The Union government released an advertisement inviting applications for the post of the chairman of Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The advertisement, dated 24 January, comes weeks before current chairman's three-year tenure comes to an end in March this year.

Ajay Tyagi had assumed office as the Chairman of Sebi on 1 March 2017, taking over from his predecessor U.K. Sinha. Tyagi was given a tenure of three years. Tyagi is eligible for re-appointment for a tenure of two more years.

The advertisement is seeking applications for appointed at Sebi's top post for five years. The appointment would be made on the recommendation of Financial Sector Regulatory Appointments Committee (FSRAC). The committee is also free to recommend a candidate on the basis of merit even if he or she has not applied for the post. This advertisement also dashes current chairman’s hope for an automatic extension. The government can choose to re-appoint him if it fails to find a suitable candidate for the top post.

Tyagi's three-year tenure was marked with him swiftly acting on quite a few high profile investigation cases, including alleged fraudulent trading by Reliance Industries Ltd, alleged unfair access of select brokers on National Stock Exchange of India's colocation platform and the nine-year long case of alleged malpractise by Price Waterhouse in the ₹7,136 crore Satyam Computer Services Ltd scam. Another high profile case included passing orders against the brokers of National Spot Exchange Ltd and Karvy Stock Broking Ltd. The interim order against Karvy involved the brokers allegedly misusing client securities and pledging them to raise funds from banks.

He was equally hands-on on policy changes where almost all the regulations such as prevention of insider trading norms, foreign portfolio investor regulations, portfolio management regulations, corporate governance norms, takeover code were revamped.

You could think of any market regulation and it would have underwent some major tweaks in these three years, these also included a major crackdown in terms of policy changes for debt funds and rating agencies as well.

Before his tenure comes to end in March, if Tyagi's tenure is not extended there are some pending agendas that he would need to resolve.

One major policy initiative pending is allowing Indian companies to list overseas without a simultaneous India listing. This initiative is awaiting ministry approval and also hinges on whether the rupee is made fully convertible or not. Sebi also needs to rationalise margins that it levies on its brokers, the margins are considered to be be much higher as compared to global counterparts, Sebi also needs to come out with a policy framework on social stock exchanges. Sebi is also yet to finalise its proposal on policy alternate investment funds mandatory benchmarking.

Sebi is yet to finish its probe in the case of alleged malpractices by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Infosys Ltd, both the companies are facing charges of lack of governance, and adequate disclosures. Sebi also has to issue a final order in the case of broker malpractices by Karvy and final orders on insider information being leaked on whatsApp groups. #casansaar (Source - PTI, liveMint)