A minister's SWOT analysis of the market

He invoked his management background, declared that to construct a vision, SWOT analysis was needed

Conducting capital market conferences in the capital is not an easy task. Most speakers have to be brought from Mumbai and other places. The audience is not as clued in about stocks, strategies, and related intricacies compared to ones you might find in the financial capital. And, if a star like Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Chairman Ajay Tyagi pulls out, it becomes difficult to hold audience interest in the proceedings. That’s what happened at the event held by a chamber last week.

The organisers were left with Arjun Ram Meghwal, then Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, whom they cheered predicting, like true market analysts, that he might get a promotion in the Cabinet reshuffle.

An upbeat Meghwal did not disappoint them, declaring that he was going to give the audience an “exercise”. He first took the cue from the theme of the conference ‘Vision 2020’ and linked it to its most famous proponent — former president APJ Abdul Kalam. The first little exercise for the audience was to find what the topic of Kalam’s last speech in IIM Shillong was.

As the audience tried to take short cuts, “internet se nahi, mind ke net se”, Meghwal warned. Then the minister invoked his management background and declared that to construct a vision, one should first do an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). 

All hell broke loose as the audience became involved in listing the strengths of the capital market. And, the minister started taking these down in his notepad. He did not blindly note them all. He questioned also.

When someone said, “More returns”, the minister wondered aloud whether it was a “taakat or laalach (strength or greed)”. He referred to the recent cases such as PACL and NSEL, in which lure of more returns had led to huge losses.

Somebody in the crowd cried “Modiji”. Facing a tricky matter, the minister asked him to wait, saying the prime minister would come under a different head. Eventually, a list of strengths such as technology, transparency, liquidity, young generation, and investor education was built in a democratic way.

Moving on to weaknesses, insider trading, cartels, front running, and dabba trading made the cut. Somebody shouted the name of the leading business channel, sending people into laughter. But nobody protested. Some participants had an issue with the regulator. They said the regulator was not being very friendly and that was a weakness. 

The minister decided to spend some time on this, saying he had been receiving such feedback on other areas such as the tax department also. He said people had told him how there was no answerability for tax department officials for the decisions they took. Some people then pointed out the recent shell company fiasco. The minister agreed that it could have been handled better, but, wondered how there could be better accountability for the regulator. If the measures are too harsh, then “Sebi circular hi nahi nikalegi (Sebi may stop issuing circulars)”.

But, he seemed to agree with the view that while the “imandar” should not be scared of the authorities, people who break the law should be. When some complained the state of affairs was the opposite, he promised “ulta ko shulta karne wali sarkar hai yeh” (this is a government to make crooked things straight).

After duly including “decision making Modi government” and “the government that listens to you” in opportunities, the minister, who after the reshuffle will look after water resources, in true Kalam style, constructed the vision as follows: “Augment your strengths, cut your weaknesses, encash on your opportunities and convert your threats into opportunities.” 

Such a vanilla vision would hold good not just for 2020, but even 3020.