Chapter 7B: real estate, bank deposits, insurance and stock markets – this is where middle class India parked its surpluses. Some hoping to find a safe haven and a roof above their heads. Some saving for a retirement without pension. Some to plan for an unexpected death. And others to make some tax free income from investing.
The war room next to 10, Parliament Street had direct access to another house numbered 10, not too far away. The control room had three chiefs. One was a MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. He carried a visiting card saying he was head of Venture Capital. Doesn’t matter they didn’t have any venture fund registered. He drank coke and chased skirts. The second was older. A Chartered Accountant and full time employee of Citibank like the other two – his job was to manage the government : and New Delhi. His wife was head of taxation at Deloitte and made sure Citi could get away without paying much in tax. The third was supposedly a techie. By then, COSL had morphed into iFlex – and he was the tech brain. But with one BA in economics from St Stephen’s and two commerce graduates from third rate colleges – their knowledge of science or technology was restricted to that of a Class 10 student.
But they made up with financial engineering what they lacked in real engineering. They were very good in what they did. Supporting them was the massive ecosystem spawned by their downstream companies – HDFC, Citicorp Finance, iFlex and Prime.
Things were going exactly as per plan. HDFC chief had just won the highest Padma. The Citicorp chief had been nominated to be a full board member of SBI – something unheard of in history. It was without precedent. IFlex was peeping into computers of all their clients. It was an information system like no other. And Prime had IP like no other. It had just been nominated to receive from the President of India – the Technology Day award of the Ministry of Science & Technology.
The year started well. On the 11th of May, 2008 – the three Musketeers collected to celebrate the Technology day award and the golden feather trophy that came with it. The next three targets were already visible. Appointment as a Director in SBI, merger of various banks into HDFC, and the takeover of NSE, LIC, NPCI and SBI. It was a game plan like no other.
On target, the Indian institutions holding NSE shares were asked to divest their holdings in NSE. Unknown names from highly suspicious geographies queued up to buy. Transfer of NSE shares required the buyers to get govt permission. This was granted in hours. No kyc was required. The shares were not listed. There was no price.
The war room decided the price.
This was the price.
And a massive chunk of NsE changed hands.
And then shit hit the fan in USA. Like many others, Citi was caught with their pants down. The real estate bets had gone awry.
The SBI Director file was still in PMO.
NPCI formation was in a loop.
Would the plan collapse.
