 "bonds")
By Divya Patil and Subhadip Sircar
In India’s male-dominated corporate world, particularly in the bond market, women in leadership roles are a rare sight.
Aditi Mittal is all too aware of this disparity. She stands out among the few women at the forefront of the nation’s $2 trillion plus fixed-income market, having co-founded an online bond platform that gives individuals direct access to a market traditionally dominated by large institutions.
With JPMorgan Chase & Co. set to add India to its global bond indexes from June, the previously insular debt market is facing global attention. Opening up the nation’s debt market is expected to draw billions of dollars in foreign investment, with the move coinciding with recent regulatory changes that have mandated the market’s shift to electronic platforms from traditional telephone-based systems.
Mittal is leading efforts to adapt. She has overseen the expansion of A.K. Capital Services Ltd., founded by her father in the 1990s, from the bread and butter of debt sales for state-run firms to offering high-yield corporate debt to retail investors. She recently started an alternate investment fund for wealthy individuals and is focusing on the still-nascent municipal bond market in India.
“We have thrived by embracing change in the credit industry rather than resisting it,” Mittal said in a rare interview in Mumbai. “A change is underway. We must cope with it, else you will get extinct.”
Authorities have taken steps to deepen the nation’s corporate bond market in recent years. These include removal of settlement risk, establishment of a trade reporting platform for enhancing transparency, introduction of an electronic bidding platform for primary issuance, and raising investment caps for foreigners.
A.K. Capital has weathered the challenges from the global financial crisis in 2009, the US taper tantrum of 2013, and India’s shadow banking crisis in 2018. Mittal credited the firm’s resilience to its focus on credit quality, compliance adherence, and operational understanding.
“We saw the disruption in the equity market, and it’s thriving today,” said Mittal, referring to the emergence of discount online firms that hastened the decline of several family-run stock brokerages over the past decade. “The fixed income market is next — its time has come.”
 "Chart")
Mittal began her journey at 21, initially assisting her father — a veteran banker himself — in various aspects of the business, from managing accounts to overseeing compliance. A chartered accountant by profession, she made a transition to deal-making in local-currency corporate bonds.
Over the years, A.K. Capital grew its services to include loan syndication, project financing, and wholesale debt market operations. She co-founded IndiaBonds.com with her husband, a former Deutsche Bank banker.
The platform aims to tap into India’s growing population of individual investors seeking alternatives to traditional fixed deposits — a significant departure from the hundred or so institutional clients her father once catered to.
“Nobody wants to receive a cold call, but they’re happy to go and browse,” Mittal said, noting the platform is “the best way of approaching people because digitization is a growing trend in India.” The platform gives investors access to the information they need to make their investments, she added.
Small fraction
Even so, success in India’s bond market hinges on a low-fee structure and requires assertiveness, regardless of gender, according to Mittal. That’s notable in a country where gender disparity persists in leadership positions — a study by Prime Database last month revealed that only 3.2% of top jobs at the nation’s 2,000-odd firms are held by women.
On top of that, women in India, as elsewhere in the world, often get penalized for displaying ambition or assertiveness, a trait celebrated in their male counterparts.
“I’m an entrepreneur,” Mittal said. “Because I’m a woman, my passion comes across as my confidence.”
