The finance minister has made a fumbled attempt to try and distance the government and the economy from the taint of the snowballing scandal. Nirmala Sitharaman waded into the debate on Adani Group’s current issues for the first time.

“Neither our macroeconomic fundamentals nor our economy’s image has been affected by the Adani crisis,” Nirmala Sitharaman told media after a conclave where she discussed aspects of her recent budget with various stakeholders.

The issue was eventually oversubscribed by 12 percent last Tuesday and scrapped a day later in the heat of a market meltdown.

“Yes, FPOs come in and FIIs get out; these fluctuations are there in every market. But the fact that we had $8 billion coming in the last few days proves that the perception about India and its inherent strength is intact,” Nirmala Sitharaman said.

She said capital market regulator SEBI had the ability to ensure stability in the markets. “Investments in shares and stocks go up and down; that is a part of the investment. But nowhere have the people of India lost the sums that are being mentioned ($100 billion). The financial institutions have clarified that their money is absolutely secure and safe,” the minister said, adding that both Life Insurance Corporation and State Bank of India had come out with the details.

The finance minister said India’s financial regulators were independent and would look into the allegations against the Adani group.

Market Regulator SEBI Statement

The capital market regulator said without naming the Adani group “During the past week, unusual price movement in the stocks of a business conglomerate has been observed”.

“As part of its mandate, SEBI seeks to maintain orderly and efficient functioning of the market and has put in place a set of well-defined, publicly available surveillance measures (including the additional surveillance measure or ASM framework) to address excessive volatility in specific stocks. This mechanism gets automatically triggered under certain conditions of price volatility in any stock,” SEBI added.

“Further, in all specific entity-related matters, if any information comes to SEBI’s notice, then, as per extant policies, the same is examined and after due examination, appropriate action is taken. SEBI has consistently followed this approach on entity-level issues and would continue to do so in the future as well”, SEBI added.

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