Birla Corporation Appoints Independent Directors and Extends the CFO’s Term
Birla Corporation has appointed Anup Singh, Chitkala Zutshi, Rajni Sekhri Sibal, and Dr. Rajeev Malhotra as Non-Executive, Independent Directors of the company for a term of five years. The company will ask for approval from its members, and the effective date will be announced thereafter. The Board also approved the term extension of Aditya Saraogi as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for a period of four years with effect from February 1, 2024, whose term of service is set to expire on January 31, 2024, upon attaining the age of superannuation as per the policy of the company.
Anup Singh was associated with ITC for more than four decades as an Executive Director and supervised the company’s Cigarettes, Foods, Personal Care, Lifestyle Retailing, Information Technology, Agri business and its Nepal subsidiary, SNPL. He also served as the President of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata, in 2004 and the President of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata, in 2009. He is a B.Tech. (Hons.) in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur.
Chitkala Zutshi has four decades of experience and has held various posts with the Govt. of India and the Govt. of Maharashtra, including Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, Government of Maharashtra; Principal Secretary, Finance Department, Government of Maharashtra; Projects Chief with the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India; and Member of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority, a statutory body. She has led government delegations to the US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Japan, and about 40 other countries. She has also been awarded a certificate in Applied International Systems by the Swedish Institute of Management, Stockholm. She is a postgraduate in sociology from the University of Rajasthan. She retired from the Indian Administrative Services (IAS).
Rajni Sekhri Sibal, a retired Indian Administrative Service officer, is the first woman to top the Civil Services Examination in the 1986 batch. She is an Independent External Monitor of SEBI. She worked with the Government of India in taxation and with the Government of Haryana both at the implementation as well as public formulation levels in various fields, including Finance, Industry, Urban Management, Education, Environment and Infrastructure. She was responsible for framing India’s milk policy and was a Director on the Board of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). She was also in charge of international cooperation in disaster management and disaster risk reduction in India. In her last government assignment, she was the Secretary of Fisheries, Government of India, was responsible for setting up a new ministry to develop a sustainable blue economy, and helped frame India’s marine policy. She is the recipient of the Indian of the Year Award 2012–13 by NDTV and the Woman of Substance Award 2010 by Delhi University.
Rajeev Malhotra, with over 35 years of experience, served as an economic adviser to the Union Finance Minister of India. He played a key role in macroeconomic policy, union budget preparation, and fiscal policy. He has international experience with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and has contributed to India’s planning commission. As a founding faculty member, he established India’s first graduate programme in public policy at the Jindal School of Government. Despite a career in civil services, Malhotra actively engages in research, contributing expertise to policy-making at national and international levels. He is a published author and currently serves as a visiting faculty member at the Indian School of Business in Mohali and Hyderabad. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Master’s degrees from the Delhi School of Economics and the London School of Economics (LSE).
Aditya Saraogi is a Chartered Accountant with more than 36 years of diverse experience in the fields of financial operations, accounting, taxation, governance, compliance, and internal controls. Prior to joining Birla Corporation Limited, he was with the Indian associate firms of Ernst & Young and BDO. He served several large clients, including ITC, Bharti Airtel, Lafarge India, Peerless, iGate, and Reliance Communications. He is responsible for the financial oversight of the company and its subsidiaries, acquisition integration activities, and the roll-out of financial activities, including cash flow management. He also played a key role in the integration of the operations of RCCPL Private Limited, a material subsidiary of the company.
