Hunt for SEBI chief enters last phase

At least five candidates on Tuesday will stake their claim to one of the top regulatory jobs in the country-heading the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). In a break from the past, the government has decided to interview a select number of candidates for the SEBI chairman’s post after drawing up a shortlist. Until last time the selection was based on just a vetting of candidates by a search committee without any interview and finally approved by the Appointment’s Committee of the Cabinet. This time the search committee headed by the Cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar sought nominations from a host of organisations and government departments and is now set to interview the candidates. They include the incumbent, M Damodaran; National Securities Depository Ltd head CB Bhave; CMD of UTI AMC, UK Sinha; additional secretary, ministry of external affairs, J Bhagwati; and the CMD of Canara Bank MBN Rao. The search committee has for the first time representation from outside the government. The dean of ISB, Hyderabad, Rammohan Rao and the former chairman of UTI and the first chairman of SEBI, SA Dave, also form part of the selection panel. The other members of the panel include D Subba Rao, finance secretary and the financial services department secretary, Arun Ramanathan. This is the first time in SEBI's 16-year history that the government is interviewing candidates for the chairman's job given the significance of the capital markets. CB Bhave is credited with ushering in the electronic age for India's capital markets, having piloted the transition of the local markets which had been used to trading in paper form for decades. NSDL completed 10 years of operations in November last year. UK Sinha, who was once a joint secretary in the finance ministry heading the capital markets division now heads the second largest asset management house, UTI Mutual Fund. UTI is looking to list on the stock markets in March and has already filed a prospectus with SEBI. Another candidate, J Bhagwati, was also a former joint secretary in the finance ministry heading the capital markets division. MBN Rao, the chief of third largest public sector bank in India, Canara Bank completes the list. A banking industry veteran, Mr Rao had spent three decades with the Indian Bank. In his tenure as SEBI chief, M Damodaran took the first step towards phasing out participatory notes from the Indian markets, introduced short selling by institutions and brought in many reforms in the mutual fund space. All eyes are on whether he will be given an extension. – www.economictimes.com