The Bombay High Court recently dismissed a writ petition by an audit firm, challenging the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) to investigate the audit firm's role in the multi-crore Satyam accounting fraud. This once again raises questions about the functioning of regulators.

The case raises the issue of the power of one regulator (SEBI in this case) to regulate entities (the audit firm) which are ostensibly regulated by another regulator (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, or ICAI).

The recent decision of the Karnataka government to ban iron ore exports once again points to the unholy nexus between the neta (leader), the lala (businessman) and the babu (bureaucracy).

Interestingly, while the first two -- the neta and the lala have consistently received our flak, the third -- the babu has virtually escaped public scrutiny.

To appreciate what has been stated above a reference to the events leading to the order of the Karnataka government to ban iron ore exports would be appropriate.

The recently concluded Assembly session in Karnataka had generated a lot of heat (and very little light) on illegal mining and export of iron ore. The government realised belatedly that the quantity allowed to be exported and the quantity actually exported did not match.

Obviously, something was seriously amiss. As facts come out to the open, one is appalled at the colossal failure of the state administrative machinery in checking this wrongdoing.

Simply put, the irrational response of the Karnataka government is symptomatic of a larger malaise prevailing in the country -- lack of administration bandwidth.

The illegal mining and export of iron ore in Karnataka is, no doubt, a serious issue, yet the decision to impose a State-wide ban on the export of the ore is not justified.

Why should genuine exporters pay the price for lapses on the part of the administration?

Press reports across the globe in the last week of July 2010 suggest that billionaire financier George Soros is in advanced talks to buy a 4 per cent stake in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Valued at approximately US$ 35-40 million, this deal involving Soros and the country’s largest bourse has set the cat among the pigeons in several countries. Strangely, despite the strategic issues involved in the deal, Indian media, experts and analysts, and more importantly, the financial sector including other shareholders of the BSE, are inexplicably silent.