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Our Market Bureau
Mumbai, Apr 1: Anand Rathi, chairman of Anand Rathi Securities Pvt Ltd, was elected president of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) at the exchange's governing board meeting on Thursday.
Deena Mehta, the first lady member of the governing board in the bourse's 125-year history, has been elected as vice-president and Jayesh Sheth, who was elected to the governing board last week, as the treasurer.
The appointment of the two new generation brokers at the helm could not have come at a better time for the bourse as it gets ready for the new millennium against the backdrop of the unceremonious exit of its president JC Parekh.
Both Rathi and Mehta were unanimously selected for the top slots by the governing board. There is a view gaining ground that Rathi, who distinguished himself during his stint with the AV Birla group, may refrain from being an active trader during his tenure. This comes in the wake of moves being initiated by Sebi to encourage only non-active brokers to head an exchange.
All Rathi wouldsay is that he would remain fully committed to the bourse. Rathi, incidentally, is also the vice-chairman of the BSE-promoted Central Depository Services Ltd which has recently gone on stream. He also played a major role in the expansion of BSE's terminals across the country.
Speaking to The Financial Express shortly after being elected as the president, Rathi said: "We need to improve the image of the exchange and make it once again the number one exchange of the country. For this we need to first improve the image of the broking community and their relationship with the regulator."
Mehta said: "We are all part of the same team. The team is best suited to push the exchange forward. The objectives are now clear--we need to make BSE the best exchange of the country."
On the agenda before him, Rathi said: "We need to strengthen the organisation, develop the avenues of overseas trading, set up our clearing corporation and also set up a derivatives segment."
While spelling out his action plan, hehighlighted the need for BSE to improve its relationship with Sebi. "We need to make BSE a self-regulatory organisation, which has been a practice all over the world. I am confident of achieving this target with my team of board members which comprises now of five CAs." "This new composition itself indicates that we can now assure a professional management of the exchange," said Rathi.
Elaborating on the competition he would have to face from NSE which is a professionally managed organisation, Rathi explained, "I believe in healthy competition which creates a better benchmark. We will try to create this kind of a benchmark."
Jayesh Sheth was elected treasurer for the second consecutive term, while Bhagirath Merchant, a frontrunner for the president's post, was appointed the chairman of the committee constituted to look into the 125th year celebrations of the exchange which are scheduled for May 2000.
The other newly elected members, Motilal Oswal and Himanshu N Kaji, were also inducted into the board.There was a lot of speculation before the board meeting over who would win the battle as both Rathi and Merchant were favourites. It is learnt that a consensus on the new president was achieved at an informal meeting of the elected directors on Tuesday. The directors opted for Rathi.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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