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Informist, Tuesday, Sep 24, 2024

 

--SEBI board to meet Monday, says senior official

 

By Rajesh Gajra

 

MUMBAI – The board of the Securities and Exchange Board of India will meet on Monday, a senior official told Informist. The regulator's last board meeting took place on Jun 27.

 

Monday's board meeting is the first after the controversial Aug 10 report by US-based short seller activist firm Hindenburg Research which alleged that SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her spouse Dhaval Buch had investments in offshore funds indirectly linked to Vinod Adani, older brother of Adani group companies' founder and Chairman Gautam Adani. This, according to Hindenburg Research, was in egregious conflict with the market regulator's investigations into Adani group's listed companies and their foreign shareholders. Buch was a whole-time member at SEBI from Apr 5, 2017, to Oct 4, 2021, and has been its chairperson since Mar 2, 2022.

 

In the past one month, the Congress party has levied allegations of conflict of interest and improprieties against the SEBI chairperson. The agenda for the board meeting has not been finalised yet, and it appears unlikely the issue of allegations of conflict of interest against Buch will feature in the final formal agenda.

 

On Sep 12, a part-time member on the SEBI board told Informist that it was for the government to take action in the matter. The member was commenting on a question by Informist on whether the market regulator's board, excluding the chairperson, will act on the allegations made by Hindenburg Research and the Congress party.

 

Currently, apart from Buch, SEBI has four whole-time members Amarjeet Singh, Ananth Narayan G., Ashwani Bhatia, and Kamlesh Varshney, and three part-time members Ajay Seth, secretary, department of economic affairs, finance ministry, Deepti Mukerjee, secretary, corporate affairs ministry, and M. Rajeshwar Rao, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India.

 

According to a news report on MoneyControl.com on Monday, "a person familiar with the discussions within the regulator" said the matter of allegations against Chairperson Buch will "definitely be taken up for discussion" and Buch will recuse herself from the meeting "in such an event."

 

According to a report by ET Now today, sources said the SEBI board may consider the regulator's proposals for stricter equity futures and option norms made in a consultation paper issued on Jul 30, and a proposal for a new asset class in mutual funds for high-risk investors.  End

 

Edited by Aditya Sakorkar

 

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