Chilly escape

A story about chillies is red hot in investor circles these days. A few thousand investors of the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) were promised repayment on the grounds that these were small investors. But those who missed out point out that in most NSEL contracts the minimum lot size was Rs 3.5 lakh. Only chilly contracts were available for Rs 1.5 lakh or so. And apparently only a particular broker from a particular state was heavily exposed to these chilly contracts. A majority of investors of this broker belonged to the home state of a central minister. Loath to have this crisis become a poll issue, the minister wanted it to be settled, hence the special package.