Tuhin Kanta Pandey, chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), will be the chief guest at the eighth edition of the FE CFO Awards function in Mumbai on Friday. As the SEBI chief, Pandey has demonstrated a keen understanding of the country’s capital markets and has shown he can be both firm and pragmatic. “Over-regulation will kill innovation. The art of modern regulation is to ease the compliance burden while making regulation more effective,” Pandey had observed soon after taking over the reins at SEBI on March 1 this year.
Indeed, the veteran administrator has reassured the markets that the regulator will not rush to roll out new rules at the cost of the development of the market. “Regulation can’t be an end in itself, it should be a means to an end,” is his mantra. Even as an administrator Pandey had proved his mettle. On his watch as secretary, DIPAM, central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) created an enormous amount of wealth, even outperforming the private sector. In his keynote address and subsequent fireside conversation, Pandey is expected to enlighten the audience on his vision for the country’s capital markets and some of SEBI’s recent initiatives.
There will also be a round-table discussion on “GenNext in Family Business” with Dinesh Khara, former chairman of State Bank of India; Manish Kejriwal, founder & managing partner, Kedaara Capital; Rashesh Shah, chairman, Edelweiss Group and Nilesh Shah, managing director, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management.
The FE CFO Awards recognise the efforts of chief financial officers (CFO) across India Inc, acknowledging their untiring efforts behind the scenes. Applauding the winners of the latest round of awards will be the who’s who of the country’s corporate sector — CEOs and CFOs et al.
In the individual category, Natarajan Srinivasan, executive vice chairman, Coromandel International, will take home the award for Lifetime Achievement while Atul Daga, group CFO, Ultratech will be honoured with the CFO of the Year award.
Srinivasan has been with the Murugappa Group for many decades, working with different companies. Indeed, he has been the Murugappa Group’s go-to person for complex restructurings, tough negotiations and high-stakes legal battles. Whether it’s representing group firms in court or hammering out terms with global investors, Srinivasan’s deep financial insights made him indispensable.
Daga started out in a small unit of the Aditya Birla Group where he worked on financial models that nobody paid any attention to. Later, however, his work on identifying and plugging inefficiencies across plants drew the attention of the late Aditya Vikram Birla and there was no looking back. Daga rose from within the ranks to become one of the most valuable leaders in the group.
The achievements of CFOs across a host of companies — manufacturing and services — will also be rewarded. All winners were selected by a jury comprising Keki Mistry, former vice chairman and CEO, HDFC (jury chair); Ashu Suyash, former MD & CEO, Crisil; Vishakha Mulye, managing director and chief executive officer (designate), Aditya Birla Capital; Pradip Shah, chairman, IndAsia Fund Advisors and Rajeev Gupta, founding partner, Arpwood Capital.
Knowledge partner Deloitte provided the data support for the selection exercise, mining data across companies and using some key metrics to arrive at manageable shortlists. The jury assessed the performance not merely on the basis of financials but also took into account other factors including the standard of corporate governance.