Meet Dr Alka Mittal, First Woman To Lead The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

Who Is Alka Mittal: The crude oil and natural gas company of India, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, recently appointed its first woman managing director and chairman- Dr Alka Mittal takes the reign of ONGC for six months or until a regular appointment for the position.

Her promotion from the director of the human resource in the same company to managing director came after the former director of finance Subhash Kumar, who was given the additional responsibility of chairman retired on December 31, 2021. Kumar had taken up the additional responsibility after the departure 0f Shashi Shanker, who retired on March 31, 2021.

The announcement from ONGC came in form of a tweet that read, "#ONGC Director (HR) Dr @AlkaMit26713758 has been entrusted with the additional charge of ONGC CMD, making her the first woman to head the #Energy major. @CMD_ONGC @PetroleumMin @HardeepSPuri @Rameswar_Teli."

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According to the company's website, ONGC contributes around 71 percent to Indian domestic production. Crude oil is the raw material used by major companies in India to produce petroleum products like Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene, Naphtha and Cooking Gas LPG.

Who is Dr Alka Mittal?

Dr Mittal joined the company as a graduate trainee in the year 1985 and stayed with the company for over three decades. She is a post-graduate in Economics, holds an MBA from Hutatma Rajguru Mahavidyalaya and has a doctorate in commerce and business studies.

Before becoming the first woman to hold a full-time Director position in ONGC as the director of HR, she held the post of Chief Skill Development (CSD). As CSD, she implemented the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme which engaged more than 5000 apprentices across all work centres.

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She was also on the board of ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited as ONGC nominee director since August 2015.

Dr Mittal led HR-ER functions in different cities like Vadodra, Mumbai, Delhi and Jorhat. In 2009, she acted as the head of Corporate Communications. As HR she was also part of various forums like the National Institute of Personnel Management. She was the President of the Forum for Women in the Public Sector of the Northern Region till recently. She also headed the Women Development Forum of ONGC.

According to the ONGC site, Dr Mittal followed the philosophy of "equal opportunity employer" and contributed to creating an inclusive workplace.

Image Credit: Moneycontrol