Senior IAS officer Ajay Tyagi will take over as the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) when outgoing chief UK Sinha’s tenure ends on March 1, 2017.

A 1984-batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, Tyagi was handling the portfolio of Additional Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Finance Ministry since 2014, prior to which he was the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. He also had a short stint on the board of the Reserve Bank of India.

Tyagi was also instrumental in the merger of the Forwards Market Commission with SEBI. He assisted Ramesh Abhishek, current DIPP Secretary in this merger.

He will be the first Chairman to have been given 5 years term to start with.

According to market participants, the commodities market will receive a boost with this appointment and since Tyagi is from Ministry of Finance, the transition should be smooth.

Sinha took charge as SEBI chairman on 18 February 2011 and was initially appointed for a 3-year term. Later, he was given a two-year extension.

Days before Sinha’s last term was to end on 17 February 2016, the government approved his re-appointment to the position from 18 February till 1 March 2017.