CB Bhave is new SEBI Chief

Sebi has a new chairman. CB Bhave, current Chairman and Managing Director of India’s largest depository has been put in charge of India’s capital markets at a crucial juncture.

Chandu Bhave is a gandhian at heart and perhaps that is where his persistence comes from. A man who has never missed going to work on 2nd of October, as he believes working on the Mahatma's birthday is the real tribute to him and Bhave has his work cut-out.

In 1992, he was brought in by the legendary Sebi chairman, GV Ramakrishna to bring in some sanity to the market post the Harshad Mehta scam.

Bhave got down to business and while on the one hand, he was instrumental in creating the National Stock Exchange, on the other, he sent panic waves across brokers indulging in malpractices.

In 1996, Bhave quit Sebi, to take up what was then seen as a rather low profile job, to create India’s first share depository. In that role, cleaned up India’s paper-based system. That led to the democratisation of India’s stock markets.

Bhave is known to be a tough, no-nonsense person, but at the same time, one who thrives on institution building and putting in place rules and processes that limit individual interpretations in decision making.

At a time, when the markets are going through their most volatile phase ever, and there are growing concerns of malpractices, Bhave will need to take tough decisions in the coming months. at the same time, he would need to take stronger measures to create better investor education, something successive Sebi chairmen have ignored.