Vardhaman Book on Jainism

Author(s): Jayshree Menon
Publisher: Bennete Coleman & Co Ltd

Page 61

he financial nerve centre of the coun- try rests in his hand, his every deci sion makes the money market quiver in reaction, crores swing either way de
pending on the direction he pushes the file. No one realises the weight of this gargantuan responsibility more than the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, D. R. Mehta himself.
In a field which had come to respect the predators and sneer the ethical, the man chosen six years back to cleanse the Augean stables was strangely one who believes completely in the power of ahimsa. Also one who has never in his life ever bought a share. "I have never had an inclination for it," he admits.
Let's flashback to February, 1995. The government had woken up to the belated recognition that outdated rules and policies had made the stock market a feeding ground for manipulators. The market was awash with bad deliveries, defiant brokers and floundering corporates. On the other side of the spectrum were ordinary investors, many of whom had lost their entire life savings in the scam. The Bombay Stock Exchange had proven to be the most shoddy, badly run organisation completely out of sync with modern financial methods.
On the surface, a financial bulldozer may have been the solution to roadroll the opposition and
crack the whip. Instead they chose a man of peace, a bureaucrat from the Rajasthan cadre hailing from Jodhpur. As Mehta himself recollects, "I was unpleasantly surprised. I didn't want the post, aware that it was going to be a high tension tightrope walk constantly under the media eye. But my objections were ignored."
The markets experienced his healing touch. "Many of my financial friends felt that drastic action was the only solution to deal with the mess. But I personally feel that if change has to be truly effective it has to be gradual and done through consensus. We set up committees consisting of brokers, corporates, financial institutions and most important, ordinary investors, to give us feedback. Of course, people complained I was introducing a bureaucratic culture to the stock markets and that it would not work. But I am happy to say we have largely succeeded and that's because we made sure that everyone in the trade was consulted. Management is about communication. Ultimately whether people agree with you or not is a different issue. What's important is that they too are involved in the process of change."
During this period, the capital market in India was transformed into a modern, efficient, safe, investor-friendly and vibrant entity. Today Mehta cites the Indian capital markets as one of the best stock exchanges in the world with total screen
61 VARDHAMAN
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