI CMD

Capt. B B Sinha has assumed the additional charge as Chairman & Managing Director, Shipping Corporation of India w.e.f. 01.01.2016. He has been holding the post of Director of Personnel and Administration since 2013 . Capt. Sinha has served over 36 years at responsible executive level in Shipping Industry consisting of 16 years of sea service and 20 years of shore service at SCI in shipping management, bulk carriers, tankers, chemicals, LPG & LNG operations.

Capt. Sinha is a Master Mariner (Foreign Going) and holds a diploma in Shipping Management.  He has also served as Member of THC Committee (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) Ceylon Conference, as member of BIS – Technical Committee on Cordage (Ministry of Textiles) and as member of 11th Plan Sub-Committee on Multimodal Transport and has represented SCI & Indian national Shipowners on TAMP (Tariff Authority for major ports).

B.B. Sinha, a master mariner by qualification who spent 16 years at sea, some of which as a captain, was selected by the government’s headhunter, Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), on 29 June from a short-list of seven candidates, to run the company from 1 January 2016. Sinha spent another 17 years on-shore at various departments of SCI including ship management, bulk carriers, tankers, chemicals, LPG and LNG operations. Besides, he does not have any vigilance cases against him and his application was forwarded to PESB with the approval of the ministry. The PESB selection panel that interviewed the shortlisted candidates included Shipping secretary Shri Rajive Kumar apart from other panelists.

The PESB recommendation will have to be signed off by the appointments committee of the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“After going through all procedural formalities, why has the ministry changed its mind now to look for somebody from outside to run the company,” said Shri T.V. Shanbhag, a Mumbai-based independent shipping consultant. “This situation could have been avoided if the ministry had clarity on succession planning at Shipping Corp. much earlier.”

Shri Shanbhag was the government’s chief controller of chartering between 1995 and 2005, said that just hiring a chief executive from the private sector without removing some of the operational hurdles may not bring the desired results. For instance, SCI does not have the flexibility to buy used or second-hand vessels and sell ships for further trading, which is a normal part of the shipping business globally. There are times when selling a ship makes much more commercial sense rather than operate it at rates that don’t even allow recovery of operating costs. This is one of the ways fleet owners shore up their financials in a depressed freight market.

Despite being a Navratna , a tag that allows state-owned firms greater freedom from government control, SCI had to scrap the plan because the two ministry nominees on the company’s board were not supportive of the proposal. SCI had never sold a ship for further trading since starting operations 54 years ago.

“Successive CMDs have been reluctant to take a call on selling trading ships (which can be run for many more years) due to fear of agencies like the Central Vigilance Commission, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and the Central Bureau of Investigation. If CMDs are given immunity from such oversight bodies, the company will be able to improve its efficiency and profitability,” says a Mumbai-based executive tracking shipping at one of the big four global audit and consulting firms. He declined to be named because his firm advises the government on policy issues.

Similarly, buying second-hand ships require time-consuming government approvals. “Whereas, asset play requires taking quick decisions. Without removing such restrictions, even a private sector person will not be able to do a better job,” the executive said.

SCI ended 2013-14 with a loss, its third in a row, as a prolonged downturn in the shipping industry—triggered by the 2008 global meltdown—continued to roil fleet owners. To be sure, most of India’s private shipowners, with the exception of the Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd, have been incurring losses since the 2008 crisis, indicating the key role freight market plays in the fortunes of a shipping company. “There is no other industry segment where the global freight market plays such a pivotal role in the performance of a company as in shipping. Shipping is a terrific industry on the way up, but a terrible industry on the way down,” Shanbhag added. SCI, though, turned around in 2014-15, through some deft cost-cutting measures including cancelling orders for new ships.

About SCI: The Shipping Corporation of India was established on October 2nd, 1961, by the amalgamation of Eastern Shipping Corporation and Western Shipping Corporation. Starting out as a marginal Liner shipping Company with just 19 vessels, the SCI has today evolved into the largest Indian shipping Company. The SCI also has substantial interests in various segments of the shipping trade. SCI’s owned fleet includes Bulk carriers, Crude oil tankers, Product tankers, Container vessels, Passenger-cum-Cargo vessels, Phosphoric Acid / Chemical carriers, LPG / Ammonia carriers and Offshore Supply Vessels. Sailing through for nearly five decades, the SCI  has a significant presence on the global maritime map. As the country’s premier shipping line, the SCI owns and operates around one-third of the Indian tonnage, and has operating interests in practically all areas of the shipping business, servicing both national and international trades.

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IndianBureaucracy.com wishes Shri Sinha the very best and commends his initiatives to take out SCI out of the red as acknowledged by the PM.