SEBI bans Shankar Sharma, others from offloading Brightcom Group shares; stock extends losses, falls 5% Brightcom Group shares extended their rout, hitting its 5% lower circuit in trade for the second consecutive session after SEBI banned seasoned investor Shankar Sharma, and 23 other individuals, from selling or offloading Brightcom Group shares they possess, either directly or indirectly on beliefs of manipulation. Additionally, the capital markets regulator released an interim order against Brightcom, prohibiting the chairman & CEO Suresh Kumar Reddy and the CFO, Narayan Raju from serving as a director or any key managerial role in any publicly-listed company or its subsidiaries. “Mr M Suresh Kumar Reddy is hereby restrained from buying, selling or dealing in securities either directly or indirectly, in any manner whatsoever until further orders,” said the SEBI order. SEBI added that it found that the group carried out certain manipulations in its preferential allotments. India’s market regulator said on Tuesday that Brightcom attempted to “cover-up its misdeeds” by submitting forged and fabricated bank statements, which also raised doubts about the authenticity of the company’s historical financial disclosures. The regulator further noted that the digital marketing company claimed to have advanced loans worth Rs 824 crore to its subsidiaries. However, only Rs 350.75 crore was transferred to the firms and the rest of the funds was supposedly siphoned off. Brightcom set up an internal team to review its options, adding in a statement that it was consulting legal experts and evaluating potential courses of action. But it did not address any of SEBI’s allegations and did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. SEBI has previously raised concerns over Brightcom overstating profits. It fined the company and five promoters in June over disclosure and code of conduct violations.
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.