To catch a thief
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has been on a regulatory overdrive in recent months, using its powers to crack down on dozens of illegal fund-raising schemes across the country. Collective investment schemes masquerading as public ?deposits?, on ventures engaged in developing plantations to parcels of land or ?private placements? of hybrid instruments, like Sahara, openly offer ?guaranteed? high returns. Mere vestment of additional powers to regulatory watchdogs covers but part of the crackdown on such fraud. In the US, with a highly powerful Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bernard Madoff?s Ponzi ballooned to $50 billion before it was stopped. The scheme was masked ingeniously under stock trading and clouded in secrecy. The investors were cleverly fed on the genius of Madoff who knew exactly when the market was going up to heavily invest, as also encash as the market was about to fall. And, lo and behold, he was always flush with cash in his books at the year-end for the auditors! It took a whistle-blower to crack the scam. That the SEC had not woken up to this fairy tale for a very long time is still under debate. It is not enough to be empowered with legal weaponry. The Sebi would need the guile and intellect of an internet hacker to sniff out scams in the offing. For that it has to quickly educate itself in the ways of arch scamsters and we have a little too many of them.
Janaki Narayanan
Ghaziabad
India-Australia ties
It is good to see that there is an agreement between India and Australia on the supply of uranium (meant for power generation) to New Delhi. And this is, in fact, a good beginning in the matters of strengthening the cordial tie-up between India and Australia. Further, it has to be noted that Australia has a vast potential as far as job avenues and tourism are concerned. Therefore, it is time to put to rest the possible ambiguities in these areas apart from looking into the visa regime between the two countries. No doubt, the warm relationship between India and Australia will go a long way in achieving many high points globally.
P Senthil Saravana Durai
Mumbai
Teachers? Day celebrations
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set an exemplary trend to make birth anniversary of late Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, September 5, by celebrating Teachers? Day in a unique style by interacting directly with schoolchildren across the country through video-conferencing. The day was celebrated in earlier years by fulfilling formalities like giving newspaper advertisements and honouring selected teachers, the events going unnoticed by most people. However, the timing of Modi?s interaction with schoolchildren should have been in the morning hours so as not to disrupt the normal schedule of schoolchildren.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
Delhi
Modi?s Japan visit
Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal has rightly termed Narendra Modi?s visit to Japan ?largely successful? with important decisions taken as far as economic ties are concerned. Japan has also offered financial, technical and operational support to India for the latter to go ahead with its planned project on bullet trains. The agreements in the defence sector are also significant. We hope ties between India and Japan flourish in the years to come.
Hansraj Bhat
Mumbai