Subir Raha

Subir Raha
সুবীর রাহা

Subir Raha
Born August 28, 1948(1948-08-28)
West Bengal, India
Died February 1, 2010(2010-02-01) (aged 61)
New Delhi, India
Nationality Indian
Fields Oil Sector
Institutions Indian Oil Corporation and ONGC
Alma mater Jadavpur University
University of Leeds
Administrative Staff College, Henley
Notable awards Energy Executive 2005 Petroleum Economist, London

Subir Raha (Bengali: সুবীর রাহা) (28 August 1948 – 1 February 2010) a former Director (HR) of Indian Oil Corporation and ex chairman and MD of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation received global recognition as Energy Executive of the year 2005, from the Petroleum Economist, London,in September 2006.

Born on August 28, 1948, Raha graduated in Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering, specialising in Industrial Electronics from Jadavpur University in 1969, with several prizes including the medal for being the Best All-rounder graduate of the University.

Later he did his MBA with Distinction at the University of Leeds in 1985, specialising in Strategic Marketing. He was also an alumnus of the Administrative Staff College, Henley (1995).

Contents

Career

ONGC

Mr. Raha served as Chairman & Managing Director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation a Government of India Enterprise, for five years from May 25, 2001.

Under his stewardship ONGC was dramatically transformed , from a sectoral E&P company to an Integrated Energy Major on global scale.

This was achieved through a sustained focus on growth strategies – corporate rejuvenation of structure and processes, aggressive investments in intellectual and physical assets, redevelopment of ageing fields, smart management of costs, taxes and funds, proactive acquisition of hydrocarbon reserves in India and overseas, innovative HRD, state-of-the-art information & control technologies, effective HSE and carbon management, forward integration for value addition, best-in-class corporate pride and image, employee motivation and unwavering stress on ethics and corporate governance.

Recognising the pursuit of excellence by this State-owned Enterprise, ONGC became the only Indian Company, ever, to be featured in the FORTUNE’s listing of the World’s Most Admired Companies; this was based on a global poll (2007) of 16,000 directors, senior executives and analysts on nine criteria: quality of management, quality of products & services, innovativeness, wise use of corporate assets, financial soundness, talent retention, long-term investment value, corporate responsibility to the community and the environment, and effectiveness in doing business globally.

ONGC’s market capitalisation increased more than 10 times, from under Rupees 20,000 Crore in May 2001 to over Rupees 2,00,000 (Two Lakh) Crore (approx. USD 45 Billion) in May 2006, making ONGC the Most Valuable Indian Company during his tenure.In this period, ONGC created more wealth than any other business enterprise, ever, in India.

Moody’s, the international credit-rating agency, rated ONGC (2005) as the most creditworthy company in India, ONGC was ranked two notches above the sovereign rating, the best-ever achieved by any Indian company.

ONGC became the leader among all Public- and Private Sector Companies in India in terms of Net Worth (USD 11.7 Billion on March 31, 2006), Net Profit (USD 3.5 Billion for 2005-06) and Dividend pay-out (stepped up to 450% for 2005-06) for five consecutive years.

In 2006, ONGC was placed 256th, ahead of all Indian Companies in FORBES Global list of 2000 mega-corporates, based on composite ranking of Sales, Profits, Assets and Market Value. In FortuneGlobal 500 listing, ONGC was ranked 402nd by (net) sales and 115th by profits, the best among all Indian companies. In Platt’s 250 Global Energy Companies list for 2006, ONGC was ranked as the #1 E&P Company in the World by Assets, Revenues, Profits and Return on Invested Capital.

ONGC’s 10% equity sale (approx. USD 2.2 Billion) in early 2004 was acknowledged as the biggest and the fastest (fully subscribed in about 11 minutes) Indian equity deal on global basis.

Oil Coordination Committee

Raha served (1996–98) on deputation in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India, as the Head of the Oil Coordination Committee (OCC), the nodal agency for planning, monitoring and control of Oil & Gas business under the Administered Pricing regime. On this assignment, he managed, among other things, national logistics, strategic planning, canalised imports/exports, administered pricing and reform strategy. He conceptualised the Petroleum Federation of India (Petrofed), the Chamber of Commerce for Oil and Gas Industry. He is a founding-member of the Petrotech Society, chartered to promote academics in India’s Oil & Gas Industry.

IndianOil

Raha served IndianOil for over three decades from 1970 to 2001. It was here in this company that he honed his business leadership skills and became an iconic figure .

He served as Director (HR) (1998–2001), and concurrently, Director in-charge of Business Development, Information Technology and Corporate Communications of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IndianOil).

During his years in IndianOil, Mr. Raha handled field and staff assignments in Supply & Distribution, Plant Operations, Engineering, Sales, HR and Marketing. He created several Indian Firsts: networked on-line transaction processing (OLTP) across India (1986–88), real-time automated product terminals (1993–95), and modern Retail Outlets with Convenience Stores & ATM (1995–96). Several of his innovations, especially in Logistics and LPG cooking gas marketing, became Industry standards.

As Director (HR), he set up India’s first in-house MBA programme. He conceptualised and piloted the first global-scale ERP implementation in India.

He created the IndianOil Foundation to protect, preserve and promote the archeological heritage of India.

He set up lubricant blending in Malaysia and retail marketing in Mauritius. He successfully managed privatisation of Lubrizol India Ltd. He was Chairman or Director on several JVs including IndianOil Petronas Ltd.

During 1999-2004, Mr. Raha played a key role in Petronet LNG Ltd. (Director during 1999-2001 and member of the Promoters’ Committee, 2001–2006), a PPP company for initiating LNG business in India.

Awards & recognitions

Subir Raha received several awards for business leadership, including the E&Y India Business Leadership Award as Manager-Entrepreneur of the Year, the SCOPE award for the Best Public Sector CEO, and Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial and Social Peace.

He has been a featured speaker in many national and international conferences and investor meets, including Offshore Technology Conference (OTC 2006), Houston and Chatham House, London (2004–05).

Death

Subir Raha died in New Delhi on 1 February 2010 , valiantly fighting lung cancer for over a year. He is survived by his wife and two children, a daughter and a son.[1]

Tributes

[1]

References

External links