Capital market reforms

Apropos the editorial ‘Taking stock’ (October 3), the slew of reforms unveiled by the capital market regulator are timely and, to a large extent, address the IPO related disclosures and the front-running issues in respect of mutual fund personnel that lead to insider trading. The mandatory requirement of furnishing the details of past fund-raising and trading transactions of promoters in the offer documents would establish transparency in pricing and restrict undue speculative gains made by private equity investors at the cost of gullible retail investors who had substantial monetary losses in some recent mega offerings of issuers unaware of the price jugglery.

Likewise, the personal gains made by some unscrupulous employees of mutual fund managers through illegal trading based on the unpublished price-sensitive information of portfolio stocks, will now be monitored through the regulatory framework which would improve the ethical standards of the mutual funds.

Sitaram Popuri

Bengaluru

IPO issues

The tanking of big ticket IPOs like LIC and Paytm have scared most of the first-time investors from investing in the IPOs of other companies, too. A perusal of the IPOs of the past few years will show that most of them have tanked and are now quoting well below the offer price. The steps taken by SEBI to ensure transparency and fair pricing are welcome, but it remains to be seen whether they can protect the small investors from being exploited by greedy and unscrupulous promoters.

The fate of future issues will decide on whether the steps taken have been successful. The proof of the pudding is in the eating!

Anthony Henriques

Mumbai

Improving healthcare

This refers to ‘Cost of healthcare still in need of comprehensive treatment’ (October 3). The pandemic has exposed the lacuna in our medical system. It is the primary responsibility of the government to facilitate affordable and good medical care to all the people. Data show that out-of-pocket spend still accounts for 62.5 per cent of total health expenditure in India, and this pushes a staggering eight crore Indians below the poverty line every year.

The government should give wholehearted support to hospitals run for the poor and needy. Good and ethical medical professionals should be hand-picked by the Health Ministry and appointed to the MCI.

Veena Shenoy

Thane

Policy rate hike

The Monetary Policy Committee has raised the repo rate yet again — this time by 50 basis points. The central bank has attributed the hike to high inflation, the Covid pandemic, global recession and the aggressive US federal funds rate. Yet, it expects inflation to remain at the current level until January 2023. Did the central bank delay the rate hike? Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan recently said the rise in policy rate will help stabilise the economy.

Haridasan Rajan

Kozhikode, Kerala

Court proceedings live

Apropos ‘So that justice is be seen to be done’ (October 3), indeed live streaming of court proceedings is a historic move to ensure accountability, transparency and legal literacy.

The live streaming of the Bench proceedings will increase the confidence of the people in the judiciary.

NR Nagarajan

Sivakasi

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