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Informist, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024

 

By Rajesh Gajra

 

MUMBAI – The Securities and Exchange Board of India is seeking its board's approval to appoint a former general manager, taxation, at Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Shikha Gupta, as an executive director, according to a source in the market regulator, who asked not to be named. The board is likely to hold its next meeting around Dec. 18 when this proposal may be taken up along with other items on the agenda, the official said. SEBI did not respond to a query emailed by Informist.

 

The proposal to appoint Gupta as executive director has ignited dissent in a section of SEBI's middle management staff who are against executive director-level appointments from outside the organisation when there are strongly qualified employees within, the official said.

 

Some employees are also asking whether the Hindustan Unilever link was avoidable, given the past link of SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch's husband Dhaval Buch with the company. Dhaval Buch retired as global chief procurement officer at Unilever. The link came under intense scrutiny after US short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the SEBI chief of conflict of interest. There are concerns now whether the chairperson has recused herself from the matter of Gupta's appointment.

 

Hindustan Unilever's annexure to the directors' report in the annual report for financial year 2023-24 (Apr-Mar) lists Gupta as a general manager, taxation, who joined the company on Mar. 19, 2018, and was paid a remuneration of INR 25.35 million in FY24. Gupta, according to her LinkedIn profile, worked in the company for six years and two months from March 2018 to April 2024.

 

At the time of leaving Hindustan Unilever, Gupta was tax director for South Asia, according to her profile. Prior to joining Hindustan Unilever, she had worked for seven years and four months with Novartis India Ltd. as head of taxation, her profile showed. A query sent to Gupta by Informist through the LinkedIn online platform seeking her comments was not answered at the time of writing.

 

The last time an external person was appointed as an executive director by SEBI was in July 2022 when ICICI Bank Ltd.'s group general counsel Pramod Rao joined the market regulator as an executive director. There are 10 executive directors in SEBI currently, data from its website showed. They report to four whole-time members and the chairperson.  End

 

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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