Sebi: Advice sought from Himalayan Yogi by Chitra Ramakrishna, former chief of NSE

Subhanwita Goswami

The former head of India’s largest stock exchange shared confidential information with a yogi and sought his advice on crucial decisions, a probe by the market regulator has found, ahead of the course’s much-awaited public listing.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said that Chitra Ramkrishna, the former chief executive of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), shared information with a purported spiritual guru in the Himalayas, including the bourse’s financial projections, business plans, and board agenda, in a case of “bizarre misconduct” that was a “glaring breach” of regulations.
Ramkrishna, the exchange, and other top former officials were fined for the errors, according to a SEBI judgement. “The sharing of financial and commercial plans of NSE… is a flagrant, if not inconceivable, act that might shatter the very foundations of the stock exchange,” the order stated.
Ramkrishna, who left NSE in 2016 for “personal reasons,” could not be reached for comment right away. Requests for comment from SEBI and the NSE went unanswered.
For many years, NSE has been the target of allegations of corporate governance failures. Allegations that officials gave some high frequency traders improper access using co-location servers, which might speed up algorithmic trading, prevented the exchange from going public as anticipated in 2017, delaying its listing.