UK Sinha to succeed Bhave as Sebi chief

Seasoned bureaucrat and UTI Mutual Fund chairman and managing director (CMD) U.K. Sinha is set to take over as the next chairman of the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

The selection committee headed by cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar has recommended Sinha for Sebi's top post, which is set to fall vacant on February 18, 2011, when the term of the current incumbent C.B. Bhave ends, according to sources in the know of the development. Besides Sinha, others in the race for the Sebi post included R. Bandyopadhyay, corporate affairs secretary; S. Pradhan, additional secretary in the department of disinvestment; G.P. Singhal, principal secretary of Madhya Pradesh; and S.K. Bhattacharya and R. Sridharan, the two managing directors of State Bank of India (SBI).

C.B. Bhave, chairman of Sebi, is said to have opted out of the race much in advance, resulting in setting the selection process in motion. SBI chairman O.P. Bhatt and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor K.C. Chakrabarty had opted out of the race later.

Sinha, who is chairman of the Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI), the trade body of mutual funds, has to grapple with the some of the issues that he had raised on behalf of the industry, in his new capacity. Sinha is a post-graduate in mathematics and a lawyer by education. He started his career as a probationary officer in SBI, before being selected for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1976.

As a joint secretary in charge of capital markets in the ministry of finance before heading UTI Asset Management, India's fourth largest mutual funds by assets, Sinha gained rich experience in capital markets-related issues. He had also served as joint secretary in the economic affairs and banking divisions.

Sinha was responsible for drafting the SEBI (Amendment) Act, 2002, UTI (Repeal) Act, 2002, the Securities Law Amendment Act, 2004 and the Provident Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill 2005. In 2005, he was chosen to lead UTI Asset Management when its then chief M. Damodaran was picked up for the post of Sebi chairman. Unlike in the case of Damodaran and Bhave, who had three-year tenures at Sebi, 59-year old Sinha is expected to get a five-year tenure.

R. Gopalan, financial services secretary, Shantanu Consul, secretary of department of personnel, and Ashok Chawla, finance secretary were the other members of the selection committee.

Courtesy: Mail Today