VR Narasimhan quits SEBI's educational institute NISM

The dean of stock market regulator SEBI's educational institute, National Institute of Securities Market (NISM), V.R. Narasimhan resigned from his post on February 23, Wednesday evening. Fortune India had questioned the continued employment of Narasimhan as dean of SEBI’s own educational institute despite alleged transgressions in the Chitra Ramakrishnan case.

Narasimhan is the former chief regulatory officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) and a co-accused in the Chitra Ramakrishna case. In its recent order on the case passed by Ananta Barua, whole-time member of SEBI, Narasimhan was held guilty of failing to report irregularities to SEBI, and misleading the regulator during investigation. SEBI also levied a penalty of ₹6 lakh on Narasimhan. Fortune India had reported this in an exclusive report on February 22.

Though, NISM registrar Sunil Jayawant Kadam was not available for comments, his office confirmed Narasimhan's resignation. No reasons were provided for the resignation. Narasimhan’s profile was also taken off from the ‘Our Team’ page of the NISM website.

Fortune India spoke with S.K. Mohanty, whole-time SEBI member and one of the board members of NISM, to ascertain the reasons for the dean's resignation. Mohanty says he was not sure about the departure of Narasimhan, as SEBI's involvement is negligible in the day-to-day operations of NISM.

“If he has gone, he has gone on his own,” says Mohanty. NISM board only meets once in a quarter, and it would be difficult for him to make any comment on the issue until the next board meeting, Mohanty adds.

Fortune India also reached out to the current faculty members of NISM to know their views on Narasimhan's resignation.

A Fortune India report dated February 22 raised a question mark over Narasimhan continuing to head SEBI's institute despite transgressions. Regardless of being penalised by SEBI for his offences as an accomplice of Chitra Ramakrishna, Narasimhan continued in his position as dean of NISM till Fortune India reported about it.

Ironically, Narasimhan was the professor at School of Corporate Governance and School of Regulatory Studies and Supervision. It seems the regulator finally took notice of the irony and acted against him.