Integrity and Indian capital markets

Sebi's junior staff should be appointed through a competitive exam and encouraged to reach the top

In the last week of March 2017 the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) ordered Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to disgorge about Rs 1,000 crore. Concurrently, RIL and 12 other companies were prohibited from trading in the stock futures and options (F&O) segment for one year. According to the Sebi order, “RIL was not genuinely hedging risk” and its actions were “well-planned, fraudulent and manipulative”. The shocking aspect of what appear to be a case of insider trading is that it took Sebi close to 10 years, since November 2007, to come to these conclusions. RIL has announced that