A war of words broke out between the former NSE board member TV Mohandas Pai and Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Twitter over the involvement of an unknown ‘yogi’ in the decision-making process at the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Sunday alleged that Chitra Ramkrishna — one of the founding members of NSE and a former MD & CEO—used to share confidential information about the country’s largest bourse with an ‘unknown person’—a yogi who lived in the Himalayas.
Sharing a news article on the same, Kiran Shaw expressed her shock and questioned if there were no “checks n balances?” She took to twitter and wrote, “Shocking lack of governance in NSE that was held up as a world class SE. Were there no checks n balances?”
Replying to Shaw’s tweet, Pai, who stepped down as NSE board member in 2020, asked her to “stop spreading such falsehoods!” He said, “No yogi ran NSE! Pl stop spreading such falsehoods! Do you really believe that a very sophisticated technology-based SE, one of the largest in the world was run successfully by some vague Yogi? You are doing disservice to all those great employees who worked 24×7.”
While Shaw stated that the employees of NSE were innocent, she did argue if we should just junk the Sebi report. She responded, “So do we junk the SEBI report? The employees of NSE were innocent. But if indeed Chitra Ramakrishna did connive with an outsider it’s dangerously outrageous.”
Sebi alleged that Ramkrishna had leaked confidential information such as NSE’s 5-year financial projections, dividend payout ratio, the exchange’s business plans and agenda of NSE’s board meeting with the yogi.
Meanwhile, Ramkrishna admitted that she talked with him for about 20 years on email ID rigyajursama@outlook.com but never met. She further revealed taking instructions for most important corporate and business decisions. In 2013, the yogi had even ordered Ramkrishna for the appointment of Anand Subramanian as the exchange’s chief operating officer (COO). The appointment cost NSE Rs 5 crore.
The shocking revelations are part of the market regulator’s final order after an investigation against Ramakrishna, her predecessor Ravi Narain and some other key NSE officials between April 2013 and December 2016.
