'From Agents to Financial Planners'

Interview: K.K. Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Capital
Gautam Chikermane
WITH FOUR decades of experience in the business of financial intermediation and a client base of over five lakh retail investors, Bajaj Capital is among the pioneers in the business of financial intermediation in the country. K.K. Bajaj, chairman, Bajaj Capital, and the driving force behind the company, speaks to Gautam Chikermane on the history of the company, his views on responsible intermediation and what he sees as the road ahead.
How did you enter the business of intermediation? What was the objective of the company when it was set up?
We started out as Capital Investment Centre and corporatised as Bajaj Capital in 1965. I was working as an advocate when I recognised the potential of this business, as I was dabbling in the markets through my brother’s brokerage. Studying his clientele, I realised that most of them lost money on the bourses.
With my educational background in mind, the broking community at DSE roped me in to handle their press briefings and meets. I offered to help with prospectuses and drafting memoranda of association. With the public issues gaining ground in the 1950s, there were rich pickings, as I could take a certain percentage of the issue size as an advisor to an issue.
Interview in Outlook Money

Omissions & Commissions

The Sebi move to bar agents from using incentives to bait gullible investors is good--but not quite good enough.
Gautam Chikermane
POLICYMAKERS HAVE a problem. They can’t look beyond their noses–or, rather, the spreadsheets in which their noses are buried. Which is why even well-intentioned policy exercises, ostensibly aimed at protecting investors’ interests, do not come close to delivering the intended results. Take, for instance, the recent Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) decision to make rebating illegal. Well-intentioned? Yes. Thought-through, well-executed? Definitely not.
Story in Outlook Money