Satya Pal Wahi was an Indian corporate executive, army officer, technocrat, writer and a former chairman of public sector enterprises such as Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) and

Cement Corporation of India Cement Corporation of India Limited (CCI) is the only cement manufacturing Public Sector Undertaking of Government of India. The company was incorporated as a wholly government-owned corporation on 18 January 1965, with the objective of settin ...

(CCI). He was a member the Corps of EME and held the rank of a colonel. A recipient of the degree of ''Doctor of Science'' ( honoris causa) from three Indian universities, Wahi also received honors such as the Petrotech Lifetime Achievement Award, the

Indian Geophysical Union The Indian Geophysical Union is the Government of India's scientific body responsible for all activities related with Earth Science System such as seismology, magnetism, meteorology, geodesy, volcanology, oceanography, hydrology and tectonophysic ...

Silver jubilee Award and the Giants international Award. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

, in 1988, for his contributions to society.

Biography

Satya Pal Wahi, born in

Khushab Khushab ( punjabi: خُوشاب) is a town as well as a district of Sargodha Division, located in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The word ''Khushab'' means "sweet water." Khushab city also serves as the headquarters of Khushab Tehsil, an admin ...

, a small village near

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

of the

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

graduated in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916 ...

. Subsequently, he joined the

Indian Military Academy The Indian Military Academy (IMA) is one of the oldest military academies in India, and trains officers for the Indian Army. Located in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, it was established in 1932 following a recommendation by a military committee set up ...

, Dehradun, and after completing his training in 1950, served at the Corps of EME of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

, retiring from military service holding the rank of a colonel. During his stint with the army, he also worked with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

for a while, and was stationed in UK and Germany. Later, he served many corporate enterprises which included

Bokaro Steel Plant Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) is located in the Bokaro district of Jharkhand. It is the fourth integrated public sector steel plant in India built with Soviet help. It was incorporated as a limited company in 1964. It was later merged with the state ...

(1969–74),

Bharat Heavy Electricals Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. It is based in New Delhi, India. Established in 1956, BHEL is India ...

(BHEL) (1974–78), handling various portfolios, before joining

(CCI), a wholly owned company of the Government of India as its chairman. He is known to have turned the loss-making CCI into a profitable business enterprise and in 1981, he was appointed as the chairman of Oil and Natural Gas Commission, the largest oil and gas exploration and production company in India, when Indira Gandhi was in power. Wahi chaired the organization, completing his first term in 1986, but was given extension by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1986. However, the National Front Government which came to power in 1989 removed him from the post. His tenure at ONGC coincided with the oil find in

Bombay High The Mumbai High Field, formerly called the Bombay High Field, is an offshore oilfield 176 km off the west coast of Mumbai, in Gulf of Cambay region of India, in about 75 m of water. The oil operations are run by India's Oil and Natural G ...

offshore oilfields and he has been credited with contributions in raising India's oil output from 9 million tonnes to 32 million tonnes per annum. His efforts are also reported behind the modernization of the organization by the introduction of computerization and modern office facilities and the establishment of a training centre for the organization. After his stint at ONGC, he was associated with Bharat Ophthalmic Glass Limited and served as the Chairman of the ''Standing Committee of Public Enterprises'' (SCOPE). He was a former director of public sector undertakings such as

Mishra Dhatu Nigam Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (abbreviated as MIDHANI), is a specialized metals and metal alloys manufacturing facility in India, located in Hyderabad, Telangana. It is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), under the administrative control of Depa ...

, Malabar Cement Limited and UP Cements, a former member of the governing councils of the

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research ( IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the ...

(CSIR), Administrative Staff College of India, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi is a public institute of technology located in New Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 IITs created to be Centres of Excellence for training, research and development in science, engineering and technolo ...

and a former member of the Public Enterprises Selection Board. He was a board member of the ''Foundation for Organisational Research and Education'' and chaired two management organizations, Capital Management Advisors and SP Wahi Management & Technology Consultants. His autobiography, ''Leading from the Front: From Army to Corporate World'', published in 2008, is reported to have details about the political interference and bureaucratic malpractices prevalent in the Indian industrial sector during that period.

Awards and honors

Satya Pal Wahi was honored by the

Indian School of Mines Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad (abbreviated IIT (ISM), Dhanbad) is a prestigious Public university, public technical university located in Dhanbad, India. It has main campus of 218 acres in Sardar Patel Nagar a ...

with the degree of ''Doctor of Science'' ( honoris causa) in 1985 and Roorkee University (the present-day Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee) and his alma mater,

followed suit with DSc degrees in 1987 and 1989 respectively. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honor of the

in 1988. In 1989, he received two awards, the Giants international Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the

. During the 7th International Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition (Petrotech-2007) held in New Delhi, he was awarded the Petrotech Lifetime Achievement Award.

Biography

Awards and honors

See also

References

External links

Further reading