NSE Running Without Chairman For A Year
There is a buzz in the policy-making circles that filling up key vacancies on the board of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) seems to be low on the agenda of market regulator Sebi. India's largest equity bourse NSE has been running without a chairman for nearly a year now. This is after Girish Chandra Chaturvedi retired in November last year. Similarly, K Narasimha Murthy, NSE's former public interest director (PID), whose term ended in February this year has retired from NSE after which he joined the board of Raymond, helmed by controversial businessman Gautam Singhania. In April, the term of yet another NSE PID Mona Bhide too came to an end. None of the three vacancies have been filled up.
As per SEBI regulations, a minimum of 50 per cent of members should be PIDs on the board of exchange and the balance can be shareholder directors. Currently, there are two PIDs and two shareholder directors on the NSE board and hence the exchange may be compliant with regulations on paper. But given NSE's stature and the huge workload as per new SEBI regulations, the exchange may require at least 4-5 more board members and of course a chairman too. Among these 50 percent of NSE board members should be PIDs. The dictate for more appointments on the NSE board and a chairman has to come from SEBI. But the regulator seems too busy to take stock of NSE, insiders say.
Meanwhile, there was some euphoria surrounding Raymond Ltd when the company named Murthy as the new independent director on April 24. That day the share price of the company rose by 9 per cent during intra-day trading. This, since the markets believed that Murthy would be able to guide Raymond and Singhania better on matters related to compliance and regulations as he has closely worked with high-ranking SEBI officials on different company boards and hence it was anticipated that he would also get another term at NSE.
