Once FTIL started giving competition to NSE, Jignesh Shah and FTIL became the target of the then Finance Minister, Chidambaram, and his network of crony officials, including K.P. Krishnan and Ramesh Abhishek.
Market is at the core of economics, and the idea of creating a single market across the country for both manufactured and agricultural produce was conceptualised in 2004 by technology entrepreneur and designer Jignesh Shah. He followed up this concept through setting up the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL), which started operations on an electronic trading platform in 2008. Very soon, NSEL became popular. It was promoted by Financial Technologies India Limited (FTIL)—now called “63 Moons”. The FTIL group and its many exchanges across asset classes such as commodities, equity, bonds and energy started giving competition to National Stock Exchange (NSE) and soon began to pull ahead of its competitor, which over a long period of time had established close linkages with then Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. To the fury of NSE and its VIP patron, as many as six state governments issued licences under the model Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) Act to NSEL. In August 2011, the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) was appointed as the designated agency to regulate such spot exchanges. However, once FTIL started giving competition to NSE and became a business threat to it, Jignesh Shah and FTIL became the target of the then Finance Minister and his network of crony officials, especially K.P. Krishnan and Ramesh Abhishek. A payment default was deliberately engineered by the duo when the FMC directed NSEL to stop launching any fresh contracts. Why the FMC took such unprecedented action that crippled a functioning entity have yet to be seriously examined by agencies such as the CBI. This lack of official interest is thanks to the hold that high officials close to Chidambaram had within the portals of government. The artificially created default led to an abrupt closure of the Exchange in July 2013. It may be remembered that techno-entrepreneur Jignesh Shah’s company created 10 exchanges in 10 years and provided jobs to 10 lakh people, as per a report by the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS).
In an exclusive interview to The Sunday Guardian, Jignesh Shah states that he was targeted by the UPA government, particularly by then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who wanted to destroy his company in order to protect the interests of competitors close to the minister. Shah spoke in detail about the kind of influence Chidambaram wielded in the establishment at the time. He says that the former Union Minister for Finance was responsible for the NSEL payment crisis worth Rs 5,600 crore, and that he ensured through some officials to keep the payments crisis alive, rather than allowing it to get settled. The purpose of such a move was to finish the Jignesh Shah promoted exchange and other associated units just because he had proved to be a threat to the monopoly of the NSE. Shah claimed that a comprehensive enquiry by the relevant agencies would reveal the manner in which Chidambaram and his associates had substantial interests in NSE. According to him, it was a strategically planned conspiracy of P. Chidambaram and executed by his trusted lieutenants, K.P. Krishnan, the then Joint Secretary (Capital Markets) in the Finance Ministry and Ramesh Abhishek, the then Chairman of the FMC. He says it was Abhishek who cast the dice to destroy Shah’s growing empire by erroneously recommending to the government to stop NSEL trades. This unprecedented step led to an abrupt closure and created the payment crisis. Not only this, it was Ramesh Abhishek who (for reasons that only a CBI enquiry will bring out) implemented the plan to create many administrative, regulatory and legal hurdles—bypassing all established norms—just to ensure that Shah and his flagship FTIL were systematically trapped in a deliberately created quagmire. He says the nexus of Chidambaram, Krishnan, Abhishek and the NSE coterie destroyed the FTIL arbitrarily and illegally to favour NSE. The decimation of the FTIL group in the exchange space caused great loss to the nation, including in jobs. Jignesh Shah has asked that the Modi 2.0 government investigate the “unholy nexus” of the Chidambaram network, which benefited from vested interests and foreign operators at the expense of Indians. Excerpts from the interview:
Q: Tell us about your beginning. How did you enter the stock exchange business?
A: It was a first generation creator story. In 1990. Myself and my two colleagues, Devang Neralla and Ghanshyam Rohira, worked in Bombay Stock Exchange. Technology was virtually not there into stock exchange at that time. There were 23 stock exchanges. This was a kind of market that required a lot of reforms so that stock exchanges in India could play an economic utility role. The reality is that BSE is Asia’s oldest exchange, so it was not that Indians were not exposed to stock exchanges. Between 1990 and 1995, it was one of the golden periods of Indian stock market. But also, it witnessed some of the worst things like the (Securities) scam which happened in 1992. So we were there as a technology team, as we were all engineers, electronic and telecom. We wanted to use technology to improve the functioning of the market.
It began from Mumbai, then moved onwards to other major stock and commodity markets. For five years, we worked there. During that time, I, as a BSE employee, was deputed to major stock exchanges across the world—London (to study there), New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. So, there was a domain knowledge, there was an engineering background and there was a specialised study. With a combination of that I was convinced that India could establish its place as a global trading centre between Tokyo and London, and that it could become be the “Manhattan of the East”. We accomplished that through automation.
In 1995, we started a technology company named FTIL (Financial Technologies (India) Limited)—now it is named “63 Moons”. From day one, we were very clear that we did not want to do body shopping and that we wanted to be a project company. We were believers of creating IP, which now everyone is appreciating. It took three years to finish the first IP, which is one of the star products even today, called ODIN. No software product across the world has been as successful. From the day of its launch in 1998 till date, it is Number 1. It is a real life trading, and when ODIN came, heading the competition was Sun Microsystems, IBM, TCS and a few of the other global vendors. We saw that they were not reaching the heartlands of India. Our combination—the engineering background, the global exposure and the domain knowledge—led us to create an expansion into such hitherto unserved markets. Within the first year itself we were No 1.
So, to really have a huge job creation, we needed to enter into operations across the country and not just restrict ourselves to Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. Exactly at the same time, the UPA government came into the picture because they gave exclusive monopoly to NSE, which was always a favoured child of the regime.
Despite this, some far-seeing officials saw our potential and gave a right to MCX and three other entities to set up an online commodities derivative exchange that NSE had failed to succeed in setting up. The NSE bosses didn’t even form a company. The ministerial and official backing they had made them complacent. In contrast, pro-growth elements in the government grew frustrated with the slow progress in the growth of exchanges, so they wanted to invite competition. They came out with a requirement for creating entities at par with electronic stock exchange commodity markets. We applied and we got through the selection process. NSE also got a licence—their exchange was NCDEX (National Commodity and Derivative Exchange) and our exchange was named MCX (Multi Commodity Exchange of India). There was one more in Indore and Amdavad. People felt that we would not survive for even a year. NSE was having both financial might and all kinds of political and official connections that they freely drew upon both to promote their business and choke that of competitors.
The growth-oriented Vajpayee government in 2003 asked us to go ahead, and three exchanges were given licences. The 2004 elections derailed the growth story, although for a few years, the momentum created during the Vajpayee period remained. The systematic takedown of our enterprise started in UPA-I. They (NSE) had all the connections and operated like a multinational company. They had all the connectivity needed in Delhi, which became a haven for fixers. Among the most prominent and influential was Ajay Shah, who was the academic face but otherwise the functions he did come to be known after the co-location scam got exposed. Those responsible are yet to be punished, although it is expected that action will get taken in Modi 2.0. So it was there in Delhi: their shareholders, their connectivity in the Congress government and, on top of it, Chidambaram’s blessings, which was a key factor. They felt that such a combination of vested interests would be able to kill us. We knew India’s potential and we targeted interior India. We focused on job creation. They did all the harm that they could do with the help of political pressure, from Chidambaram favouring them, including by ensuring the creation of a merged regulator. They recognised that we would be the only threat to them. Our resistance in the face of political and official pressure lasted for three years. By 2006, we became the No. 1 commodity exchange in India, beating them hollow. That result was very clearly visible—the acceptability, the penetration, the scale, the depth and the brand.
Q: How did the trouble start?
A: Then came massive raids on us, done under Chidambaram’s watch. Never in the history of marketplace had that been done on such a scale and with so little justification. So many problems happened during this journey. The massive I-T raid was ordered by Chidambaram on us on 7 June 2007. This was a massive raid designed to wipe us out, but nothing was found. Their internal report stated that there was an expectation that there would be Rs 300 crore cash, a big amount at the time. Of course, nothing was found because nothing was there. One of the officers conducting the raid in Mumbai told us that “I cannot go on record but if anyone calls me, I can say that I have not seen such a clean company and nothing was found, we have investigated everything—it is ultra clean but my hands were tied because I was ordered”.
Q: Who ordered the raid?
A: It was the Finance Minister acting through pliant officials. Chidambaram was supposed to go to Pune during that time. He first came to Mumbai and said that he was going to Pune and before he came back, he wanted the raid to happen. That was a straight instruction to I-T department. A member of the investigation team, P.K. Mishra, reported that nothing was found. At this, Chidambaram reportedly banged the phone down. I did not know then why he was taking so much interest and using government machinery to handle competition to this unprecedented level. The pressure grew in 2007. We were the first ones to get international investment in the exchange space. Then Chidambaram decreed that no FII (Foreign Institutional Investor) should invest in the commodity markets, particularly in MCX. We were subject to hurdles, but NSE was given the green light for securing foreign investment As Finance Minister, he again and again preferred NSE. Despite this, Fidelity, Citibank, Merrill Lynch, New York stock exchange invested in us. That was the appeal and the urge and the Brand India which we had created in the exchange space. MCX was growing by leaps and bounds.
K.P. Krishnan was Joint Secretary and he was the front man who would do all these attacks to derail MCX. And there they got an idea of getting NSE’s stock diluted to Goldman Sachs, General Atlantic, and domestic investors in NSE exited. NSE was always giving an impression that it was a government company. It is exactly like what GST Network was. Their model was to act as a proxy of the state, make it feel it is a government enterprise, and have complete control on everything. What Chidambaram ensured was a regulator and a finance policy management of his choice. Imagine all India as one territory and only one police station, and the police station chief is your servant and you have a criminal mind. You have a mind to do wrongs to make money for yourself, your friends and family. Your well-paying clients. Even the SEBI chief was Chidambaram’s man. NSE management was serving his wishes. They would do all sorts of wrongs. They would, for example, do predatory pricing.
When we started offering currency trading through MCX-SX, they declared predatory pricing as zero transaction cost. So competition got killed and as a Finance Minister he was happy at the success of his ploy. The SEBI chief didn’t do anything as he was “his man”. When we went to then SEBI chief C.B. Bhave, he said that SEBI would not look into it, you would have to go to Competition Commission of India. As a regulator of an industry, you have to be fair to all. It took two years to bring the case to Competition Commission, which was newly set up.
That is how they suffocated a newcomer who challenges your dominant position because you have deep pockets. The dilution of NSE equity started happening at the cost of Indian investors and foreigners started getting that stake. It had gone to a level that at one time more than around 40 ownerships of NSE were in foreign hands
What happened to us has become a cautionary tale to global investors, in that it showed how corrupt ministers and officials could take down a well-run and innovative enterprise that directly and indirectly created around a million jobs.
Q: So how did Chidambaram favour NSE?
A: On the one hand, he stopped any international investor to come to MCX, on the other hand he said “go and invest in NSE”. The man who implemented this was K.P. Krishnan, who was Joint Secretary Capital Market. He delayed everything, which is on record. L. Mansingh, Secretary, Consumer Affairs, wrote a letter to Krishnan asking why he was suffocating the sector. The Chidambaram crony officials wanted to see that we did not grow and the market did not get developed to its full potential. It was at the cost of the country.
Then comes something, which was really unheard of previously. Our MCX was in the jurisdiction of Consumer Affairs and Agriculture Ministry and Chidambaram and Krishnan were part of the Finance Ministry. Krishnan prepared some notes that need to be investigated. I would say investigate Chidambaram’s interest, ownership and trading interest in NSE. Even today I am saying to government and why I am saying is this: we were beating NCDEX hollow. They felt that NCDEX will go. NSE is a private organisation and NCDEX, as a subsidiary, is also a private organisation. It is like a private competition between Tata Steel, Jindal, Essar, Mittal. Government’s role is to do a fair-to-all policy and allow them to compete in a free market. Not side with a particular player and finish off the rest
Remember Chidambaram had publicly said that the NSEL matter was a private matter. But thereafter he set up the Mayaram committee! What was the need to get involved if not because of the intention to kill the FTIL group? India has seen far bigger crises than NSEL, but never was a Secretary-level committee set up.
Krishnan prepared some notes in the Finance Ministry saying that MCX was defeating NCDEX and it was becoming No. 1 and it was in “our” interest to see that NCDEX gets anchored well and beats MCX. So he wanted that two government organizations—NABARD and LIC—should sell their shares to NSE. NCDEX is a private company. Their shares held by government owned institutions LIC and NABARD were ordered to be sold to a private company called NSE so that NSE could provide a “proper competition” and in the meantime, take other steps through pliant officials to kill MCX. The Finance Secretary spoke. X spoke to Y, Y said that this was necessary. First of all, we were under Agriculture Ministry. Krishnan was not a Consumer or Agriculture Secretary nor was it Chidambaram’s ministry. How can you prepare a note after being in Finance Ministry for a totally different ministry and that too to benefit a private player? And you are telling the government to ensure that “our” private player kills another private player? What is your interest? You are there to facilitate competition and everybody should be treated fair and equal. What I am trying to say is that actions such as abuse of official power for favouring someone and depriving someone unjustly means you cause damage to someone and favour someone, which is a crime under the under the Prevention of Corruption Act. So far, Krishnan has escaped even a preliminary enquiry into such actions.
Q: Why did Krishnan do this?
A: The government should investigate what K.P. Krishnan’s interest was. The man has escaped the scrutiny of the agencies so far, as has Abhishek. On whose instructions did Krishnan act? In this matter, there is Chidambaram’s signature. Very rarely you find Chidambaram’s signature on something. What he did was completely blatant and illegal. Why did the Finance Ministry do this? It was a completely different ministry. What was its concern? Secondly, what is your interest in empowering one private player to kill another private player? Just because you have power you do this, you favour someone? And where was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when all this was going on?
Q: Do you think this needs to be investigated now?
A: Modi 2.0 has dawned, and there is new hope for the nation as a consequence of the bold and unprecedented actions taken by the Prime Minister just in his first hundred days in the second term. My feeling is that the entire matter of Chidambaram’s role, along with compliant officials, in taking down our company should be investigated. There should be cross-examination by the agencies and in court of the perpetrators, victims and others with knowledge of the “killer of a business” operation, only then you will be able to get to its roots as to their interest. We told several policymakers, but somehow nothing happened during the past five years. Somewhere someone was protecting both the pliant officials as well as Chidambaram. Some invisible hand! But I have seen that Modi 2.0 is different and that they may not scuttle a probe for much longer. PM Modi has shown commitment and courage by even sending Chidambaram to Tihar. His crimes against the country, including our enterprises, should be investigated. Our own takedown deprived the country from achieving global prominence in commodity markets and spoiled the future of many young entrepreneurs.
Q: Did your company spread its wings outside the country?
A: We were constantly growing. Because of our success, we were invited by the Government in Dubai. The international gold exchange got set up there. We were given a licence in Singapore to create a multi-asset exchange. This was owned 100% by an Indian company (ourselves) in a world reputed financial centre like Singapore to compete with their own Singapore stock exchange, where the government of Singapore, through their arms, has stake also. See the openness. They invited us, that too a foreign player, to compete so that their financial centre thrives. And back at home, they say “kill”. It was a proud moment. It was 100% owned by FTIL, an Indian company.
Q: How did Chidambaram scuttle expansion of your company?
A: We could have really done more but Chidambaram would delay every policy measure. For example, for MCX we wanted options, we wanted institutional participation. Many demands to grow the industry were pending, but nothing got cleared. And then currency trading came and we applied. They said no, only stock exchange for now. We applied for a stock exchange licence, we got and there they felt very clearly that now we would enter the stock exchange. Currency derivate, we became No 1 in that also. We opened the market and we became No 1 in currency derivative. Even for MCX-SX equity platform, SEBI was not giving the licence at the behest of Chidambaram. We fought in court and after four years we won the licence for the stock exchange. And I have faith in Prime Minister Modi and in Modi 2.0, that there should be an investigation in the light of what has been discovered now on NSE. In particular, Chidambaram’s attitude can be shown by the Rs 50,000 crore co-location scam done through the whole network of his loyalists, including SEBI chairman of that time, who permitted it without approval. They started this co-location without SEBI approval and the selection of that SEBI chairman C.B. Bhave is a question mark—there also you will find his (Chidambaram’s) signature as with several nationalised bank chairmen.
Q: What was the problem with Bhave’s selection?
A: C.B. Bhave was selected out of turn. The No. 1 name was U.K. Sinha, a very fine bureaucrat. Bhave was not there on the list. If the government investigates, footprints can be found. I was told that Sinha’s name was cut and Chidambaram pushed for Bhave. And that time when investigation into NSDL (National Securities Depository Limited) scam was going on when Bhave was the MD and CEO. Yet, can you imagine that this kind of thing. This is like there is an investigation on NSEL, Anjani Sinha was MD, CEO. Would you make him FMC chairman? But he was made SEBI chairman. Why this kind of thing? And then NSE co-location was allowed without permission. In the Competition Commission in our case of currency derivatives, he deliberately did not act. He stopped our licence for stock exchange. All these things. You put one plus one, you get two.
So SEBI chairman post, Krishnan as joint secretary and Chidambaram himself. And let me tell you what has come now, which is very clear thing which is co-location. The government must investigate that, his interest into stock exchange ownership that is the NSE ownership and what all one has done in co-location. That is much bigger than this INX or any other case, which is going on. But because Modi 2,0 is there, I can at last say that kind of courage is there. There is a very clear-cut case that one should investigate because the scale is too big.
We are talking about NSE co-location scandal where Ajay Shah is involved, there is an I-T raid on him, CBI raid on the NSE management—Ravi Narain, Chitra—they were there as MD, CEO, they resigned. Today SEBI has said that they have punished them, but it’s an eyewash. They say it was a procedural lapse. And they are getting off. Such a big thing. When small thing, small people are punished and arrested but this was much bigger. In terms of NSEL, it was abruptly closed and that was also a part of the Chidambaram conspiracy. You see what all they unleashed on us and what all they did. But in Rs 50,000 crore co-location, nothing was done.
NSE as an institute is a premier stock exchange. It should be preserved, but those who broke the public trust such as through co-location should be punished. During R.H. Patil’s time, NSE did a wonderful job. But the network threw Patil also out. So all of these issues should be seriously investigated.
So when we came for the stock exchange, I think it was decided that now these people will even come to stock exchange and they will…and in stock exchange there are multiple interests of these people, which should be investigated. I am not an investigating agency but on the face of it, it is clearly visible. Then it was decided to use the smallest thing and just kill the group.
Q: Do you think Chidambaram had control over all the agencies, and not only in the Finance Ministry? What were his commands to FMC in the NSEL matter?
A: Yes, I was coming to that. I think he was the most influential man. There was a newspaper report that Pranab Mukherjee’s office was bugged. I think if such a stalwart leader’s office can be bugged, it says everything. Now coming to what you said. NSEL involved an employee fraud. He and his team connived with the defaulters and they did this. But was it the first accident or the first fraud? The full money trail was available on Day 1. Everything was very clear. Defaulters agreed in front of FMC. Here comes the dubious role of FMC. Like Krishnan, there was another trusted bureaucrat of his network—Ramesh Abhishek. He told Ramesh Abhishek that the instructions are very clear—finish this group. In other cases, if any problem happened in the market, they never stopped the enterprise. Today there is PNB, ICICI. Are you closing them? Are you putting senior RBI officials in jail? You are not doing that. But here the smallest error, that too in a separate subsidiary out of 14 subsidiaries doing on only Rs 200 crore a day, was punished with sudden death. They ordered a stop to business. The actual defaulters were given a pathway indirectly to run away. So 24 defaulter groups defaulted. There was a clear-cut case. FMC was the regulator, they could have clearly stepped up. Chidambaram then says FMC is not a regulator. If you think FMC is not a regulator then will the government come out with a gazette? Will government get a 15-day report on a stock in warehouses?
There are many examples that FMC was a regulator, with Ramesh Abhishek as the chairman of the regulator. They did so many tricks. His (Chidambaram) network was so powerful, its control ran across the ministry. Chidambaram dictated the terms, he put accomplices in key agencies. It was a market pay-out failure. The regulator should have been held responsible. Because of the negligence of the regulators, the defaulters where the money trail was fully established were allowed to escape. Not only was the money trail fully established, on 4 August 2013 every defaulter fully agreed to pay money. Yet no action was taken to get the money from them. I was telling you about PNB. There was a crisis in NSDL, there was a crisis in NSE itself, there was a crisis in BSE also. There were crises, did they close the exchange, did they seek to destroy the promoter? Did they hang someone? They never did anything. But here he said, close down Jignesh Shah’s business. Then he even came out in paper and said, no, it’s off; it is not a regulated entity. The Finance Minister saying this, rather than solving the crisis. The regulator doing nothing in front of all defaulters who admitted that they were liable to pay. Instead of going after them, you go after the exchange’s promoter, who is not even the MD/CEO of the exchange.
We were the first ones to complain to the police. We were the first ones to complain to the regulator. We gave all the tracing, all the details. The Chidambaram network didn’t do that. And what you did, you made us do a forced exit out of all exchange ventures. I as a person, we as a group lost. But as a country what was lost is infinitely bigger than what we lost. That era becoming the global dream of what I feel…that India was sone ki chidiya, the prosperity what we used to enjoy in the glory days of our history. I am telling you that India can be 100 multiples of Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai as a trading centre. We have genius entrepreneurs, trading skills, mathematics, knowledge and a huge internal economy, which only one country can match—America. But we lost because of corrupt policymakers serving vested interests and foreign masters.
The moment we could have become the global price setter, the whole ecosystem would have developed here. 10 lakh jobs are created just on one exchange. If an exchange can create 10 lakh jobs, if the full ecosystem is developed across 100 commodities, minimum 1-10 crore jobs are not impossible. Derailing it in the first gear has caused a huge injustice to at least 10 million youngsters today. To deprive them from the careers without travelling abroad. So this is a loss. They wanted to kill an individual, they wanted to kill the group. And everyone became a spectator during that time. So it’s a loss to 10 million youngsters and the country. It stopped them from achieving their dream of being at par with America.
We were earning a global reputation without any government support, or rather you can say we were having “anti support” from Chidambaram at the time. I don’t have anything against Congress Party. But despite its rule we could get a reputation for excellence from Dubai, Bahrain, Botswana, from 27 major African countries. We as a private sector have beaten China, Bangladesh, Singapore.
Vested interests played their role. It is not just him (Chidambaram), but some brokers who attacked us because they had so many things to hide. They were also fronts of Chidambaram. K.P. Krishnan, Ramesh Abhishek, C.B. Bhave and the whole NSE team—Ravi Narain, Chitra. Then the brokers, section of brokers who were (hand) in gloves with them…they also played a role and unfortunately I can say that they misled the current government because they had some well-wishers inside. The same brokers misled the government, a few officials and a few leaders. They misled them not to find a solution so that we don’t come back and they can still continue to blackmail the government.
They misled the government through their people inside. That is the only thing I can say, otherwise this government is fantastic. First it is a nationalist government, which doesn’t mean that we will not be global. We will be global like Made in Japan. But they were misleading this government for quite some time and there were bureaucrats as well as political leaders who were giving them a cover. And they continued to attack us even in this period. But I have full trust in the judiciary and today India has a bright future because entrepreneurs have hope in Modi 2.0 government and they have faith in the judiciary.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: As I said, we will be active in the start-up ecosystem, which will not be just restricted to exchange and marketplace. It will be a majority of IP based field and we will be nurturing and inspiring entrepreneurs on varied scales which will be agriculture, genetics, robotics, to name a few. Our role will be of coach. The company will be the catalyst. Rather than having a monolithic structure, it will be a diverse structure with an understanding of entrepreneurship. The way we were understanding the exchange business, will understand it. I am the mentor and we will disclose it. We are already planning and the visualisation process has started. The framework is clear, but that doesn’t mean that we will not solve the NSEL problem. Despite the injustice, we are committed to do within the framework of law, recovery and give back to the genuine claimants and not to the bogus ones. Just because we have won, doesn’t mean we will not do it. But there I think that the government should know that the real culprits were different, that there was a political “godfather”. There is proof against the illegality against the political “godfather” and his bureaucratic chamchas. There should be an example set that if you do wrong to deprive a country from its merit, you will be punished. If that is set, all entrepreneurs in the country will breathe fresh air because it is not possible for everyone to fight like this. This will set a stellar example that our country is merit-oriented. It will also invite global entrepreneurs to come and set up companies. Having survived the worst thrown at us by the Chidambaram network and its dark deeds, we believe in the future.
By setting up a chain of exchanges in India and overseas, I wanted to make my country the Manhattan of the East. But that was derailed by then Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram by conspiring against us. This resulted in the loss of a million jobs and the reversal of the trajectory of the economy towards world leader status. Now under Modi 2.0 we hope to be able to achieve this objective and help put India as the Silicon Valley of the East. Instead of body shopping, the new India would have an IP-based innovation drive, for which I would be a catalyst. This is what I hope the future will bring to me.