Damodaran said the issue is not really a new one but media houses have taken it lightly when brought up by the regulator on earlier occasions. “My predecessor and his predecessor had meetings with those in the media. The first time, they were told, ‘We will write a code of conduct.’ Maybe they have an in-house code of conduct, but we didn’t see anything in the industry. The second time, my immediate predecessor offered to write it out himself, I am told. I don’t think there were too many takers. We hoped that we would be third time lucky by individually engaging people. There have been some improvements, but more is needed.”

“Ideally, I would like a situation where at the beginning of the program — it might not be media-friendly in terms of excitement — (it is disclosed) we are going to discuss these five stocks and these two persons who are in your studio have these exposures. So that while he is talking, I can look at his face and take a judgement call whether this guy is pushing up stocks.”