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Correspondent

21 August 2024 at 3:50:16 pm

New Frontiers

India’s most telling victories at the Asian Games in Nagoya came from the most unexpected quarters. While cricket and hockey did what champions are supposed to do and defended their crowns, the more consequential breakthroughs came from a 17-year-old archer and a 23-year-old golfer, who stormed territory no Indian woman had entered before. The significance of Kumkum Mohod’s historic recurve gold and Pranavi Urs’s first individual golf gold go well beyond than merely being medals to India’s...

New Frontiers

India’s most telling victories at the Asian Games in Nagoya came from the most unexpected quarters. While cricket and hockey did what champions are supposed to do and defended their crowns, the more consequential breakthroughs came from a 17-year-old archer and a 23-year-old golfer, who stormed territory no Indian woman had entered before. The significance of Kumkum Mohod’s historic recurve gold and Pranavi Urs’s first individual golf gold go well beyond than merely being medals to India’s tally. They are markers of a sporting culture in which Indian women are no longer merely participating at the highest level, but increasingly redefining what success looks like. Kumkum’s achievement was remarkable even by the standards of a breakthrough. She defeated South Korea’s Oh Yejin in a shoot-off-like 6-5 finish after overcoming a reigning world champion, Kang Chaeyoung, in the quarter-final and former world No. 1 Jingyi Zhu in the semi-final. Her haul of two golds and a silver, alongside an Olympic quota place, suggests that this is not merely a promising teenager but the arrival of a serious international competitor who is here to stay. Pranavi’s victory was a different test of temperament. A triple bogey on the third hole had erased her three-stroke overnight advantage. While many a golfer would have watched the tournament disappear at that moment, she instead recovered with three birdies and finished at 15-under 265, one stroke ahead. Her individual gold also helped India secure the team silver, with Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar contributing to the effort. Women’s sport in India now is no longer simply a story of exceptional individuals overcoming exceptional obstacles. It is fast becoming an ecosystem which is producing women capable of competing across shooting, archery, badminton, boxing, wrestling, athletics, cricket, hockey and golf. While some are established stars, others are teenagers arriving with an expectation of winning rather than merely participating. Every Kumkum or Pranavi who wins a major title makes it easier for the next girl to imagine herself holding the same trophy in that field. Pranavi’s medal challenges the notion that the sport is an enclave of privilege and tradition rather than a field open to Indian talent. India’s 11-gold surge in the final two days owed much to disciplines outside the country’s traditional sporting spotlight. Archery produced nine medals, including five golds. The message here is that India’s sporting ambitions no longer rest on a handful of glamour sports like cricket. The next challenge is to convert Asian success into sustained global performance. The real test will come at the Olympics, where the fields are deeper and the margins narrower. This is the big takeaway from the astonishing performance of our women athletes at Nagoya. They are expanding the definition of what an Indian woman can achieve in sport and more importantly, what the country now expects her to achieve.

Lateral upgrade to ailing annihilation

Writer: Mangesh Kulkarni
Mangesh Kulkarni
Sep 9, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Lateral upgrade to ailing annihilation

Being the first person from the private sector to be appointed as chairperson of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as part of the government’s lateral initiative, Madhabi Puri Buch also holds the honour of being the first woman to hold the top post as capital market regulator.

But the laurels that the former private sector banker enjoyed in her earlier stint with ICICI Bank, was marred with allegations that she and her husband were having a stake in offshore entities, which were used to artificially inflate shares of Adani group companies.

Terming the allegation as `character assassination, Buch clarified that all disclosures have already been furnished and the fund in question did not invest in any securities involving the Adani group.

When it rains, it pours. This allegation was subsequently followed by Congress Party allegation that Buch had received salary and post-retirement benefits from ICICI Bank after she quit the private sector bank.

In its clarification to the stock exchanges, ICICI Bank asserted that the payments made to Buch were purely retirement benefits after her exit from the bank and they were neither salary nor employee stock options.

Prior to these allegations, Buch tenure at SEBI was all about bringing in quick reforms on operational issues by changing the format of consultation paper to bring in larger responses digitally. Being data savvy, the rationale of her decisions were democratic based on big data analysis derived from the responses received to the consultation papers.

Further she bifurcated the duties of the SEBI staff between operations and enforcement, which were done by the same persons earlier. Having worked for the private sector in the capital market domain space, Buch had a better understanding of the subject compared to officers from the administrative service in the past that reflected even in her orders as a whole-time director at SEBI before becoming the chairperson. As a whole time director at SEBI, her orders on adjudication issues were more directional to the capital market space, according to experts in the compliance space. She was also quick to revamp the old provisions of the 90s at SEBI.

Being tech and data savvy, Buch enhanced regulatory surveillance and detection of market manipulation, insider trading and fraud while also emphasizing on strengthening corporate governance by introducing stricter rules for independent directors and enhancing disclosures for related-party transactions.

To put in perspective, the annual report of the capital market regulator in the just concluded financial year revealed that the number of investigations related to insider trading jumped to 175 in 2023-24 from 85 in the preceding year while probes related to front running jumped over three times to 83 from 24 in the preceding year.

Transparency in mutual funds by implementing measures to protect retail investors along with tightening norms for initial public offers, particularly in the SME platforms were some of her other positive initiatives including confirmation of denial of any market rumours within 24 hours for the top 100 listed companies which will be extended to top 250 companies from December 1. However increased transparency and compliance with tightening regulations led to increased operational costs for the market participants and hence faced resistance from certain quarters. Born in 1966, Buch completed her primary education in Mumbai and graduated with specialization in Mathematics from Delhi and later obtained a management degree from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. In between, she got engaged to Dhawal Buch, a director at a consumer goods multinational at the age of eighteen and got married at the age of 21.

Besides ICICI Bank, Buch also worked as a lecturer at a college in England, worked at Greater Pacific Capital in Singapore and ICICI Securities as its CEO. She also worked as executive director on several private sector companies and as a consultant for New Development Bank (Brics Bank).

What now remains to be seen, is whether Buch, who survived the 26/11 terror attack when she along with her husband, was attending a meeting at Taj, be able to overcome the current ordeal. Keeping fingers crossed for the times to come.

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