Rana's name was recommended by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) for the top job at NMDC from a field of 12 other high-profile candidates that appeared for an interview earlier this week.
Among the 12 others, two were from NMDC itself. They were current NMDC Finance Director S Thiagrajan and Technical Director N K Nanda.
MSTC CMD S K Tripathi, RINL Finance Director P Madhusudan, Hindustan Copper Director (Operations) K D Diwan, Hindustan Steelwork Construction CMD Malay Chatterjee, SAIL Executive Director N Kothari and Bird Group of Companies CMD Satish Chandra were among the candidates that appeared for the interview.
The PESB will now recommend Rana's name to the Steel Ministry, which will subsequently refer it to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, which has the final say on any senior-level job at state-run units.
The current Chairman and Managing Director of NMDC, Rana Som, retires from the company on December 31 on attaining the age of superannuation.
Som has taken the company to new heights after assuming charge in 2007. The company has grown by leaps and bounds since he took over.
India's single largest iron ore producer and exporter NMDC produces about 30 million tonnes of iron ore in a year. It is also setting up a 3-mtpa steel plant at Jagdalpur, in Chhattisgarh, which would be completed by 2012.
The company had reported net sales of Rs 11,368 crore in FY'11.