Sebi recast on track, govt appoints special advisor

NEW DELHI: The restructuring of the board of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is on course with the government appointing Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Ashok Lahiri to the regulator’s board.
The government is also close to appointing two more full-time members on the board, according to senior government officials.
The shortlist is headed by two names — the former managing director of IDBI TM Nagarajan and AK Batra, the managing director of State Bank of India. These appointments have to be cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC). Following the amendment to the Sebi Act last year, the capital market regulator’s board strength was enhanced to include more full-time members on the board.
According to the amended Act, the board would have at least three full-time members, besides the chairman, in line with the SEC in US which also has full-time members in charge of key departments like market surveillance and investigation.
Mr Lahiri would be a part-time member on the Sebi board along with Vinod Dhall, secretary - Department of Company Affairs (DCA), D Swarup, additional secretary, (budget division) finance ministry and the representative of the Reserve Bank of India.
Government officials say Sebi has informed the finance ministry that it has decided not to go ahead with the appointment of two new executive directors.
This has been done after allegations were raised against the two candidates. A fresh recruitment process for ED’s is expected to be initiated now. Currently, Sebi has only two EDs with non-executive director D Raval putting in her papers recently.