SEBI Chief: Bureaucrat At Helm Of Market Regulator After 3 Years

Seasoned bureaucrat and a stickler for rules Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey will be at the helm of capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), for three years. The 1987-batch Odisha-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Pandey, would replace Madhabi Puri Buch, whose three-year term ends on Friday. Buch who was the first woman to lead SEBI and was also the first SEBI chairperson from the private sector.

The post of SEBI chief has been mostly held by seasoned bureaucrats. This is the second appointment of a bureaucrat at the helm of a regulatory body in as many months. In December 2024, the government had appointed Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra as RBI Governor following the superannuation of Shaktikanta Das. Although, Buch in her three-year tenure made significant strides in areas like faster settlements in equities, enhanced FPI disclosures and increasing mutual fund penetration through Rs 250 SIP, the last year of her tenure was marked by heightened controversy, when she battled a series of allegations by Hindenburg Research and the Congress party, while simultaneously dealing with in-house employee protests against alleged "toxic work culture".

Against this backdrop, the government opted for a seasoned bureaucrat Pandey, who had extensive experience in handling government's disinvestment and privatisation programmes, to head the regulatory body. Soft spoken Pandey is known for sticking to the rule book and getting the work done. It was under his tenure as DIPAM secretary, that Air India was privatised after many unsuccessful attempts in the past. Pandey will take over as the head of the SEBI at a time when markets are witnessing bear pressure following a withdrawal by foreign institutional investors (FIIs). Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have withdrawn more than Rs 1 lakh crore since January. Pandey was the longest-serving secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), a department in the finance ministry that manages government equity in public sector companies, as well as the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE).

He assumed the charge of the revenue department on January 9, after his predecessor Sanjay Malhotra moved to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as its governor. Pandey played a key role in the framing of the 2025-26 Budget, which gave tax reliefs totalling Rs 1 lakh crore to the middle class. He was also involved in the drafting of the new Income Tax Bill, which seeks to replace the 64-year-old Income Tax Act, 1961. In his over-five-year stint (October 24, 2019 to January 8, 2025) at the DIPAM, Pandey took forward disinvestments of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) as he implemented the public sector enterprises (PSE) policy, which intended to minimise the presence of the government in the PSEs across all sectors of the economy.

Pandey was instrumental in the privatisation of Air India. On October 8, 2021, the government declared the Tata group as the winning bidder for Air India. The conglomerate had put in a bid of Rs 18,000 crore. On January 27, 2022, the Tata group took the ownership of Air India. Pandey also oversaw the privatisation plans of the IDBI Bank. The bidders are currently undergoing the due-diligence process. Pandey holds an MA in economics from the Punjab University, Chandigarh and an MBA from the University of Birmingham (UK). He has worked in various capacities in the government of Odisha and the union government.

In the early part of his career, Pandey served as the administrative head in the departments of health, general administration, commercial taxes, transport and finance. He also served as the executive director of the Odisha State Finance Corporation and managing director of the Odisha Small Industries Corporation. At the Centre, his previous positions include Joint Secretary, Planning Commission (now NITI Aayog), Joint Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat and Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce.

(PTI)