Market regulator SEBI is likely to grant an extension of term to GV Nageswara Rao, the current MD and CEO of NSDL, one of India’s largest share depositories, sources told Business Line . Rao’s term could be extended for six months to a year, the sources said.

Rao has already served his two terms as per the regulatory norms but SEBI is unsatisfied with the candidates that were recommended by NSDL’s nomination and remuneration committee (NRC), sources said.

Probable candidates

After a slew of interviews, the recommendation of Priya Subbaraman, the chief regulator officer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), and Sanjeev Kaushik, 1992 batch IAS officer and additional secretary in the Ministry of Finance, was made by the NSDL committee for the top post. Current MCX MD and CEO PS Reddy too was under consideration.

As per current SEBI regulations, chiefs of market infrastructure institutions such as stock exchanges and depositories can serve a maximum of two terms up to five years each.

Rao was appointed as NSDL MD and CEO in 2013 after the company was de-merged into two companies, NSDL and NSDL e-governance Infrastructure Limited. Gagan Rai the then chief of NSDL was appointed MD & CEO of the e-governance company. A qualified chartered accountant, Rao is a MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad and started his career from IDBI.

A large number of top brass of the NSE, the founder and promoter of NSDL, too came from IDBI. In 2003, IDBI appointed Rao as MD & CEO of the new generation private sector bank, IDBI Bank. If Rao is given an extension, his tenure at NSDL could come to an end along with the incumbent SEBI chairman Ajay Tyagi.