Who is Chitra Ramkrishna?

Chitra Ramkrishna is an Indian businesswoman and the former managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Stock Exchange (NSE). 

 

Chitra Ramkrishna's career 

 

Ramkrishna was on the board of India's premier bourse from April 2013 to December 2016. She has been among the select few women leaders at the helm of leading stock exchanges around the world and has often been named among the top women business leaders from the country in various rankings.

 

She holds a degree from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK, and is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). 

 

Ramkrishna was the third woman to head an exchange in the Asia-Pacific region after Sri Lanka’s Colombo Stock Exchange and China’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange. 

 

She was also appointed chairperson of the Board of World Federation of Exchanges, a global industry association for exchanges and clearing houses.

 

Prior to quitting the NSE, Ramakrishna was the second-highest paid executive in the financial services industry in FY16. She was appointed joint MD of NSE in 2009 and promoted to CEO in 2013. 

 

Her salary that year was second only to Aditya Puri's, then managing director of HDFC Bank, who took home Rs 9.7 crore, and almost three times that of BSE CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan, who earned Rs 3.3 crore.

 

Ramkrishna has served various operational and strategic aspects of NSE for many years during her roles as Deputy and Joint Managing Director. 

 

Besides playing a key role at NSE, she also held senior positions in other companies promoted by the exchange such as NSEIT and she was a part of the committee on financial sector reforms headed by Raghuram Rajan in 2008. She was also closely involved with the team that put in place a framework to set up the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

 

With Ramkrishna at the helm, NSE’s daily average turnover, including both cash and derivatives, doubled to Rs 3.5 trillion, from Rs 1.6 trillion in the three-and-a-half years since she took over as chief executive. 

 

The exchange posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,026 crore in FY16, making it 10x more profitable than rival BSE with a virtual monopoly in the high-volume derivatives space.

 

Ramkrishna was ousted from NSE in 2016 for her role in the co-location and algo trading scam and abuse of power.

 

Controversy

 

In February 2022, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) charged Chitra Ramkrishna and other NSE officials for alleged governance lapses and for violating securities contract rules in the hiring at the senior levels and appointment of Anand Subramanian as the chief strategic advisor and his re-designation as group operating officer and advisor to MD.

 

Apart from this, the market regulator's order said that Ramkrishna had shared certain internal confidential information, including financial and business plans of NSE, dividend scenario and financial results, with the Himalayan yogi and even consulted him over the performance appraisals of the exchange's employees.

 

Chitra Ramkrishna and Group Operating Officer and her Advisor Anand Subramanian ran a money-making scheme during their stint at the NSE, the Sebi alleged. 

 

Sebi said: Ramkrishna “failed to maintain the highest standards of personal integrity, truthfulness, honesty and fortitude in discharging her duties and has engaged in acts discreditable to her responsibilities as MD& CEO of NSE by acting arbitrarily and misusing her delegated powers.”