Sandeep Parekh - Livemint.com
ABOUT RECENT POSTS
Member since 10-20-2008
Last visited 11-19-2009
Timezone 5.00 GMT
Location Ahmedabad
Occupation Educator
About Me
Sandeep P Parekh is a visiting associate faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He was formerly an Executive Director at SEBI, India's securities regulator. He has been honoured by the World Economic Forum as a “Young Global Leader” 2008.
Total Posts 154
Post Rank 0
  • Thursday, September 24, 2009
    Posted at 10:51:00 AM
    If you were reading my blog entries in a blog/RSS reader, you will likely have to update the reader to the new website of my blog as Mint has upgraded the blog platform. You will continue to be directed to the right page if you go to the previous location by typing in the old location, but your blog/RSS readers will not update automatically. Please delete your old RSS feed and add the new one from http://blog.livemint.com/initial-private-opinion/ The good news - the site supports many new feature including one sought by many previously - blogs emailed.
  • Tuesday, September 15, 2009
    Posted at 12:24:00 PM
    SEBI's advisory committee on disclosures and accounting standards has come out with several recommendations for improvement of disclosures standards of listed companies. One of the proposals is to increase the frequency of the disclosure of the balance sheet from the current annual basis to a semi annual basis. This is being recommended on the basis of: "In the wake of the recent global financial crisis and subsequent cases of global corporations going bust, the issue of solvency and not merely the profitability of entities come to the.
  • Thursday, September 03, 2009
    Posted at 12:35:00 PM
    I wrote this week about the report of the Inspector General of the US regulator SEC severely criticising the workings of the SEC in not uncovering the Bernie Madoff scam. The report is now public and I was impressed that such a self critical report was put up on the main page of the SEC's website. Here is the 22 page executive summary of the report .
  • Thursday, September 03, 2009
    Posted at 11:37:00 AM
    In a wonderful and rare event, the high court has shown enormous spinal righteousness in holding the correct law on right to information - that Supreme Court and other judges are not above the law and must respond to right to information (or freedom of information) requests. This was contrary to the hopeless argument of the Supreme Court judges that they were above the law. Their arguments starting with 'we are not public servants' but constitutional authorities and later expanded were severely criticised by one and all in the media. RTI.
  • Saturday, August 29, 2009
    Posted at 12:10:00 PM
    It was refreshing to see some honest talk by an insider about insurance policies in today's WSJ. I have often blogged about the extortionist commissions (upto 40% according to this piece - anything in excess of 2.5% is excessive in my opinion, particularly if it is a mutual fund being sold in the garb of an insurance policy) and widespread mis-selling which exists in the area. In IRDA, the insurance regulator, we clearly have the worst regulator in India - ever. I have advocated in the past that SEBI should take over these mutual fund products'.
  • Wednesday, August 26, 2009
    Posted at 3:33:00 PM
    My post of last week on ADR/GDRs is on the issue of whether they should be treated as voting shares - which they should be as they do in fact carry voting rights. Today ICICI is claiming to be an Indian bank despite 81% foreign ownership. According to ET : NEW DELHI: ICICI Bank has asked the government not to take into account overseas securities like ADR and GDR when deciding on whether a bank is Indian or foreign. Suggesting that the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) should make a clarification on the issue of foreign holding.
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  • Wednesday, August 19, 2009
    Posted at 12:42:00 PM
    Today's Economic Times reports RBI is considering American Depository Receipts (ADRs) as 'quasi equity' not carrying voting rights and therefore not be considered as FDI. This view perpetuates the deeply flawed view taken by SEBI as well, that ADRs/GDRs do not carry voting rights 'till converted into shares'. In fact, ADRs and GDRs do carry voting rights. They are as much shares as are Indian shares held in Indian depositories. To step back, ADR/GDRs are convenient means of holding equity of another country without worrying about.
  • Tuesday, August 11, 2009
    Posted at 4:42:00 PM
    I don't get it. The BSE is outsourcing its exchange and clearing system to another exchange for currency and interest rate futures. And that too in favour of a new exchange which has no experience or brand. BSE has also invested 15% in this new exchange. The only USP of this exchange is that it has institutional shareholders who could bring in business. Couldn't the BSE get new institutions as shareholders if that was a great strategy? So is that the final death knell for the BSE, admitting that it cannot run any part of the exchange? And.
  • Thursday, August 06, 2009
    Posted at 3:11:00 PM
    The American securities regulator has sought $1.2 billion for its budget next year (a 20% increase in the budget). That is a staggering amount compared to the $15 million odd India's SEBI spends each year. Clearly, with the beating the SEC's reputation has taken over the past nearly decade long period, the extra 20% the SEC is seeking may be of questionable value in terms of output. I'm also not sure an infinitely large regulator is a good think - growth for the sake of growth - in the name of catching more violations. There should be.
  • Tuesday, August 04, 2009
    Posted at 11:22:00 AM
    In a somewhat cryptic Board agenda note of SEBI, the securities regulator seems to be suggesting that the RBI is running an illegal exchange under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act 1956" 4.6 The stock exchange under the law is a body corporate under the Companies Act for the purpose of assisting, regulating or controlling business of buying, selling or dealing in securities. Thus, all corporate intermediaries in securities market, all of whom assist in dealing in securities may be termed as stock exchanges while the Negotiating Dealing.
  • Tuesday, July 28, 2009
    Posted at 12:58:00 PM
    It is a hot question internationally. Should the director/top management and the company be obliged to disclose the ill health of such director/top management where the fate of the company is tied to the health of such senior director/executive? The topic has gained currency with the health of Steve Jobs - which investors tie to the fate of Apple Corp. Clearly there are two legal arguments at play. First, the interest of investors who want to know the health of the prima donna director/executive as their stock prices and the future of the company.
  • Sunday, July 12, 2009
    Posted at 5:25:00 PM
    It seems ICICI Bank has sued a senior officer of HDFC Bank for saying that it tries hard to avoid recruiting ICICI employees because of its aggressive culture. I have written several posts about the crooked and hopeless culture of ICICI bank in the past - come here ICICI and sue me for stating the following: a) for stealing my money (misappropriating if not stealing) and not returning it till I sued you in a consumer case after a year of follow up - after which you gave back the money with interest and agreed upon damages. b) losing my Know Your.
  • Monday, July 06, 2009
    Posted at 3:16:00 PM
    The budget speaks of creating deeper public capital markets: " 39. The average public float in Indian listed companies is less than 15 per cent. Deep non-manipulable markets require larger and diversified public shareholdings. This requirement should be uniformly applied to the private sector as well as listed public sector companies. I propose to raise, in a phased manner, the threshold for non-promoter public shareholding for all listed companies." While the aim of the finance minister is noble, the attempt may backfire. To give the.
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