Sebi crackdown reinforces need for registration
stock market investments might do well to heed recent actions by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
On November 22, the market regulator penalised and barred P Krishnakumar and Jagadeeshan S for a year for giving illegal investment advisory services and ordered them to refund over ₹30 lakh collected as fees through astrology-based prediction packages sold on the website www.ymforecast.com.
The two were found to be acting as investment advisors without being registered as such with Sebi.
Sebi, through its Investment Advisors Regulations, 2013, has made it mandatory for anyone providing investment advice to obtain a certification from the regulator. While the list of qualifications needed is fairly onerous, expertise in astrology doesn't count.
To be sure, there are a few Sebi-registered entities that also offer services based on what's known as financial astrology.
«Sebi's order is a good step and much welcome at a time when there are scores of fake financial astrologers misguiding people through their YouTube channels and resulting in losses,» said Lucknow-based Indrodeep Banerjee, a Sebi-registered research analyst, who has founded the Institute of Financial Astrology and has written several books on the subject.
In fact, two days after the November-end order, Dehradun-based astrologer Deepanshu Giri posted on X his requirement for a Sebi-registered analyst good at technical analysis and interested in astrology to build a stock investment model based on the discipline. Giri hosts the YouTube channel, Lunar Astro, which has more than 150,000 subscribers.
He got over 150 emails in response to his post. He has selected three candidates and is planning to start a company in a few months to advise select
. Read more on economictimes.indiatimes.com
