People introduced me as SBI Chairperson: Ex-SEBI Chairman
The Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) former Chairman UK Sinha said that at the start of his tenure, people would introduce him as the chairperson of SBI (State Bank of India). However, "Today, you go to a small village in India and they know SEBI," he stated. Sinha's six-year tenure as SEBI Chairman ended last week.
New Delhi, Mar 5 (PTI) Capital markets watchdog SEBI may be among Indias most powerful regulators today but there was a time when people used to introduce its former chief U K Sinha as Chairman of SBI -- a similar sounding acronym but of State Bank of India.     "At the start of my tenure at SEBI, people would introduce me as the chairperson of SBI, the State Bank of India (the country?s largest bank with a far flung branch network). Today, you go to a small village in India and they know SEBI," says Sinha, who retired as SEBI Chairman last week after a six-year tenure -- the second largest in nearly three decades of existence of the regulatory body.      Sinhas remarks are part of a detailed case study on the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) done by Professor Suraj Srinivasan of the Harvard Business School.   The study titled Securities Exchange Board of India: Developing and Regulating India?s Capital Markets has been done by Suraj along with research associate Radhika Kak.  According to the study, Sinha was reflecting on his past five years as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) when he made these remarks.     "It was February 2016 and he had just been appointed by the Government of India to a second term as the Chairman of SEBI," it noted. While SEBI as a regulator has made significant strides over the past decade, it was during Sinhas tenure that its powers increased manifold including for bringing to book entities guilty of insider trading and fraudulent investment activities such as illicit collective investment schemes. SEBIs tough actions against several large corporates even prompted some in recent years to call the regulator a dragon and of acting like an activist. 