All for transparency

The New ICAI President Debashis Mitra had attracted newspersons’ attention during his first media interaction with his candidness and clear articulation of thoughts. Mitra said he was all for transparency and promote it during his Presidency. This prompted a hack to go to him after the presser to suggest that if he was serious about transparency, then ICAI should start prominently displaying (disclosing) on its website the orders of the disciplinary actions taken against its members.

The hack wanted ICAI to take a leaf out of insolvency regulator IBBI and SEBI’s book. Such an approach would reduce the trust deficit that society had on audit community, it was pointed out.

This suggestion, put Mitra on a spot as he smilingly remarked that he was all for transparency! So was that a yes to the suggestion or a no? Only time will tell, if Central Council will allow him to be transparent on this, another hack quipped.

Battle Royale

It is now capital market folklore that both BSE and NSE don't see eye to eye on many things and are fierce competitors in almost all segments.

NSE may have trounced BSE in the derivatives segment. There is buzz in the market circles of this competition for market share between the two equity bourses spilling to a new area. Yes, you guessed it right. Both BSE and NSE are now in the lookout for a MD& CEO and there is now going to be a big battle for the best candidate, quipped an astute capital market observer. May the best candidate win, hopefully to the satisfaction of all the governance experts.

Mid-wicket! 

After the humiliating drubbing in the recent State polls, the Congress party is hoping to bounce back in Karnataka which goes to polls early next year. Former and likely future Congress President Rahul Gandhi was on a visit to the State and is said to have counselled both key factions in the State unit — led by KPCC President DK Shivakumar and former CM Siddaramiah — to bury the hatchet and work together to win 150 seats in the 224-member Assembly.

To blunt BJP's majoritarian card, Siddaramiah has been asked to not make any statement that can be construed as 'anti-Hindu.' Shivakumar was directed to take all sections of the party along.

Rahul also played the soft-Hindutava card visiting the Siddaganga Mutt in Tumkur and paying his obeisance there. The mutt is revered by Lingayats the largest community in the State and the BJP's main vote bank. Whether all this will help at the hustings remains to be seen.

INTUC peeve with Congress 

The faction ridden Kerala Congress had another crisis on its hands, when trade union Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) was up in arms against VD Satheesan, senior party leader and Leader of Opposition. The leader was criticised for disowning the party's trade union wing for alleged excesses during the two-day nationwide strike with 11 other major peer unions. The INTUC took out a protest march against what it described as Satheesan's irresponsible statement, and its leaders thundered that they couldn't care less if their action prompts disciplinary action. So much for the travails of the Grand Old Party in Kerala!

‘Supari’ from Gulf 

At a time when ‘atmanirbhar’ (self-reliance) is gaining momentum in the country, the stakeholders in arecanut sector got news that they did not expect. The country, which produces more than 15 lakh tonnes of arecanut and which is ‘aatmanirbhar’ in meeting the domestic consumption, has been importing it from the countries where it is not grown. Expressing surprise and concern over the import of arecanut from UAE and Singapore, some stakeholders said this is an alarming and dangerous trend for the domestic growers.

Though the country has imposed stringent measures to control the import of arecanut, the import figures for 2021-22 presented in Lok Sabha showed India importing arecanut valued ₹14.73 crore from UAE and Singapore. “We had heard that UAE grows dates, we did not know that it also ‘grows’ arecanut,” said a stakeholder sarcastically, adding UAE and Singapore do not grow arecanut. Our Bureaus