Running of SEBI Board
An interesting trend is emerging at SEBI, the capital market regulator. The Board of SEBI is now being run with members who have excelled themselves as banking professionals.
First it was incumbent SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch, who had a long stint with ICICI Group. This past week, Ananth Narayan Gopalakrishnan was appointed as SEBI Wholetime Member. He has over two decades of experience in financial services and stints in Citibank, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered. Ashwani Bhatia, who was Managing Director at SBI, had become Wholetime Member of SEBI in June.
Some justice for retired CJIs
This may come as a bit of a surprise. Finally, a Chief Justice of India (CJI) retiring from the Supreme Court will be entitled to domestic help, chauffeur and secretarial assistant for life. Further he/she will also be entitled to round-the-clock security at residence and personal security guard for five years after retirement. These come as result of the Centre amending the Supreme Court Judges Rules on Friday.
Here is the icing on the cake — a retired CJI will also be entitled to a rent-free Type-VII accommodation in Delhi (other than designated official residence) for period of six months from the date of retirement. One may wonder why it took this long to provide such benefits to a retired CJI. But, as the saying goes, ‘Better late than never.’
On a fast lane
One always heard industry players murmur as to how the financial sector regulators were not in step with modern day innovations and couldn’t fashion regulations to help propel growth in their segments in a tech-driven economy. That however doesn’t seem to be the case with the insurance regulator. The industry is mighty thrilled about the way the new IRDAI Chairman Debasish Panda, who assumed charge in March this year, is going about his work.
Not only is Panda revamping regulations to help the industry “leapfrog” and meet modern India’s insurance needs, he recently introduced a system of “targets” for insurers so as to enhance insurance penetration in the country. Panda is also quite focused on moving away from a rule-based regime to a principle based regulatory regime, which must be music to the ears of industry players.
At a recent webinar, CII President Sanjiv Bajaj — who himself is an insurance industry honcho — remarked: “It’s not too often that we see a regulator move faster than industry...”
Foodgrains for Bangladesh
Bangladesh has probably missed a trick or two in building up its foodgrain stocks. It should have begun buying rice during April-June, instead it seems to have gone all out to buy wheat. Despite the purchases in the first quarter, the neighbouring country has only 1.5 lakh tonnes of wheat as government stock. Similarly, its rice stocks are down to 18 lakh tonnes.
Things now boil down to Sheikh Hasina Wazed’s visit to New Delhi during September 5-7. A little bird says she will urge the Indian government to exempt her country from export restrictions and sign an agreement to that effect. India has a similar pact with Bhutan and Maldives. This comes at a time when rumours are that India could curb rice exports.
Smile wiped away
On August 23, the Tamil Nadu Government released the Footwear & Leather Products Policy 2022 to make the State the go-to place when it comes to manufacturing leather products not just in India (it is already the leading player in the country, accounting for 28 per cent of output and 48 per cent of exports) but all of Asia.
Even as the policy was being unveiled by Chief Minister MK Stalin, some of the prominent leather manufacturers were in for a shock. Officials from the Income Tax department raided their offices and manufacturing facilities in Tamil Nadu. Their happiness in the State bringing out such a favourable policy could not have been more short-lived.
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