MC Insider: The jadugar and his troupe, a G20 quandary and an IPO dilemma

The Covid -19 situation resulted in the availability of a ‘private /isolated work environment’ and ‘absence of any immediate physical supervision over’ the ‘Jadugar’ who had ‘access to a mobile while in his office which he had not disclosed’ and this ‘gave him the necessary means to be in touch with the outside world to indulge in private dealing without the knowledge of his employer’.
Stumped? Well, these intriguing extracts are from the fine print of the market regulator’s interim order in a high-profile front running case involving a leading mutual fund. The order slapped a market ban on multiple entities and ‘Jadugar’ was apparently the nickname of the alleged mastermind dealer behind the shenanigans, who was subsequently sacked. Lots of lessons for the mutual fund industry? You bet!

As it turns out, the new Niti Aayog Chief BVR Subrahmanyam wrote the charter for the organisation that he is heading. At that time, as part of the Prime Minister’s Office, he was entrusted by Nripendra Misra, the former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister to draft the charter of this organization replacing the Planning Commission. Reportedly, he wrote the charter in about four hours or so! A trusted lieutenant of PM Modi, BVR Subrahmanyam, was also among a select group of people who knew about the scrapping of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir before the announcement.

The recent high-profile meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors witnessed some of the world’s most influential policy makers spend several days at a glitzy, luxury resort in Namma Bengaluru. As expected, the security was super tight with journalists having to jostle to even get close to the convention centre where the meetings were being held. Interestingly, as it turns out, media persons weren’t the only ones who struggled with the cops! A little birdie told us that a senior official from the Reserve Bank of India also faced issues in getting past the men in uniform. Ouch!

This finance company, a well-known player in the small ticket loan segment had announced its IPO plans a long time ago. However, the listing plans got delayed for some or the other reason and there had been no updates of late. Now, there are whispers on D-street that finally internal hurdles have been cleared and the company may step on the accelerator with a likely announcement in this regard. Could the choppy markets force a re-think again?

The AI fan club is growing thick and fast. A startup CEO who is also a tennis fan was left in awe after a performance review for a colleague using the AI companion of a San Francisco based firm. The founder confessed that the revolutionary tool reminded him of how much he sucked at writing!

The times they are a-changin'. There was a time when portfolio was the most sacred thing in an agency professional's arsenal, embodying an amalgamation of all the work and ideas that are still to see the light of day. But now things are a bit different, for some at least. A senior creative chief of a global network agency no longer asks for portfolios from candidates he meets during recruitment meetings. Instead, he has intense conversations about trends, LinkedIn posts, memes and we're told, cryptocurrencies. They tell us the adman does this to gauge the realness of candidates as agency folks are looking to hire young people who have points of view about everything and anything. But we can't help but wonder if the said adman also wants to be in with the crowd and crypto kings.

There are rumours that a legacy ad agency has plans of shutting one of its regional offices. It was one of the most active markets for the agency until a few years ago, and the hub had a solid team that stuck together through thick and thin. Since the coming of a fairly new CEO, the agency is moving towards a completely different direction and some long-term employees are not able to connect with all the newness. If true, this is the end of an era.