The designation of a single authority is certainly a step forward. Once the recommendations are implemented, Sebi can fairly and squarely beheld responsible for the state of investor confidence in the stockmarket. That may not, however, be an altogether unalloyed benefit, because Sebi at present is manned almost exclusively by bureaucrats. Why an institution which is supposed to be a market regulator should be staffed by bureaucrats without any experience of the markets is a mystery. Dealing with marketmen who know every trick in the book is not an easy task, and only those who are familiar with the markets can plug the loopholes. What happens today is that Sebi often reacts too late, and when it does react it does so with a sledgehammer, rather than remove the cause of the problem without hurting the rest of the market. If market regulation is to be improved, the bureaucratic stranglehold on Sebi needs to be removed.