MC Insider | From publishing blunders to listing hopes, hot deals and D-Street drama

The rather public dismissal of a high-profile lateral hire sent to represent India at a prominent multilateral forum wasn’t triggered by just one misstep.

Among the reasons cited include his inability to get along with bureaucrats, failure to follow protocol, and what insiders describe as “low EQ.”

But the final straw? We hear the official made a habit of flaunting his supposed proximity to the Prime Minister’s Office and reportedly used that clout to get a bank to buy thousands of copies of his book.

And that we hear was the final chapter.

An ed-tech firm, once linked to a potential merger with a unicorn, is now said to be evaluating the possibility of a Dalal Street debut. But these are testing times for the market. The broader market feels wobbly, and ed-tech, in particular, is still reeling from the collapse of the category’s poster child. Adding to the scepticism, a seasoned entrepreneur recently remarked that no player in the sector was ready to list.

Nonetheless, all eyes are still on the fortunes of a popular, well-regarded IPO-bound peer. Its founder has emerged as a pop culture icon of sorts. The big question is: Will it spur or sour sentiment?

‘Thermal power deals will soon go through the roof,’ a senior dealmaker told MC Insider recently. A top executive of a fund concurs, highlighting the growing power demand and the rise in utilisation levels of plants in recent times.

The deal pipeline seems to back that up.

A diversified business group is eyeing a buyout in the space. A utility backed by a Canadian investor and now looking to go green is weighing an exit. Meanwhile, an asset, backed by an investor from Down Under, may be put on the block soon.

Clearly, dealmaking is not cooling off anytime soon.

It wasn’t market mayhem or global jitters that had brokers on edge last month—it was expiry day politics. April 17 marked the deadline for feedback on the financial regulator’s proposal to tame the wild west of weekly options contracts. The plan? Allow just one benchmark index option per exchange to expire weekly, on either Tuesday or Thursday. In its wisdom, the regulator wants exchanges to pick a side and stick to it--arguing this will “optimally space” expiries.

But while one exchange is lobbying for all expiries to land on a single day, the other wants flexibility.

That’s where things got awkward for broker associations. Caught between a rock and a hard place, one group took the diplomatic route, suggesting the regulator leave it to the exchanges. The other opted for silence.

All this, despite brokers being the first to ring the alarm bells over expiry day flip-flops, citing chaos and confusion. Now, it seems, the same folks calling for a solution aren’t quite sure what they want.