Mr. S. Sundareshan, IAS, Chairman, Forward Markets Commission (FMC), the statutory regulator for commodity futures trading in India, belongs to the Kerala cadre of the elite Indian Administrative Service. He has had a distinguished career both in the picturesque southern State of Kerala and in the Government of India. Immediately before his present assignment, he was the Minister, Economic and Commercial, at the Embassy of India in Tokyo, Japan. Earlier, he was the Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, in the Union Ministry of Finance in New Delhi, where he was in charge of the disinvestment program of the Government of India. He was also in charge of bilateral economic relations with Western Europe and with the management of UNDP assistance. Earlier, he was Secretary to the Government of Kerala in the Department of Expenditure, Joint Chief Controller of Imports and Exports, Union Ministry of Commerce, New Delhi, and the CEO of several State public sector undertakings in the State of Kerala. He holds a Master's degree in Economics from the University of Bombay and an MBA from the University of Leeds, UK. He assumed office as the Chairman, FMC, in January 2005, at a very exciting period in the history of commodity markets in India and has already taken some bold and firm steps for the proper regulation and the speedy and healthy development of the commodity futures market in India.