The One-Man Amendment
Picture this. A regulation that has governed India's Market Infrastructure Institutions for years — retirement at 65 — suddenly develops a compelling need for a makeover. Not because Japan called. Not because India is running out of talent. But, whisper the corridors of Dalal Street, because one very specific gentleman's calendar is approaching a very inconvenient date.
Sources tell us that a proposal quietly surfaced at a prominent advisory committee of the market regulator SEBI — a committee whose mandate, mind you, has about as much to do with retirement ages as a cricket umpire has to do with monetary policy. The committee's chairman, we hear, showed the proposal the door it deserved. But the proposal, like its alleged beneficiary, refuses to go quietly.
The chief candidate for a wrinkle-free extension, it is widely speculated in the bazaar, would be a senior official at a legacy exchange on Dalal Street — a man who took charge not too long ago, on a term neatly capped at five years or 65 years of age (whichever is sooner), and is now discovering that “whichever is sooner” is arriving with alarming punctuality. The arithmetic, apparently, is unkind — especially when the appointment itself came closer to the twilight than the dawn.
Decades went by and no one at Dalal Street's watchtower lost sleep over whether 65 was the right age. Now, with the urgency of a margin call at 3:29 PM, the idea is suddenly ripe for debate.
Coincidence, surely. Dirghayu Bhav, as they say. May your career live long — and if not long enough, may we simply change the rules.
A friendly question to leave behind: if India cannot find a qualified professional under 65 to run one of its most storied exchanges — one that proudly rings the opening bell each morning — what exactly have we been doing with all those IIMs?
The Frequent Flyer Regulators' Club
Here is a thought experiment. Suppose you were a recently retired senior bureaucrat, given a plum regulatory appointment, with an international mandate and a government travel budget. Would you stay in office, or would you discover, rather urgently, that financial centres in Singapore, Dubai, London, New York, Zurich, and Tokyo all require your personal presence simultaneously?
Word reaching us is that the heads of at least two prominent regulatory institutions — one guarding the securities markets from its Mumbai headquarters, the other overseeing India’s ambitious financial gateway on the western coast — have been logging air miles at a pace that would make an airline's loyalty programme blush. One, a familiar face in market circles with a past life in North Block, is said to have spent nearly three weeks in the United States in a single recent stretch after enjoying the beaches in Australia recently. Before that, it was Europe someplace. What's next on the map?
Another one too, a former civil servant, now stationed in the International Finance Services Enclave, is reportedly crisscrossing the globe with a frequency that one wag described as “more Air India than regulator.” His India stay is more like layovers between flights.
The offices, presumably, are minding themselves.
ED Drops By Anant Raj for Chai
The Enforcement Directorate, never known for advance notice, reportedly paid a visit to Anant Raj Industries — and the trail it is following reportedly winds back to a Rs 300 crore loan from the Reliance Capital era, sanctioned when certain now-famous and infamous names were still at the helm of that storied institution, before it became a cautionary tale for the ages.
The promoters are in the frame. But the delicious part of the gossip, served piping hot from multiple well-placed sources, is that market circles are buzzing over whether the ED's guest list may have expanded — apparently including some prominent names from the investor community who reportedly hold significant stakes in Anant Raj and whose names, it is alleged, have surfaced in statements recorded during custody.
Madhu Kela and Sanjay Dangi, both known to be investors in the company, are names market sources are circulating freely, though no formal action against them has been confirmed at the time of writing. In fact, both the investors are likely to come under heavy scrutiny as ED's net wides in probe related to Reliance Group.
In Dalal Street's colourful vocabulary: apparently, not all large shareholders are sleeping well this week.
The Candid Camera Chronicles
In the gleaming towers of a well-known market infrastructure institution — the kind that prides itself on ringing bells and shaping narratives — a senior functionary who controlled the flow of press releases — and, presumably, his own image — has found himself suddenly and dramatically demoted. The official reason, we are told, is lost somewhere in HR euphemism.
The unofficial reason? The grapevine — which in financial Mumbai is more reliable than most research reports — whispers of a camera, an office, and an episode that one might describe as a conflict of interest of a very personal nature. This wasn’t just a one-man show, we hear; the frame reportedly included a junior colleague, and the setting was far removed from anything resembling corporate decorum. When the custodians of communication become the subject of it, things tend to unravel quickly.
No comments were available. Naturally.
SEBI Throws Itself ₹5 Cr. Party. You Paid For It.
Finally, the pièce de résistance. The Securities and Exchange Board of India — the same institution that charges investors a flat fees on every single trade, and sits atop a mountain of investor protection funds — spent approximately ₹5 crore on its own Foundation Day celebrations at a glittering venue in Mumbai. There were performances, we hear. There were speeches. There were, presumably, very good cakes.
This is, of course, the same regulator that has been expanding its extracurricular expenditure — cricket, badminton, internal sporting events — with the enthusiasm of a newly promoted manager with an uncapped entertainment budget. Nobody talks about their holiday homes.
One veteran market participant, not entirely joking, suggested that SEBI's surplus cash problem could perhaps be solved simply by not having a surplus, which might involve not charging retail investors a fee on every transaction. But that, apparently, is a column for another day.
The stock market giveth. The regulator eateth cake.
Dhurandhar Remix
You watched Dhurandhar The Revenge?? Did you love the remix: “Tamma Tamma Loge?” Nevermind. Lets talk work. Amidst the fun and frolik, SEBI also launched “Jagruk” campaign for investor awarness.
But a wry delistings advocate pointed out, the campaign wasn't exactly a fresh release — it had first hit the screens sometime around 2003, courtesy of the then Finance Ministry.
Which raises a fair question. If Dhurandhar can dust off old soundtracks, add a heavier beat, and turn them into chart-topping blockbusters (no complaints from the audience), why shouldn’t the regulator try a little remix magic of its own? After all, in markets as in movies, sometimes it’s not about a new script — just better packaging. Bottomline? “Jagruk” is old campaign with new packaging plus [color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]₹5cr overheads[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)].
Too Many Wise Men
Paytm Bank has failed on governance and its license stands cancelled by the RBI. What's the irony? Paytm as the fintech company didn’t just have a board — it had a durbar. Former regulators, bureaucrats, policy heavyweights, and market veterans, the kind who’ve spent careers writing rules and enforcing them, all seated at the same high table.
On paper, it looked unimpeachable. In practice, not quite.
Because when the regulatory hammer finally came down, it didn’t seem to pause for pedigree. The institution, despite being surrounded by some of the sharpest minds the system has produced, still managed to walk straight into a wall that those very minds once built.
The irony is almost poetic. When a platform stacked with regulatory wisdom stumbles on regulation, one is left wondering whether experience became comfort — and comfort, complacency.
The names still carry weight. The outcome, perhaps, carries more.
All items above are based on market gossip, bazaar chatter, and the kind of whispers that float through the corridors of Dalal Street. Nothing here constitutes a statement of fact, and readers are advised to treat this with the same scepticism they would apply to a hot stock tip from their broker. |
