NEW DELHI: Senior bureaucrat Ajay Tyagi was today appointed as chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to succeed U K Sinha, whose extended tenure ends on March 1.
Tyagi, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre, is at present Additional Secretary (Investment) in the Department of Economic Affairs and handles capital markets, among others.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved his appointment for a period not exceeding five years or till the age of 65 years, an order issued by Personnel Ministry said.
58-year-old Tyagi, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, is a Post Graduate in Economics. He did Master in Public Administration from Harvard and holds Master in Technology (Computer Science), as per his official resume.
He holds a Bachelor degree in electronics also. He was Joint Secretary in Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change before joining Finance Ministry on November 1, 2014 as Additional Secretary.
During his stint at the Centre, Tyagi has also worked in ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Steel and Rural Development. He held various posts in Himachal Pradesh government including in power, revenue, finance and information technology.
Tyagi, for a short while, was also on the board of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In the run-up to the appointment of the capital markets regulator, many senior bureaucrats, including Power Secretary P K Pujari were in contention.
Incumbent Sinha, a 1976 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, had assumed office as Sebi chairman on February 18, 2011, when the previous UPA government was in power.
He was later given a two-year extension. Days before the end of his tenure in February last year, he was given another extension till March 1, 2017.
Sinha's over six-year tenure as the Sebi chief is the second-longest after D R Mehta's seven-year term from 1995 to 2002.
Sebi, besides regulating stock exchanges, also supervises various kinds of market entities including brokers, mutual funds, FIIs, rating agencies and investment bankers, as also thousands of listed companies.
The process for selecting the Sebi chief started in September 2015, pursuant to which several applications were received for the position.
"Keeping in view the role and importance of Sebi as a regulator, it is desirable that persons with high integrity, eminence and reputation preferably with more than 25 years of professional experience and in the age group of 50-60 years may apply," the Finance Ministry had said while inviting applications for the post.
However, the government had in February last decided to give a one-year extension to Sinha to ensure stability due to volatile market conditions.
Sebi chairman receives consolidated pay package of Rs 4.5 lakh per month.
Besides chairman and whole-time members, the Sebi board includes independent members and nominees of Finance Ministry, Corporate Affairs Ministry and the RBI.