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Search panel fails to identify candidate for Sebi chief's post

BS Banking Bureau

The search for a new chairman of the capital market watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India has come to a naught. A search committee, set up by the finance ministry, has not been able to identify a suitable candidate to take over the Sebi chairman's post.

The present Sebi chairman Devendra Raj Mehta is slated to step down in February 2002.

"The committee has looked into the credentials of a dozen academicians who do not have the practical market experience and none of them is found suitable. Nobody from the private sector has shown interest in heading Sebi," a source familiar with the development told Business Standard.

The search for the Calcutta Stock Exchange president is also on and nobody has been identified for this job as well.

According to sources, a fresh search will start soon and the focus will be on practicing bankers and finance professionals. Jaimini Bhagwati, joint secretary in the capital market division of the finance ministry, who was earlier perceived to be a serious contender for the post might not be considered as it would send a wrong signal that the government wanted to control the capital markets, sources said.

The finance ministry wants to complete the process well before the end of February when Mehta's term comes to an end.

"It is tough to get the right candidate for the post. Those who will fit the bill are not interested in the job and others who are showing interest, do not have any practical experience," sources said.

In the recent past, the ministry had advertised for the post of the Industrial Development Bank of India chairman. But it was almost seven months after the last full-time chairman G P Gupta retired that the ministry announced the appointment of P P Vora as IDBI chairman. It also did not lose time in announcing the IFCI chief's name.

"No ad hoc arrangement for the Sebi chairman's post is likely at this juncture. The ministry is in favour of a strong candidate who will give the right direction to the capital market reforms," said the source.

D R Mehta, a former RBI deputy governor and a Rajasthan cadre IAS officer, got a two-year extension in February 2000. Before his stint in the RBI, he had worked as controller of capital issues in the finance ministry in the early 1980s and as director general of foreign trade in the commerce ministry. He took over Sebi in 1995-96. Powered by

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