Ravi Narain: The perfectionist

BACKSTAGE

Ravi Narain, the 51-year-old managing director and CEO of the NSE, has steadfastly shied away from limelight. In fact, he has not given a single media interview for over two years now and made no exception for this article either.

But last week, the spotlight was firmly on him as he had no choice but to field questions from the national and international media after the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and three other international investors bought 20 per cent stake in NSE for $490 million, valuing the exchange at about $2.3 billion. "The entry of NYSE would help NSE to go global and enhance its customer-base and product base," he said at the news conference.

Narain, a Cambridge University-trained economist and a Wharton MBA, returned home from Washington, where he was working as an economic and policy consultant, to join IDBI in the early 1980s. He was amongst the group of bankers picked up from various institutions in the early 1990s with the task of creating the NSE under the leadership of R H Patil.

Stepping into the shoes of Patil, who groomed him before passing on the baton in 2001, was no easy task. The media-friendly Patil had built an organisation, which in a matter of seven years, changed the face of the Indian stock market. Not only it beat rival BSE in terms of volume, but more importantly, it brought in transparency into the trades, ended the outcry system, increased efficiency and introduced a slew of products "" derivative products being one of them "" even as the BSE was caught napping. The derivative segment alone clocks a volume of Rs 35,000-38,000 crore on a daily basis.

Narain's critics, however, point out that after Patil left, there were no major initiatives from the NSE, especially in the introduction of new products. "What Ravi has done well is that he perfected and improved upon the systems in a foolproof manner," says an official, who has observed Narain work from close range. "Patil was a visionary, who would dare to explore uncharted territories while Narain is a perfectionist, who would be comfortable in fine-tuning the systems already in place."

But to be fair to Narain, the NSE, under him, was able to launch several new services, such as trading in retail debt market products, launch of exchange traded funds and introduction of options and futures in individual securities and interest rate futures market. "As the gamut of products and services we can operate in expands, we have a greater role to play. We must continue to use that to improve on services to the market place. Everything else is secondary," Narain had said in an interview in 2001.

Risk management systems is one area where Narain has laid stress ever since he took charge. Being a member of the core team which did the initial work for the establishment of Sebi may also have stood him in good stead.

Vijay Singhania, the president of the Association of NSE Members of India, says: "Ravi Narain is always available for any suggestions from our side to improve the efficiency of the market." He adds the NSE, under Narain, was clear where its priority lies. "He is more investor-friendly and will not shy away from taking decisions which are not broker-friendly."