In the months leading up to the end of U.K. Sinha’s five-year tenure as India’s capital markets regulator, the government pored through the resumes of dozens of candidates for his hot-seat job.
Finally, three people emerged as front-runners to succeed him—Ramesh Abhishek, chairman of the erstwhile commodity markets regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC), State Bank of India chief Arundhati Bhattacharya and Thomas Mathew, a senior civil servant in the presidential palace.
The appointment eventually came down to the wire.
On 15 February, just a day before Sinha, 63, was due to retire, the finance ministry extended his term as chief of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) by one more year, opting for continuity at a time when market volatility has become the new normal, globally.
“It is a wise decision taken by the government to maintain continuity at a time when the market is under turmoil due to the global factors. The only downside is that the announcement should have been made a long time back to avoid unnecessary speculation,” said J.N. Gupta, co-founder and managing director at proxy advisory firm SeS Governance.
Sinha, according to The Economic Times newspaper, had been packing his bags in anticipation of retiring and moving to New Delhi, where his family lives, from Mumbai when he was told to stay put. He was called for a meeting with the government’s six-member selection panel only 48 hours prior to his reappointment, the report said.
