New Delhi, Feb. 28: In a midnight order on Thursday, the government appointed the current finance secretary, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, 1987-batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre, as 11th chairman of the country’s market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for three years. Pandey replaced Madhabi Puri Buch, whose terms ended on February 28 as Sebi chairman. The order, however, surprised all media houses for an “unexpected” appointment of Paney who took charge as the revenue secretary about a month and half back on January 9, ahead of annual budget presentation for 2025-26, replacing Sanjay Malhotra who was appointed as the RBI governor.The appointments comes at a time when the capital market regulator is struggling its market volatility and malpractice in the derivative market and making all-out efforts to expand all its regulated financial investment options available to investors. The stock market, however, witnessed a slide after the withdrawal by foreign institutional investors and foreign portfolio investors have withdrawn more than Rs 1 lakh crore since January 2025.Pandey’s role as finance secretary mostly oversaw the divestment department in the finance ministry and he became the longest serving divestment secretary, a post he held for over five years, and monitored listing of country’s largest insurer Life Insurance Corp. of India (LIC). He also led the government’s successful sale of Air India to Tata Group, one of the few accomplishments of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s privatisation effort.Before Pandey served as the head of the department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM), he was appointed as the district collector in Sambalpur in Odisha, later deputy secretary in the ministry of commerce and joint secretary at the planning commission. He, for a brief period, also worked with the ministry of civil aviation as well.As the government’s move on privatisation looked gradually slowing down, Pandey prioritised value creation by state-run companies, pushing them to generate better returns and making them more accountable. As the country’s finance and revenue secretary from January 2025, Pandey worked towards lowering import duties on high-end motorcycles as India prepared to shed its protectionist tag. He holds masters degrees in economics and business administration from Panjab University and the University of Birmingham.Pandey succeeded Buch, India’s first woman Sebi chief who faced conflict of interest allegations by the US-based short-seller Hindenburg and also political heat thereafter, would complete her three-year tenure later on Friday. Hindenburg alleged conflict of interest in Sebi’s investigations into the Adani group because of previous investments, which Buch and the Adani group both denied. While SEBI’s investigations into allegations against the Adani group have been completed, orders are yet to be released.Before her appointment as Sebi chief, she was a veteran investment banker also worked with country’s leading private sector lender ICICI Bank, joined Sebi’s board as a whole-time member in April 2017 and was later elevated as a chairperson in March 2022.
Source link
