Gossip & Tales: Dinesh Kumar Khara For Sebi Chief?

New Delhi is agog with rumours that Dinesh Kumar Khara is a likely front runner for the post of Sebi chairman as and when incumbent chief Madhabi Puri Buch resigns. Her three-year tenure was ending in seven months in March 2025. Buch was in New Delhi meeting top PMO officials for the past couple of days, after Hindenburg targeted her for sending a show cause notice. It would be a long battle for Buch to come clean of the allegations levelled against her by the notorious short seller, in case the Supreme Court ordered a probe, like it did in 2023 on Hindenburg's previous allegations against Adani. Till then, the government will have to suffer the damage to its public perception due to the constant rantings by opposition parties and the negative cycle of news flow with regard to Buch. Hence, Buch may step down and fight the allegations against her.

Khara's name is at the top of the list, in case the government yet again chooses to appoint a non-IAS officer as Sebi chief. Buch was not only the first woman chief of Sebi but even a rare non-IAS to be appointed at the top post. View within New Delhi is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his advisors have been in favour of a non-IAS Sebi chief to cut the bureaucratic red tape at Sebi and even keep the IAS lobby in check since certain UPA era former IAS officers linked to P Chidambaram's Finance Ministry are still known to influence policy making in the current government with the help of their IAS friends, who they had cultivated for a long time. Also, IAS officers are easy to influence since most know each other's secrets and to dig out details of their confidential reports is an art some have mastered over the years. Still, if the government chooses to go with current or former IAS officers as SEBI chief, all the usual candidates, who have retired recently or are near to their retirement may apply.

Khara (62) has been a career banker who rose from the rank and file in State Bank of India (SBI). From a probationary officer in 1984 and a circle manager, Khara rose to become SBI's head of Global Banking And Subsidiaries and then MD and CEO. Khara, who was appointed as SBI MD after the retirement of Arundhati Bhattacharya in 2016, will retire from his post on August 28 after a eight year stint at the top. The Cabinet Committee headed by PM Modi had approved consecutive extensions of Khara's term at SBI, which shows he is a blue eyed boy and trusted to deliver on the job.

There are talks that the billionaire business lobbies will also be flexing their muscle to get an acceptable candidate as Sebi chief. Hindenburg reports apart, the move by Buch to appoint the wife of a Gandhi family loyalist, Usha Thorat, as the Chairperson of a Committee on Settlement Guarantee Fund of Stock Exchanges on the day of election results, had rattled New Delhi. Announcement of Thorat's appointment came late in the evening on 4 June, when it was apparent that BJP would not cross the majority mark to form the government. Then, former IAS officers of the UPA era had started spreading rumours that Congress party was returning to power in a coalition government, which is likely to have led to the miscalculations on the appointment of Gandhi family loyalists.