Gossip & Tales: Corporate India's Silence On PM Modi, Gandhi Family Close Aide On SEBI Panel

Usually most savvy, denizens of India's corporate world have sealed their lips this time on India's election outcome. While it is undoubtedly clear that Narendra Modi will return as India's Prime Minister for the Third Consecutive Term, which is a record of sorts since India's independence nearly 77 years ago - the only exception being Nehru - one wonders if corporate India is still unsure of the outcome. The BJP has 240 seats of its own and 12 seats in addition from parties led by Eknath Shinde and Chirag Paswan, who are just BJP in disguise, which would diminish the leverage of Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar. But be it Uday Kotak, Anand Mahindra, Sunil Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Kumar Birla (who was given Padma Bhushan by BJP) or Harsh Goenka and even well-known faces and fund managers who are part of PM's Economic Advisory Council, are all just silent and have not congratulated him for NDA's majority in the poll. Are they unsure or doubtful of Modi's return as PM for the third term? The first and the only Tweet on social media platform 'X' congratulating the PM for the third term on the day of the poll results, came from NSE MD and CEO Ashish Chauhan.

SEBI's Sudden Move After Election Results

In what seemed like a hurried move, market regulator SEBI appointed Usha Thorat as the Chairperson of the Committee on Settlement Guarantee Fund of Stock Exchanges. SEBI's move to appoint Thorat as the head of the committee is stranger than it appears on two counts: the timing and choice of candidate. Ms Usha Thorat is the wife of Yashwant Thorat, who after retiring as the Chairman of NABARD in November 2007, was made the CEO of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and remained in that post for well over a decade. Rajiv Gandhi Foundation is a private trust of the Gandhi Family, whose chairperson is Sonia Gandhi and board members are Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi and P Chidambaram. Thus to be appointed as the CEO of Rajiv Gandhi Trust means, Thorat was a member of the inner circle of trusted lieutenants of the Gandhi Family. His wife Usha Thorat was appointed as the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India when Congress was in power and P Chidambaram and Dr. KP Krishnan were heading the finance ministry. Not only that, Thorat was also made the NSE board member when Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna ruled the roost (in the UPA Era) and KPK held sway over SEBI. Thus, Ms Thorat's return as the head of a crucial SEBI committee on the day of election results showed that some higher-ups in SEBI lacked trust in PM Modi's return to power and were making appointments of people known to be close to the Gandhi Family. By the way, only Thorat's name as the chairperson of the new committee was announced and the names of all the other members are yet to be decided. What signal was SEBI sending and to whom?  

BSE's Mounting Dilemma

BSE's increasing liabilities towards SEBI fees and the exchange having to reverse the bulk SMS-related charges it had billed to the investor fund, both of which are nearly Rs 150 crore, is well known. But what is not known prominently is that it may also have to pay thousands of crores to the Settlement Guarantee Fund (SGF) on the back of rising volumes at the exchange. The principal governing the Settlement Guarantee Fund demands that the higher the volume of an exchange, the higher should be its contribution to the SGF. The NSE paid around Rs 5000 crore more to its SGF last year. BSE's ratio of notional volumes in derivatives is nearly three times higher than NSE. Most conservatively, even if the BSE has to pay around a couple of thousand crore to the SGF, it would be a major blow to the profitability of the exchange and its fast-rising share price, which some punters are trying to push higher. Earlier this year, the exchange's share price witnessed a fall on account of its higher SGF for the currency derivatives segment, as the exchange's own statements to the media. In this context, SEBI's move to hurriedly form a committee on SGF and appoint Usha Thorat as its chairperson seems highly intriguing to many market experts.

Palak Shah

BW Reporters The writer is author of the book: The Market Mafia - Chronicle of India’s High-Tech Stock Market Scandal & The Cabal That Went Scot-Free. Palak has been a journalist in Mumbai for nearly two decades now. He has worked for most premier pink papers including The Economic Times, Business Standard and The Financial Express and The Hindu Business Line. He was drawn to crime reporting at the age of 19 but a few years in the field told him that the fabric of crime had changed and the organised gangs, as Mumbai had witnessed during the eighties, no longer existed. It was business and markets that dominated the scenario. His passion to unravel the intricacies of the ‘white money’ economy led Palak to the world of finance and regulations.