Varshney, Singh fill two vacant posts of whole-time members at Sebi

Government has appointed both for an initial period of three years

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After nearly two months, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is set to get its full strength of whole-time members (WTMs) with the appointment of Kamlesh Chandra Varshney and Amarjeet Singh.

The government has appointed them for an initial period of three years.

It comes as a relief for the market regulator which has been managing affairs with just two WTMs and had to reassign key departments.

The positions remained vacant after SK Mohanty and Ananta Barua retired in June and July respectively.

WTMs are a step below the Sebi chair and head separate divisions. Currently, Ananth Narayan and Ashwani Bhatia are the two WTMs on board.

Recently, the regulator also had to face challenges in one of the orders related to a broadcast and media firm due to the lack of WTMs.

Varshney, a joint secretary in the revenue department of Ministry of Finance, is from the 1990 batch of Indian Revenue Services (IRS). As a senior official in IRS, he has worked in Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in tax policy and foreign tax.

He has also represented India at global forums and negotiated on important tax treaties, cross-border tax issues. He is an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Lucknow and has also obtained his degree in law.

Meanwhile, Singh has been associated with Sebi for nearly three decades. He took charge as Sebi executive director in July 2017 and has also been a part of quasi-judicial orders by Sebi since. Within Sebi, Singh has been handling the office of international affairs and the department of economic and policy analysis in the market regulation department.

He has also been the Sebi representative to the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

Singh is currently a part of several committees by the market regulator like Market Data Advisory Committee and Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee. Singh, has an MBA and also holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs (Economic Policy Management) from Columbia University.