NSEL crisis: Lessons aplenty for everyone

File photo

It was a hot summer day three years ago, May 2011 to be precise. A group of top financial regulators in the country met at the ivory-coloured tower on Mint Road that housed the headquarters of India's central bank. D Subbarao, then governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), chaired the meeting at which top regulators of stock markets, insurance and pension were present. The group, known as the Sub-Committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), reviewed macro economic and financial sector developments, focusing on issues related to systemic risk. One of Rao's deputies was a woman named Shyamala Gopinath, in her late 50s. Gopinath raised an important issue. She was worried about a new entity called National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), calling itself an exchange was trading in agricultural, industrial and precious commodities, and seeing increasing interest among small investors and speculators. She feared ............

Read | Business Standard