ET NEWS

A special court has accepted a closure report filed by the CBI in an offshoot of the NSE co-location scam case involving a company founded by Mumbai's former police commissioner Sanjay Pandey for auditing of two stock brokers, officials said Tuesday. In its final report, the central agency has said there were violations of SEBI circulars regarding audits of brokers-- SMC Global Securities Ltd and Shaastra Securities Trading Private Limited-- conducted by ISec Services which was founded by Pandey, but there was "absence of sufficient material to establish criminal intent on the part of the accused persons". No complicity of officials of National Stock Exchange (NSE) or Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in willfully allowing the brokers to submit inadequate audit reports was found during the investigation, the agency said. The CBI had registered the FIR against ISec Services on a reference from the Enforcement Directorate. The FIR had red-flagged several violations of SEBI norms by the firm in conducting system audits of stock brokers involved in algorithmic trading using the co-location facility. Under the co-location facility, the NSE allowed brokers to place their servers in the NSE's data centre for a charge, enabling them to have faster access to the price feed distributed by the stock exchange. The alleged abuse of the facility is being probed by the agency in a separate case in which former NSE MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna was also arrested. She is now out on bail. The FIR regarding alleged audit lapses said that ISec Services had conducted audits of two "high risk brokers", SMC Global and Shaastra, in a fraudulent manner when the co-location 'scam' was going on. Pandey had founded the company in 2001 and had quit as its director in May 2006. His son and mother later took charge of the company. The central probe agency had submitted its closure report in the case in 2023 too, but the special court had rejected it and directed the agency to conduct further investigation in the matter. After conducting further investigation, the CBI recently filed its closure report, stating that the stock brokers planned with ISec to evade third-party audits with the intent to conceal their irregular activities. However, due to a lack of material, it is not possible to conclusively determine the precise nature of the unlawful activities, the agency said. The CBI did not find "sufficient prosecutable evidence" of actual compromise of the trading system arising out of audit lapses, particularly in the absence of any resultant price-volume market abuse, like circular trading and pump and dump. In the closure report, the agency stated that NSE failed to establish a robust mechanism for verifying the authenticity of audit reports and lacked a mechanism for strictly implementing SEBI guidelines. The failure to comply with the strict SEBI guidelines and submitting audit reports, which were only a paper exercise, "cannot be categorised as an offence of cheating or forgery", it said. The agency said the NSE and SEBI did not place adequate safeguards to ensure compliance with the circulars, which have been violated in the process. It has given recommendations to the SEBI chairman to ponder upon. Due to time lag and absence of correct contemporaneous system audits, evidence is not sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt the precise nature of lapses, it said. On the directives of the special court to conduct further investigation in 2023, the CBI undertook the analysis of trading data and call logs of the relevant period of the trading firms- SMC Global and Shaastra- audited by the ISec. The probe faced limitations because the SEBI circular, which directed brokers to preserve call records for three years, was issued on March 26, 2018. However, during the period under investigation, from October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2015, no such legal mandate existed for SMC Global. In the case of Shaastra, there was no question of maintaining client call logs because it was a proprietary trading firm, the agency said. It is SEBI's "bounden duty to protect the interest of common investors" in the securities market as well as promote and develop the securities market, and it is hoped that they will perform their statutory duty with real intent, Special Judge Gagandeep Singh said while accepting the closure report on Monday. Their acts should not merely remain on paper; rather, strict implementation iswarranted, he said.

The Indian Navy is looking at procuring a series of counter-drone systems and longer range attack vectors following Operation Sindoor, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Tarun Sobti said on Tuesday. The vice admiral said changes are being incorporated to boost the Navy's combat capabilities following an analysis of the May 7 to 10 military conflict between India and Pakistan. The warships which are equipped with expensive surface-to-air missiles running into millions of dollars cannot really afford to expand their limited arsenal to combat low cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), he told reporters on the sidelines of a tri-services conference. "We have to develop systems, especially counter UAVs which will help us take down the low cost drones," he said. Vice Admiral Sobti suggested that most of the lessons learnt following Operation Sindoor and changes being incorporated into the Navy post the operation are being analysed. The Navy is looking into long range vectors to influence targets at land and sea. Vice Admiral Sobti, talking about Operation Sindoor, said the naval personnel "were raring to go". "We were ready. So our troops were absolutely raring to go," he said. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 targeting terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. The strikes triggered four days of intense clashes that ended on May 10.

Network outages were reported across all service providers in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday due to damage to optical fibres at multiple places amid heavy rainfall, officials said. Technical teams have been despatched to locate the faults and rectify them, they said. Officials said calls are not going through and mobile internet has stopped working across all network service providers due to "fiber cuts at multiple locations". Fiber services and landline services on state-owned BSNL were also down. The outage caused problems among people as mobiles showed no signals, they said. Telecom operators said it was a network issue due to "multiple fibre cuts" at various places, including in Jammu, Srinagar as well as Shimla. "We will try to restore the network and services as fast as possible," they added.

The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has entered the global top 10 list of exchanges for the first time, securing the ninth spot in Brand Finance’s latest “Exchanges 10 2025” report.The UK-based consultancy firm attributed the ranking to the exchange's robust performance in IPO fundraising, index-related business, and derivative markets.In 2025, NSE’s brand value climbed 39% to USD 526 million, marking a major milestone for India’s leading stock exchange. This rise reflects an increase in revenue projections, a booming IPO market, and strong derivatives performance. In FY2023–24, the exchange’s revenue grew 25% YoY to Rs 14,780 crore (USD 1.78 billion), while net profit rose 13% to Rs 8,306 crore (USD 1 billion).NSE’s fundraising momentum also played a significant role. With 91 large companies raising Rs 1.6 trillion (USD 19.3 billion) through IPOs in 2024 and total equity fundraising more than doubling to Rs 3.73 trillion (USD 44.9 billion), the exchange has demonstrated the growing global stature of India’s capital markets.Ranked as the seventh strongest exchange brand globally, NSE also received a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score of 78.1/100 and an AA+ brand strength rating. Brand Finance highlighted that this score reflects high levels of familiarity, trust, and positive stakeholder sentiment.NSE’s inclusion in the top 10 further cements India’s expanding role in global financial markets. Among Asian exchanges, only three—including NSE—made the list, underlining India’s increasing influence in the global financial ecosystem.“NSE’s debut in the global top 10 signals more than just impressive brand value growth. It reflects a broader shift in global financial gravity. NSE’s standout quality is the technology backbone that it offers and various tech-driven services that investors can avail to ensure safe and quick transactions. India’s deepening capital markets, supported by rising investor participation, record IPO activities, and innovation in products, are gaining global relevance,” said Ajimon Francis, Managing Director of Brand Finance India.Global InsightsNasdaq tops brand value list: Nasdaq has become the world’s most valuable exchange brand for the first time, overtaking CME, with a 33% growth in brand value to USD 3.1 billion.HKEX leads in brand strength: The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) was rated the world’s strongest exchange brand with a BSI score of 89.1/100 and a AAA rating.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)