Mendu Rammohan Rao who is the Dean of Indian School of Business (ISB) has withdrawn from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governors’ selection committee. He has also resigned from the selection panel of the chairman of Securities Exchange and Board of India (SEBI), a week ago. Rao came under serious criticism regarding his role as an independent director on Satyam's board.

 

Rao chaired a controversial board meeting on mid-December that cleared Satyam's acquisition of two companies, Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties linked to the family of the IT firm's founder and chairman B Ramalinga Raju. Owing to tremendous opposition from investors, Mr. Raju announced that the company reversed the decision. As a result, Rao came under the scanner regarding role as an independent director of Satyam's board. He finally has to resign from the Satyam's board.

 

Rao's resignation has created a vacancy on the panel headed by RBI Governor D Subbarao and the finance ministry will soon initiate the process to appoint a new member. Report says that the process of finalising the list will take sometime as the governor will be unavailable from January 10 to 15. After holding the meeting, three names will recommended to the appointments committee headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.