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A rare visit by the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) brought together some famous IAS officers on the same stage at the Asian School of Business here.
Visiting SEBI Chairman UK Sinha was himself a former mandarin of the Ministry of Finance.
Worked together
He quit the IAS in 2008 and was made chief of UTI Asset Management and later Chairman of the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).
Sinha was invited here by the Asian School of Business and the Kerala Planning Board to deliver a lecture on fund-raising options available for start-ups.
He was ushered onto the stage by none other than KM Chandrasekhar, former Cabinet Secretary and Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Board.
Both had worked together in the Ministry of Finance, Chandrasekhar reminisced.
Chandrasekhar was Cabinet Secretary at the time Sinha left the all-India service.
Chidambaram's praise
Chandrasekhar told the audience how Sinha drew praise from Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his Interim Budget speech 2014-15.
“The Finance Minister termed the Indian capital market as among the best regulated in an excellent tribute to Sinha’s record as SEBI Chairman.”
It’s very difficult for any officer to earn such high praise from a man of Chidambaram’s standing, Chandrasekhar said of Sinha’s feat.
What Chandrasekhar forgot to mention was that his name too figured in the Finance Minister’s speech in another context.
Chidambaram had said the Government was following up “on the K M Chandrasekhar Committee report on the proposal to classify foreign portfolio investors under various categories.”
Delayed visit
Chandrasekhar said the Kerala Planning Board has been trying over the past one year or more to get Sinha off his tight schedule and visit Kerala.
Sinha was only too willing to admit this, and started of his lecture by pleading guilty.
A fellow IAS officer serving the Kerala Government but conspicuous by his absence was KM Abraham, Additional Chief Secretary, who, as SEBI board member, authored the damning document that effectively sealed the fate of Subrata Roy of the Sahara India Parivar.
A third person on the dais who left the IAS to start an entrepreneurial venture was C Balagopal of Terumo Penpol, maker of blood bags and medical devices.
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