The government on Friday curbed tenure of Ajay Tyagi, SEBI chairman-designate by two years, barely a

week after his appointment was announced. He will take charge as SEBI chairman for an initial period of

three years on March 2 when U K Sinha retires.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had on February

10 approved Tyagi's appointment for a period not exceeding five years or till the age of 65 years, as per

an order issued earlier by the Personnel Ministry.

This is the first time when government has slashed down tenure of a SEBI chief. In doing so, it has tried

to align the tenure of chairman of capital market regulator with that of Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

Governor.

58-year- old Tyagi, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre is presently posted as Additional

Secretary (Investment) in the Department of Economic Affairs. He is a Post Graduate in Economics and

was Joint Secretary in Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change before joining Finance

Ministry as Additional Secretary. For a short while, he was also on the board of Reserve Bank of India

(RBI).

U K Sinha, a 1976 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, had assumed officeas Securities and Exchange

Board of India (SEBI) chairman on February 18, 2011. His tenure of over six years is the longest after D

R Mehta’s seven-year term from 1995 to 2002.