The August 2021 interviews for the ONGC top post saw nine candidates shortlisted, including ONGC's acting Chairman Alka Mittal, IOC chief S.M. Vaidya, and Engineers India Limited CMD Vartika Shukla. Several ONGC directors — including Anurag Sharma (Onshore), O.P. Singh (Technical & Field Services), and Pomila Jaspal (Finance) — were initially excluded and later called at the last moment, but they chose not to attend.