Governance breakdown

Sebi order exposes how NSE was run

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) last week issued the final order on the so-called “Algo scam” at the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The regulator indicted five individuals and the NSE for several violations, and acts of mis-governance, which could have potentially rocked the financial system. Using co-located servers on the NSE premises, select entities received price information in advance, and profited by front-running. The period under consideration is roughly 2013-16 with the first whistleblower complaints in 2015. Sebi indicted Chitra Ramkrishna, who was managing director (MD) at the time; Ravi Narain, then vice-chairman; J Ravichandran, then executive