Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
History
Anilesh S. Mahajan , Fuelling growth “India Today” 21/8/2017
Indian Oil has its origins in the Nehruvian era, when Jawaharlal Nehru envisaged a role for the public sector in the refining and distribution of petroleum products. Two PSUs, Indian Refineries Limited and Indian Oil Company, were established in 1958 and 1959 respectively. The first refinery was set up in Guwahati in 1962 with a capacity of 0.75 million tonnes per annum. In 1964, Indian Refineries Limited and Indian Oil Company merged to form Indian Oil Corporation.
Indane
The Times of India, Oct 11 2015
Sanjay Dutta
Indane: A Superbrand after 50 yrs that now lights fire in 9cr kitchens
The journey of PaHal, government's direct subsidy transfer scheme, into the Guinness Book of World Records hides a remarkable story of the making of a `Superbrand'.
Indane, the brand under which the country's largest fuel retailer IndianOil sells its cooking gas, rules nearly nine crore kitchens -or a little over 18 lakh LPG consumers in the country who have made PaHal the world's largest cash transfer scheme.
Today , the brand may have become a generic name for cooking gas. But unknown to people, its journey through the last 50 years into the portals of great brands has not been easy . From a humble beginning in October 1965, with two dealerships in Kolkata and Patna, and a consumer base of around 2,000, the brand has grown through the marketing nightmare of fighting dogmas and misconceptions about the “new fuel“ as well as administrative apathy .
Ramesh Sikka was allotted one of the first three dealerships in Kolkata. At 83, he is the oldest living Indane dealer. “There were three.The others are gone. People were scared in the beginning.Bengalis especially were very conservative and did not want to change over to the new fuel. It was a struggle to get people to become customers,“ Sikka told TOI.
Today , his agency caters to 10,000 households and has his son and daughter-in-law as partners who run the show.“Today , it is much more organised. In between there were some problems. Sometimes, there would be delays in delivery and we would have to face their anger. Sometimes, we had to call the police. Today things are much more organised,“ Sikka said adding there hardly any supply issues or apprehensions about LPG.
So what makes a brand tick for 50 years? “There was the time when people were apprehensive that making roti on LPG oven was unhealthy or less tasty. But today things are different. What has made Indane tick for all these years is what value we bring to our consumers. Indane spread the market. Today , whoever is using Indane realises the value creation that we do. Someone who has used Indane for once would not look at anything else. Indane has helped do away the smoky environment of cooking that was prevalent before LPG came into the market. That is why our motto is that no one should go without a cylinder even for a day ,“ IndianOil chairman B Ashok told TOI. “Indane's presence is what differentiates us from our competitors. We are there at every nook and corner of the country . Even the remotest part. You talk about Ladakh, you talk about border areas of Northeast or Andaman, we are there,“ Indrajit Bose, executive director (branding and corporate communications) said.
Bose said Indane was launched in Kolkata because at that time it was the biggest city because perhaps in terms of population and because IndianOil could source the fuel from its refinery in Assam and Barauni in Bihar. Burmah Shell (later became BPCL) and Caltex (now HPCL) had LPG marketing in some cities but that was done with imports.
Administrative issues
HC allows senior officers to join employees' body and agitate
The Times of India, Jun 22 2016
The Calcutta high court has struck down an agreement the management of state-run refiner IndianOil signed with its officers' association to put fetters on executives of deputy general manager rank and above from becoming part of the employees' body or agitate. Disposing an Indian Oil Officers Association petition challenging the agreement, Justice I P Mukherjee struck down clauses that imposed restrictions on officers to participate in agitations or become member of the association and ordered that a less intimidating agreement be signed within six months.
According to association president Mukul Kumar, the association challenged the agreement executed by its representatives on the ground that they were under duress at that time and were trapped by the management with allurement of revoking their termination and suspension orders as well as fast-track promotions.
The agreement was signed between three members of the association and the management after the nationwide strike by oil industry employees that ne arly brought the country to a halt in 2009.The company management had suspended and dismissed several employees as the government cracked the whip. These employees were asked to sign the agreement before they were reinstated.
Senior management executives said they were studying the court order.They said the agreement had only formalised something in practise since 1987, since when DGM and above-rank officers were not part of the union.
“The agreement is to ensure national security. One must appreciate that these were dismissed or suspended employees. The company was being compassionate by offering to take them back, albeit with a formal agreement. Our initial reading is that the court has disapproved of the context in which the agreement was signed,“ one officer familiar with the case told TOI.
According to Kumar, the clause which debarred association from raising issues concerning terms of employment and conditions of service was also declared null and void by the court.IndianOil management made a prayer for stay on the operation of the Judgement, which too was turned down.
