India stock exchange CEO acted on yogi’s advice
DELHI • A mysterious yogi living in the Himalayas effectively controlled India’s $4-trillion national stock exchange for years, according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The spiritual guide, whose identity is unknown, treated the institution’s former chief executive, who addressed him as “master,” as “a puppet,” according to the SEBI investigation, giving her instructions on everything including job appointments, business plans, projections and even employee performance appraisals.
The inquiry uncovered emails spanning 20 years between the yogi and Chitra Ramakrishna, who says she met the guru on the banks of the Ganges and had since sought his advice on “many personal and professional matters.”
Ramakrishna was eventually forced out of her job after a scandal involving an executive appointment she made on the guru’s advice.
On Friday, the SEBI penalized Ramakrishna for allowing “her decisions on various aspects of the functioning of the stock exchange to be influenced by that unknown person.”
Ramakrishna told the SEBI she believed her guide was now living mostly in the Himalayas and that she communicated with him by email, as “their spiritual powers do not require them to have any physical co-ordinates.”
The former CEO and four other stock exchange officials were fined a total of $1 million and barred from involvement with any market infrastructure institution for three years.
Ramakrishna was appointed managing director of the national stock exchange in 2009 and was promoted to CEO in 2013. That year, she appointed Anand Subramanian, who at the time was little known in the finance industry, as the exchange’s part-time chief operating officer on an annual salary of $223,000. His previous salary had been $20,000. His pay rose to $664,000 over the next two years, in accordance with the yogi’s instructions. The investigation also found emails from 2015 in which Ramakrishna had sought guidance from the yogi on a promotion for Subramanian and how to hand over some of the operations to him.
“I seek your guidance on the path forward on this Swami (Master), if this meets with your Highness’s approval,” Ramakrishna wrote.
However, between 2015 and 2016, the SEBI received multiple allegations of mismanagement against Ramakrishna.
She was ultimately ousted in 2016 over her role in a trading scam and abuse of power in the appointment of Subramanian. She received $5.8 million compensation on her departure.