Securities and Exchange Board of India — what changed, and what to watch

2026-10-02 · leadership

The markets regulator. Everything listed, everything pooled, everything sold as an investment: brokers, mutual funds, AIFs, IPOs, takeover codes, insider trading. SEBI writes the rules, licenses the players, investigates, and adjudicates — all three powers in one body, which is both its strength and its standing conflict-of-interest.

RegTrac Brief · 2026-10-02 · Statutory regulator · register as of 12 September 2026

What changed

2026-09-18 — Kamlesh Chandra Varshney reappointed SEBI Whole-Time Member until 4 Aug 2029 (gazette S.O. 5142(E)); Amarjeet Singh term ends without renewal announcement (Leadership source).
2026-04-15 — K V Ramana Murty takes charge as SEBI Whole-Time Member (PR 24/2026), three-year term (Leadership source).
2025-12-01 — Sandip Pradhan inducted as SEBI Whole-Time Member (Dec 2025) (Leadership source).
2025-02-06 — Tuhin Kanta Pandey appointed SEBI Chairperson (Feb 2025), succeeding Madhabi Puri Buch (Leadership source).
Chairperson: Tuhin Kanta Pandey (since 2025-02, succeeding Madhabi Puri Buch) (appointment source).
Whole-Time Member: Sandip Pradhan (since 2025-12) (appointment source).
Whole-Time Member: Kamlesh Chandra Varshney (since 2023-09 — Reappointed 2026-09-15 by ACC (DoPT order; gazette S.O. 5142(E), 18 Sep) beyond 19 Sep 2026 until 4 Aug 2029 or further orders; oversees Corporate Finance, CFI, Integrated Surveillance, Legal Affairs) (appointment source).
Whole-Time Member: Amarjeet Singh (since 2023-09 — 3-year term ended Sep 2026; renewal not announced as of 2026-10-02 — flagged for checking) (appointment source).
Whole-Time Member: K V Ramana Murty (since 2026-04 — 3-year term; took charge 15 Apr 2026 (PR 24/2026); IDAS (1991) officer, ex-Addl CGDA) (appointment source).
Register position as rebuilt on 12 September 2026; every line above carries its own source.

Why it matters

Search, seizure, summons, disgorgement, settlement without admission; market-wide bans on bad actors
T+1 settlement made India the first large market to run it (Jan 2023); optional T+0 beta since 2024
Disclosure regimes it keeps re-tightening after every episode of promoter abuse
Statute and mandate: SEBI Act, 1992 (statutory; existed as non-statutory body since 1988) — SEBI official site · RegTrac register entry.

SEBI-recognised SROs (AMFI, ANMI, BASL) sit in SROTrac's future scope: SROTrac.

Who is affected

Grievance route: SCORES 2.0 — scores.gov.in; SMART ODR for online dispute resolution (SEBI site).
SEBI's own studies have repeatedly found most retail F&O traders lose money — Reuters reported the pattern again in Mar 2026. The regulator knows the house odds and says so; the products are still on sale.
Check adviser/broker registration on SEBI's site before paying anyone for "stock tips".
The full route, with the register's own notes on escalation, is in the RegTrac register entry for SEBI.

What to watch

The previous chair's 2024-25 term ended amid unprecedented public scrutiny of the chair's personal disclosures — the appointment process itself (ACC, no public shortlist) was the structural weakness everyone pointed at.
Consultation papers are public; who responds, and which responses get accepted, is not systematically published — the LobbyWatch gap.
Industry-standard setters (AMFI, BASL, ANMI) are SEBI-recognised SROs — industry writing its own code again; their rosters are a future SROTrac extension.
Every watchpoint above is tracked against the RegTrac register entry for SEBI, as rebuilt on 12 September 2026; no line here rests on information the register does not carry.

Evidence

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