A man of genius inspires others with a boundless confidence in their own powers. And one such brilliant mind is S. K. Garg who took over the charge of Chairman and Managing Director of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Ltd. (NHPC) in addition to his present assignment as Director (Finance) on 1 October 2005. Garg, a Chartered Accountant by profession, joined Indian Oil Corporation in 1974. During his stay in IOC, he worked in various important Divisions/Offices of IOC viz. Marketing, Pipelines, Corporate Office, besides an important stint at Oil Coordination Committee (OCC). Garg has a long and varied experience in his career spanning more than 30 years in the areas of Marketing, Corporate Finance, Excise and Customs, Project Appraisal, Oil Pricing etc.

He also has had successful tenures in the Northern and Eastern Regions of the Marketing Division of IOC as Head of Finance. As recognition of his marketing field experience, he led the Rajasthan State Office of IOC as General Manager and won Chairman's trophy for the Best State Office for the year 2000-2001. In OCC he was closely associated with pricing of petroleum products, having worked with the Oil Price Review Committee (OPRC) as well as another high power committee of Govt. of India for fixation of royalty on crude oil. During his three decades of stay in Indian Oil Corporation, the country's top Public Sector Undertaking. Garg has widely traveled and acquired varied experience. Garg had taken took over as Director (Finance) in the Board of NHPC on 1st July, 2003. Since his joining the Corporation, he has brought about significant changes in the Financial Management of the Corporation, besides initiating major HR interventions.

He, for the first time in the organization, created a Treasury Management Group within Finance for mobilization of financial resources in a cost effective manner which has resulted into the fact that the average interest cost of finance has come down to around to 6% from 9 to 10%. Due to his untiring efforts in the area of Financial Management, the Corporation for the first time since its inception has stopped utilizing working capital limits. NHPC achieved the highest ever profit of Rs.685 Crores in the year 2004-2005 under his able leadership. Garg has also made significant HR interventions including redefining of NHPC's Vision and Mission and building an Organisation Culture for performance improvement. He is also the guiding force behind the ongoing ERP initiative in the organisation.

Presently, he is preoccupied by the next project which is to invest Rs 60,000 crore in the hydel power sector to add over 7000 MW to its present 3755 MW capacity by the end of the 11th Five-Year plan, including in Himachal, Uttaranchal and the North-East. The proposed projects would include 800 MW Parbati II and 231 MW Chamera-III units in Himachal Pradesh. “The work on both these units has started and these projects are likely to be commissioned by 2010 as per the scheduled date,” Garg said. The NHPC was also working, he said, on the 2,000 MW Subansiri hydel project in Arunachal Pradesh, one of the largest hydel projects in the North-East. The corporation is likely to achieve a net profit of over Rs 700 crore in 2005-06 as against Rs 685 crore in 2004-05, observed Garg. At present, the NHPC has hydel projects with a capacity of over 3,700 MW, including Baira Siul (180 MW), Chamera-I, II (840 MW) in Himachal, and Salal (690 MW) and Uri (480 MW) in J&K. The NHPC was expected to commission the 390 MW Dul Hasti hydel project in Jammu & Kashmir by the end of the current financial year. And with a person like him heading the organisation, there is no looking behind for the NHPC.