Sebi bans 9 entities from securities mkt for 2-yrs for flouting investment advisory rules Capital markets regulator Sebi has barred nine entities from the securities market for at least two years and directed them to refund Rs 8 crore collected from investors, through unregistered investment advisory services, within three months. Additionally, the regulator has imposed a penalty totalling Rs 18 lakh on them and asked them to pay the amount within 45 days. Further, three individuals — Yogesh Kukadia, Rajesh Kallidumbil and Nithin Raj — have been restrained from associating as directors or key managerial personnel with any listed public company for two years. In its probe, the regulator found that Yogesh and Rajesh, who were registered as investment advisers, had not conducted the IA (investment advisory) activities in their individual capacities but rather carried out IA work through the six partnership firms that were not registered with Sebi. The regulator conducted an inspection of the advisory activities of Yogesh and Rajesh for the period April 2018 to September 2019 after receiving certain complaints. Going by the order, the entities received Rs 810.24 lakh from the clients as fees in respect of their unregistered investment advisory activities. The amount of fees was collected from 4,536 clients for providing investment advice through the six partnership firms, which were not registered firms with Sebi. The three individuals, who are common partners in all the six partnership firms, have collected the fees from the clients through the six partnership firms, which were not registered and hence not eligible to collect such fees. “These activities were being carried out by the noticees 1 to 9 without obtaining the necessary certificate of registration as investment advisers and therefore, the noticees have violated … SEBI Act along with… IA Regulations,” Sebi said in its order passed on Tuesday. Accordingly, Sebi has asked nine entities to “jointly and severally refund the amount / fees /consideration received from any complainant / investor / client, within a period of three months … in respect of their unregistered investment advisory activities’. Further, they have been “debarred from accessing the securities market, directly or indirectly and are prohibited from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in the securities market, directly or indirectly in any manner whatsoever, for a period of two years … or till the expiry of two years from the date of completion of refunds to complainants/investors … whichever is later”.
Logistics, good or bad, are driven by the states and the commerce ministry has a LEADS (Logistics Ease Across Different States) report, based on perceptions. The 2023 version was released in December. Since states are heterogenous, in the reporting, they are divided into four groups—coastal, landlocked, north-east, and UTs. States that do well are called achievers. Nomenclature matters. Thus, states that are middling aren’t called average. They are called fast movers. States that are sub-par are called aspirers. Let me highlight coastal states, since 75% of export cargo is estimated to originate from them. Among coastal states, ones that do well are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The ones that lag are Goa, Odisha, and West Bengal. While India’s logistics performance may have improved over time, that’s not true of every state. Some have slipped. Most states have a state-level logistics policy, including Goa and Odisha. West Bengal, bottom of the pecking order in the coastal category, doesn’t have one. To quote from LEADS 2023, “Looking ahead, the State (West Bengal) could benefit from formulating a State Logistics Master Plan and State Logistics Policy to drive efficiency improvements and facilitate investments within the logistics sector and undertake consultation with the logistics stakeholders for educating and informing them about the initiatives State is undertaking for the development and improvement of logistics sector.”
Logistics has been talked about for a long time and India has also focused on improving performance. We are now getting some precise data on measurement and quantification. That helps.
Bibek Debroy, chairman, EAC-PM. Views are personal.