NLU Governance Program and Rain!

In addition to Ananta Barua, NLU garnered to presence of a number of other significant players in the Indian securities, insurance, and legal fields. One was D.R. Mehta, the first director when the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was created in 1992, and who virtually created regulation of the Indian securities market whole cloth. Sort of like an Indian version of William O. Douglas with one notable exception (no, not the personal stuff): there was no meaningful securities market in India before 1992. Prior to 1992 the Government of India controlled access to capital through a cumbersome application process that could take more than six months for review. SEBI under Mehta’s leadership moved quickly to open up India’s capital markets to public investment subject to disclosure requirements. The causes of the recent Satyam debacle can, it seems in the eyes of many, be laid at the feet of failures in corporate governance (self-dealing, independent directors and auditors asleep at the switch, etc.) Other speakers also addressed such failures in the world of NGOs, through which the government distributes substantial amounts of funds for educational and social development.

Oh yes. It turns out that it can rain in Rajasthan outside the monsoon season. Shortly after a nasty sandstorm darkened the skies over NLU, a storm blew up and dropped several tenths of inches of rain on the campus. A nice break from relentless sunshine and ever-increasing temperatures.