SEBI Appoints Tuhin Kant Pandey as Chairman, Pledges Focus on Transparency and Teamwork

Seasoned bureaucrat Tuhin Kant Pandey assumed charge as Sebi Chairman on Saturday, promising focus on transparency and teamwork. Pandey, formerly the Finance Secretary, termed Sebi as a "robust market institution" which has been built over the years by successive leaders.

Declining to outline his exact agenda or style of working, the successor to Madhabi Puri Buch, said he will not comment on anyone.

Buch, who had faced a slew of allegations of impropriety during the final few months of her term, was not present when Pandey arrived at the Sebi headquarters in the Bandra Kurla Complex business district. She is reportedly unwell and down with a Covid infection.

"Sebi is a very robust market institution, it has been built over the years with successive leaders and will continue," the 59-year-old Pandey told reporters.

The new chairman outlined his objectives, calling out the four Ts— trust, transparency, teamwork and technology— as his key focus areas. "I think these four elements make us (Sebi) distinctive and we have created one, and we will continue to create one of the best market institutions in the world," he added.

He said that Sebi is a great institution and the team led by him will continue to work towards its growth.

It can be noted that in the last few months, there has been some unprecedented activity at Sebi, where a large section of its employees protested against the management.

Dressed in dark blue blazer and a striped shirt, Pandey arrived at the Sebi headquarters in the Bandra Kurla Complex business district on Saturday afternoon.

All the four whole time members of regulator— Ashwani Bhatia, Amarjeet Singh, Ananth Narayan and Kamlesh Varshney— welcomed Pandey at the Sebi headquarters.

The Odisha cadre Indian Administrative Service official's term is for a period of three years.

Pandey will take over as the head of the Sebi at a time when markets are witnessing bear pressure following a withdrawal by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have withdrawn more than Rs 1 lakh crore since January.

The 1987-batch IAS officer is the senior most officer in the Ministry of Finance handling the Department of Revenue.

Pandey was the longest-serving secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), a department in the finance ministry that manages government equity in public sector companies, as well as the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE).

He assumed the charge of the revenue department on January 9, after his predecessor Sanjay Malhotra moved to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as its governor.

Pandey played a key role in the framing of the 2025-26 Budget, which gave tax reliefs totalling Rs 1 lakh crore to the middle class. He was also involved in the drafting of the new Income Tax Bill, which seeks to replace the 64-year-old Income Tax Act, 1961.

Pandey was instrumental in the privatisation of Air India and sale to Tatas. His stint at DIPAM saw fewer asset sales but more focus on the asset management aspect.

He holds an MA in economics from the Punjab University, Chandigarh and an MBA from the University of Birmingham (UK). He has worked in various capacities in the government of Odisha and the government of India.

In the early part of his career, Pandey served as the administrative head in the departments of health, general administration, commercial taxes, transport and finance. He also served as the executive director of the Odisha State Finance Corporation and managing director of the Odisha Small Industries Corporation.

At the Centre, his previous positions include Joint Secretary, Planning Commission; Joint Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat and Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce.