When C.B. Bhave took the helm at India’s capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, in February last year, he could not have predicted the tough times ahead.

Reform challenge: C.B. Bhave’s focus is on longer-term structural issues rather than putting out fires

There was the liquidity crunch after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, which reverberated through India’s banking system and led to a freeze in the country’s money market funds, forcing regulators to intervene.