Daily Briefing: Sebi defends its chief amid Hindenburg allegations; Lessons from Paris Olympics; and more

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has come out in defence of its chairperson, Madhabi Buch, a day after Hindenburg Research alleged her involvement in obscure offshore funds linked to the Adani scandal. The regulator asserted that it has robust internal mechanisms to manage potential conflicts of interest.

As the SEBI chief stands firm with strong support from the market regulator, former SEBI chairpersons and board members told The Indian Express that two key issues warrant scrutiny: i) whether she fully disclosed her financial interests to the government, and ii) whether she recused herself from investigations involving a regulated entity in which she or her husband had a direct or indirect interest. We explain these issues. 

Meanwhile, the allegations have sparked a political storm, with Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and the CPM calling for Buch’s resignation, while the Congress and the TMC have demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigation into the claims. On the other hand, the BJP has dismissed the charges and accused the Opposition of using its “connections abroad” to create “economic chaos.”

📰 From the front page

‘We got rid of the government, now we will have to take up the responsibilities’

The past seven days in Dhaka have marked a significant shift: from Sheikh Hasina departing the country and an interim government being established under Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, to the swearing in of a new Chief Justice on Sunday.

The students who hit the streets in protest against the Hasina government are now back on the roads as volunteers in managing traffic and handling anti-Hasina graffiti. We speak to these students about how they felt oppressed under the Awami League government and the critical turning points during the protests.

India’s Olympic campaign concluded with a total of six medals: one silver and five bronze. Shooting played a pivotal role in driving the medal tally, and hockey coach Craig Fulton’s freedom to implement his strategies without fear of failure also contributed. Despite a disappointing performance overall and several setbacks, Neeraj Chopra’s brilliance ensured that India came close to matching its Tokyo medal count. Moving forward, however, the focus will shift to analyzing the lessons from each missed opportunity.

One of the two civilians wounded in an encounter between security forces and militants in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Saturday succumbed to his injuries on Sunday. The clash, which resulted in the death of two soldiers, began when a joint team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Army launched a search operation in the mountainous forests of the Ahlan Gadole area in Kokernag, Anantnag.

⚡Only in the Express

In 1984, on a sweltering April day in Lorhiya Ghata village, Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district, two friends, Dabbu and Rudra, clashed over a fallen mango near a field. This seemingly trivial dispute eventually spiraled into a murder case that dragged on for 40 years, navigating through the Indian judiciary from the lowest courts to the Supreme Court. Click here to know more about this story. 

With Haryana Assembly elections coming up this year, former Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda joins Manoj C J in the latest Idea Exchange. Hooda is giving his all to an election he claims to be his last. In his latest chat, he speaks about the polls, the shift in national politics, the reinvention of the Congress, and Vinesh Phogat.

👉 Must Read

The Paris Games may be over but the lessons stay with us still. In her most recent column, Neerja Chowdhury juxtaposes the conduct of India’s young sportspersons at the Olympics with what transpired in our political corridors after the developments in Dhaka: “If only both sides would fight hard when required and be big-hearted when necessary — like our sportspersons — for the larger prize called our parliamentary democracy.”

In our Opinion section today, Vivek Katju writes about the back-to-back setbacks in India’s foreign and security interests in Afghanistan, Maldives and Bangladesh, raising some important questions.

On August 9, 1925, a railway station nearly 20 kilometres from Lucknow witnessed one of the most daring events of the Indian freedom movement. It was when ten revolutionaries looted money meant for the British treasury from a passenger train, accelerating the fight for India’s freedom. Now, a hundred years after the incident, Shyamlal Yadav glances back at what happened and how the ramifications from the trial in the Kakori train robbery case were felt much after Independence.

📌And Finally: 

After a technical glitch in the spacecraft that took them to the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore could be suspended in space till 2025. The situation, though unprecedented, is not a first. But how will ISS accommodate them? and how will their bodies react in this period? We explain.

It may have been an old practice at the ministry office but the new minister did not take kindly to it. Staffers at the Krishi Bhawan office of Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan used to switch on the ACs before his arrival to cool down the room, until now, when Chouhan objected to the practice. Don’t miss today’s edition of Delhi Confidential to know what happened!

🎧In today’s episode of the 3 Things podcast, Asad Rehman discusses the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Mallica Joshi talks about Manish Sisodia being granted bail, and Anonna Dutt explains why several international drugs will soon be available in the Indian market much faster. Tune in!

Until tomorrow,

Ayesha Jain and Aradhana Kalia

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