‘Autonomy of regulators must be taken seriously... nobody gives it to you, you learn to be autonomous’

Thank you for having me on the show.

• You look particularly cheerful.

Well, I think it’s freedom, in a sense, after 37 years of public service.

• So when did you hold more power — as India’s chief stock markets regulator or as district magistrate in Agartala?

I think it’s not so much about holding power. It’s about the kind of responsibility that goes with the position you have.

• Maybe you got more late night calls then than now.

Well, late night calls one gets even now, except that one learns to take the right kind of calls — those not relating to the market etc.

• Now tell us about some metaphorical late-night calls, some experiences. . .

Well, there have been a couple of investors who have called in recent times, in the context of an IPO that did not do well.

A big IPO. I don’t take names. He wanted to know what we had done or were proposing to do. I clarified that we don’t fix prices, we vend, offer documents, and give our observations on offer documents. Other than that there have been calls about the market.

• Calls from the government?

Calls from the government, certainly not. I wish often there were more calls. In order to get an understanding of what we were doing in the last three years.

• When the market tanked a thousand points, did somebody call to at least understand what was going on?

No. I don’t think anyone called me. Again I am glad you asked this, because when the market tanked on a few days, we have come on television in order to clarify to the investors that the closure is as per our system and it’s not a panic reaction to the foreign markets. Other than that, we have taken no position on market levels.

• So it’s not as if you are closing the market because it’s falling. It just trips by itself.

It is something that is set in motion objectively.

• In your time, it’s (the Sensex) seen 5,000, it’s seen 20,000. Were there nights when you lost sleep?

I won’t say I lost sleep on account of this. One loses sleep on account of a number of things, so you can’t really have a causal relationship with any particular thing. You did worry, not about the level, but the pace at which the market kept reaching the lowest level.

... contd.