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

I think one did worry because at the back of our minds, the question was, is this orderly conduct in the market place?

• Can you go back and tell us when were you most worried about a rising market.

I won’t say worried. I would say four days, when it gained a thousand points, you did tend to . . . whether there was irrational exuberance in the market place. You asked yourself if things were going too fast.

• And what was the answer to yourself?

We certainly looked around . . . to see if there were signs of misconduct in the market place. We didn’t find anything prima facie.

• Have you found the investor maturing?

There is some investor maturity. I think the investor is sending the message if you don’t price it right, we are not here to buy.

• And it’s not SEBI’s job to price them right.

• When you were on Walk the Talk last time, a few months after you took over, you had said one of your challenges was to bring the aam aadmi to the stock market, convince him it’s not a casino. And we had one aam aadmi on TV the other day, the day Reliance Power opened, saying he felt like slashing his throat. What do you tell that investor?

I think what such investors need to be told is or need to be asked is, and they need to ask this themselves: Did you ask the right questions before you put your money there? Were you taken away by the hype? I got a letter from an investor, it’s addressed to somebody else, saying I saw you guys saying everything was good about a particular issue — till it listed below issue price. Now I find you saying everything wrong and talking it down. What happened to you guys? I think people need to look whether there is genuine expertise in those who give advice or is it agenda-driven advice.

• Is that adviser in this case the media?

I think the media has a very large role to play, and I’m afraid that role is not being played to the best of its ability.

... contd.