Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the previous Union Finance Secretary, took cost because the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on March 1, Saturday. The subsequent day, the information broke {that a} Mumbai Special Court Judge directed the town’s Anti-Corruption Bureau to file FIRs on former SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and three of the regulator’s 4 Wholetime Members for his or her alleged complicity in itemizing of a now delisted firm in 1994.
Without losing any time, Mr. Pandey, 59, moved into motion.
In a press release, SEBI mentioned that despite the fact that these officers weren’t holding their respective positions on the related level of time, the courtroom allowed the applying [to register the FIR and a court monitored investigation] with out issuing any discover or granting any alternative to SEBI to put the details on document. “The applicant [a media reporter who could get a court order on Saturday, the day after Ms. Buch exited office and the day Mr. Pandey took over] is known to be a frivolous and habitual litigant, with previous applications being dismissed by the Court, with imposition of costs in some cases,” it mentioned.
SEBI mentioned it might provoke applicable authorized steps to problem the order.
On the day he took over, on the SEBI headquarters in Mumbai, Mr. Pandey confronted loads of questions from journalists, significantly concerning the type of functioning of his predecessor. In his response, he firmly put the organisation’s integrity on the centre, with out resorting to any blame sport.
Mr. Pandey, a 1987 IAS officer of the Odisha cadre, is the eleventh Chairman of SEBI. All of SEBI’s previous heads, besides G.N. Bajpai and Ms. Buch, have been IAS officers. With Mr. Pandey on the helm, SEBI has returned into the fold of the “steel frame of India”, because the Indian Administrative Service is commonly referred to.
In the previous three months the Centre has chosen two Finance Ministry secretaries as regulators — Sanjay Malhotra, who was appointed because the RBI Governor in December final 12 months, and now Mr. Pandey.
During his over three many years profession as a bureaucrat, Mr. Pandey has held noteworthy positions within the Union Government and the State Government of Odisha, apart from serving a stint within the Regional Office of the UN Industrial Development Organisation.
Rich expertise
Before becoming a member of SEBI, Mr. Pandey served because the Union Finance Secretary, Revenue Secretary and Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises and Secretary, and Department of Personnel & Training. He was additionally with the Planning Commission (Now Niti Aayog), the Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of Commerce previously.
After Mr. Malhotra’s posting on the RBI, Mr. Pandey had performed a key position within the preparation of the final Union Budget.
As the disinvestment secretary for 5 years, he has dealt with the divestment of the federal government’s stake in lots of Public Sector Enterprises, together with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd and a number of other corporations from the Indian Railways secure. He had additionally dealt with the strategic sale of Air India to the Tata Group in 2021-22.
His former colleagues describe him as somebody who’s thorough and methodical. He has an excellent sense for numbers and most significantly as an individual, he’s uncompromising and unyielding, they are saying.
Having a Masters diploma in Economics from Panjab University, Chandigarh and an MBA from the University of Birmingham (U.Okay.), Mr. Pandey has a troublesome job forward — he has to tame a rampaging bull as markets have been risky in latest weeks on account of ‘Trump tantrums’, and combat manipulations within the derivatives market.
Tough instances name for robust measures. Mr. Pandey isn’t any stranger to such measures. “Capital market is a dynamic space so change is imminent but we will certainly not be looking for maximum regulation but for optimum regulation,” Mr. Pandey mentioned on March 7, in his first public speech since assuming the chairmanship of the regulator.
Published – March 16, 2025 01:20 am IST
