Sebi chair Madhabi Puri Buch skips public address amid Congress allegations

However, Buch did not attend. Instead, Pramod Rao, executive director of Sebi, delivered a speech focusing on green financing and the debt market

Madhabi Puri Buch, chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), was scheduled to be a key speaker at an event organised by the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID).  However, she did not attend. Instead, Pramod Rao, executive director of Sebi, delivered a speech focusing on green financing and the debt market.

 

Buch's absence comes amid ongoing allegations of conflict of interest made by the opposition Congress party. Although she had issued a statement addressing similar allegations made by Hindenburg Research, she has since remained silent on the Congress party's claims.

 

In his interaction at the conference, KV Kamath, chairman, NaBFID, focused on the new instrument opportunities and a new set of investors — pension and insurance — and the improved credit profile of infrastructure projects.

 

 

Rajeshwar Rao, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), also emphasised that NaBFID can consider providing partial credit enhancement to infrastructure companies, which will help improve the credit ratings for such projects.

 

Pramod Rao, the Sebi official at the event, said, "NaBFID has been a great advocator for introducing partial credit enhancement or partial guarantees—to my mind, both for showcasing the potential investment opportunities but also driving its investors to a credible institute. We look at it actually as a mechanism that can be used for municipal corporations and municipal debt securities’ issuances."

 

“NaBFID providing credit enhancement to such municipalities, we will be able to ensure that we have far more investor interest that comes in,” added the Sebi official.

 

From 2017 till now, only around 10 municipalities have raised money through this route, amounting to Rs 2,684 crore.

 

Rao further emphasised that Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) have surpassed alternative investment funds (AIFs) in terms of assets under management.

 

“The AUM of Reits and Invits has crossed Rs 6.5 trillion. Comparing it to AIFs—(AIFs) have total investments of Rs 4 trillion. In a short period of time, Reits and Invits, with just 30 entities, have already overtaken the entire AIF ecosystem, and this is just the start. We have hardly done any outreach programme like that for mutual funds,” added Rao.