The queen of good times in troubled waters - Story of Chitra Ramkrishna

The former CEO and MD of India’s premier exchange National Stock Exchange( NSE) is in troubled waters over gross misgovernance allegations and investigations. She was at the helm of NSE from April 2013 to December 2016.

An order from SEBI states her to have divulged sensitive information to a mysterious Baba, dwelling in the Himalayas. She admitted that she had been consulting this person she had never met — for the past 20 years when making business decisions.

Ramkrishna is also alleged by SEBI of governance lapses and securities contract rules violations in the hiring of senior executives and the appointment of Anand Subramanian as a chief strategic advisor, as well as his re-designation as group operating officer and advisor to the MD.

All this has led to a chain of other events, income tax investigation being one of them, which has brought the erstwhile “Queen of the Bourses” under public scrutiny. Undeniably, her power and achievements in her long career bear ample ground for the stir this controversy has caused in the Indian Investment market.

A member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (CA) and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK, Ramkrishna started her career in IDBI in the 1980s. She was instrumental in the setting up of NSE. She has served various strategic and operational aspects of NSE and also held top positions in other NSE-backed enterprises like NSEIT. She was also appointed chairperson of the Board of World Federation of Exchanges, a global industry association for exchanges and clearing houses.

Being such an incredible achiever, she was also named as Forbes’ ‘Woman Leader of the Year’ in 2013. Ramkrishna, apart from being the third woman to head an exchange in the Asia Pacific region, commanded a pay package at the peak of her career in NSE which was the second-highest then.

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