Ajay Tyagi (IAS:1984:HP) will continue to be the head of India’s capital and commodities markets regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for another six months. The Modi government on Friday extended Ajay Tyagi’s term as chairman SEBI for a period of six months. His three-year term was supposed to end on Saturday.
The government initiated the search for Tyagi’s successor around January-end. It gave only two weeks time till February 11 to file the applications. About a dozen applied for the chairman’s post. Department of economic affairs secretary Atanu Chakraborty, current whole-time member of Sebi Madhabi Puri Buch and corporate affairs secretary Injeti Srinivas were tipped to be the front-runners to replace Tyagi.
The government is learnt to have called only a few applicants for interview last week. However, due to time constraints, it did not find the right candidate for the post, said sources.
The Sebi chairman’s position has always been given to bureaucrats, especially Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers, except on one occasion when former LIC chairman GN Bajpai became the chairman in 2002.
