Tuhin Kanta Pandey | The calm bureaucrat

Anyone who knows the incoming Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman, either as a reporter or as a former colleague, inevitably recall his calm demeanour and commitment to work. For Saroj Sarangi, now retired as the medical officer of the Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha, the news of Tuhin Kanta Pandey’s appointment as the next SEBI chief was of much joy. He told The Hindu about the appointment bringing immense value considering his efficiency and fluid expertise in dealing with public matters. 

The 1987 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Odisha cadre succeeds Madhabi Puri Buch. While Ms. Buch brought in her experience from the corporate world to the regulator’s office, she also faced conflict of interest allegations in the conduct of a SEBI investigation against the Adani Group for stock price manipulations.

In contrast, Mr. Pandey borrows from a near four-decade career in public administration that had him serving as a district collector and magistrate of Odisha’s Sambalpur district to being recently made Revenue Secretary in addition to his position as Finance Secretary. However, his most notable run was at the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM). During his five-year stint there, he oversaw the privatisation of then struggling national carrier Air India and the IPO of the state-insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). Mr. Pandey’s five-year tenure at DIPAM is the longest of any secretary at the department since its formation in 1999.  

He was a student of Economics at the Panjab University (Chandigarh). He went on to attend the University of Birmingham for his MBA.  

Odisha to Delhi and back, again 

In his four-decade long career, Mr. Pandey has moved back and forth between Delhi and Odisha — each time holding crucial social and economic departments. Early in his career, Mr. Pandey worked as the executive director of the Odisha State Finance Corporation (OSFC) and managing director of Odisha Small Industries Corporation (OSIC). This was before he took charge of Sambalpur district. He then moved from Odisha on central deputation to New Delhi, as the Deputy Secretary at the Department of Commerce and later to the regional office of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).  

Later, on his return to the Odisha cadre, he worked with the State’s transport, health and commercial taxes departments. Mr. Pandey took over as the Principal Secretary of Odisha’s Finance Department in 2016. 

He returned to Delhi as the DIPAM Secretary in October 2019.

Retired IAS officer Pradeep Biswal, and Mr. Pandey’s former colleague, recalled in an article for ‘Odisha+’ about him being considered an “honest, upright and decisive administrator”, and a “very polite and affectionate person”. Recalling his appointment as the commissioner of commercial taxes in Odisha, Mr. Biswal wrote that the “workhorse” (Mr. Pandey) started his job “most sincerely and efficiently”. “He did not go for frequent field visits like his predecessors and confined himself to his office,” Mr. Biswal said, adding, ‘He was a reformist who tried to amend the archaic provisions in the acts and rules to fit the requirements of his time’.

Mr. Sarangi, the retired medical officer of Jagatsinghpur district, termed Mr. Pandey’s conduct as that of a “gentleman”.

Creating value and privatisation 

The sale of Air India and the entry of LIC into the bourses continue to be among the major highlights of his career. Air India’s sale was the first in Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s privatisation efforts. The national carrier was back then making losses of ₹20 crore a day. 

Mr. Pandey had underlined at an industry event last year that it was important for well-managed companies to get listed to accelerate growth. Pointing to the economy projected to continue growing over a longer period of time, Mr. Pandey explained, “This will mean that it will require both the capital markets and national markets doing all they can in order to achieve this growth.” 

Mr. Pandey also focused on raising returns from Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) by increasing their accountability. This was amidst slowing privatisation in the past few years. On generating better returns, he had said in February last year that the combined market capitalisation of CPSEs, banks and insurance companies had grown six times in the preceding three years to ₹58 lakh crore. The Central government’s equity holding had risen four times to ₹38 lakh crore. “There has been huge value creation in PSEs which has been due to robust performance, growth prospects, capital restructuring, consistent dividend policy as well as a calibrated disinvestment strategy, amid a positive Indian economy context,” he added. 

Starting in turbulent times 

Mr. Pandey would be commencing his tenure as the chief of the markets regulator mired in a bearish setting as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continue to withdraw their money from India’s markets. At a post-budget press conference, Mr. Pandey, as the finance secretary had argued that FIIs were not hopping from one emerging market to another. He said whenever there was global uncertainty, ‘they were ready to go back to the U.S., where they belong.’ Acknowledging the existence of demand-supply issues that needed to be filled, he dismissed them as temporary and reassured that the Indian economy was resilient.