THE RISE & FALL...

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) was set up in 1992 by a group of leading financial institutions at the behest of the Indian government. Among these institutions was the IDBI, or the Industrial Development Bank of India.

CHITRA RAMKRISHNA (left), a trained chartered accountant, started her career as a management trainee at IDBI. Then IDBI chairman S.S. Nadkarni asked her to join the NSE’s founding team.

In the initial years, Chitra would travel across the country trying to convince brokers to trade through the NSE. She was instrumental in setting up a pan-India V-SAT network, introduced internet trading and customised products for investors, soon transforming NSE into among the world’s top, modern exchanges. In April 2013, she became the first woman to head an exchange in India. In the three and a half years she was at its helm, NSE’s average daily turnover doubled to Rs 3.5 lakh crore from Rs 1.6 lakh crore.

She resigned controversially in December 2016, 15 months before her tenure was to expire in March 2018. She was among the 15 people who were served a showcause notice over what came to be called the CO-LOCATION SCAM under her watch. In January 2010, the exchange had started offering a co-location facility, allowing members to place their servers on its premises, a standard practice exchanges across the world offer to mega trading members. Except that a whistleblower known as ‘Ken Fong’ alerted the SEBI in 2015 of certain brokers colluding with NSE staff to access the fastest servers and using the headstart of a few fractions of a second to make extra millions.

Chitra was also accused of running the NSE like a personal fiefdom and of corporate misgovernance. Eyebrows were also raised over the hiring, proximity and clout of Anand Subramanian (right), who was touted as the de facto boss at NSE. He was asked to leave in October 2016, and Chitra was next in line. Except that she chose to put in her papers on the very December morning that she was to be sacked.

A whole new controversy has erupted this year with the appearance of a ‘yogi’, whom Chitra is said to have passed on confidential information. Some believe Subramanian is the yogi, while others think it is an old-timer who knows the system inside out and is calling the real shots. Chitra was arrested by the CBI on March 6 and sent to 14-days judicial custody on March 14.