Debashis Basu is a renowned Indian business journalist, author and chartered accountant. He came into the limelight for helping his wife Sucheta Dalal (another renowned journalist) uncover the Harshad Mehta scam in 1992. He subsequently co-authored the bestselling book, Scam: From Harshad Mehta to Ketan Parekh, with Sucheta.
Wiki/Biography
Debashis Basu was born in Kolkata. He attended Dum Dum Airport High School in Kolkata and then pursued his Bachelor of Commerce degree from Goenka Institute of Commerce and Business Administration in Kolkata. Debashis qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1982.
appearance
Hair color: gray and white
Eye color: Black
Family and caste
Debashis is married to Sucheta Dalal, a famous Indian journalist who uncovered the securities scam of 1992. Sucheta is the editor-in-chief of Moneylife magazine and a trustee of the Moneylife Foundation. There is not much information about his parents and siblings.
Debashis Basu and his wife Sucheta Dalal
Profession
As a journalist
After completing his Chartered Accountancy course, Debashis started working as a business journalist. Between 1984 and 1994, he worked for popular business newspapers such as Business India, Business World, Financial Express, The Times of India and Business Today. He then worked as a columnist for The Economic Times. As of 2021, Mr. Basu writes a column for Business Standard every alternate Monday.
As a writer
On April 23, 1992, Sucheta Dalal first exposed the discrepancies in the State Bank of India’s books, which led to a series of investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation that uncovered India’s biggest financial scam. The debacle prompted the couple (Debashi and Sucheta) to write a book in 1993 titled, Scam: Who Won, Who Lost and Who Got Away. The book was based on interviews with various participants in the scam, primarily Harshad Mehta, and an anonymous source referred to in the book as “Deep Throat.”
The book was a bestseller when it was first published. In 2001, it was reprinted with extensive revisions and an additional chronicle of the 2001 Ketan Parekh scam. The book was renamed “The Scam: From Harshad Mehta to Ketan Parekh.”
Debash has authored several other business books including Face Value: The Creation and Destruction of Shareholder Value in India, Growth Alchemy: Why Small Companies Can’t Get Financed, Trailblazers 1 & 2, and The Plain Truth About Stocks, Mutual Funds and Investing Series.
Moneylife Group
The journalist founded a financial magazine, Moneylife, in 2006. Debashis is the editor and publisher of this magazine. According to him, the aim of this magazine is to provide unbiased and well-researched analysis of the stock market. As of 2020, it has become a weekly online magazine and publishes in-depth articles on gold, mutual funds, fixed income, stocks, insurance, consumer rights, and smart borrowing and spending.
Debashis Basu’s magazine Moneylife
Mr. Basu founded the Moneylife Foundation, a non-profit organization, in 2010 to spread financial awareness and advocate for safe and fair market practices. As of 2020, the organization has conducted a record 385 seminars and conferences to introduce young people to the stock market and other financial institutions.
Awards
Winner (2015): Shriram Sanlam Award for Excellence in Financial Journalism, for writing a weekly column for Business Standard magazine.
dispute
In July 2015, Moneylife magazine investigated NSE’s trading system after a whistleblower alleged that the exchange allowed a handful of brokers and traders to use facilities set up for high-frequency trading. Such access would have given traders and brokers a split-second advantage in accessing NSE data over regular traders or brokers. In response, the National Stock Exchange filed a defamation suit against Debashis Basu and Sucheta Dalal’s Moneylife magazine. NSE sought Rs 100 crore to settle the case, but later, the Bombay High Court asked NSE to pay Rs 1.5 lakh each to the two founders and donate Rs 4.7 crore to a charitable trust. NSE withdrew the defamation case in 2017.
NSE withdraws Rs 100 crore defamation case and appeal. Withdraws legal costs, J Patel’s order remains intact. Thanks to millions of supporters pic.twitter.com/BAwbXcE4Lw
— Sucheta Dalal (@suchetadalal) September 12, 2017
Facts/Trivia
- Debashis spends his free time reading and collecting business books.
- He drinks occasionally.
Debashis Basu tweets about drinking
- Mr. Basu was a member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s Mutual Fund Advisory Committee. He also served as a member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s working group to create the IndoNext market segment for small companies.
- Hansal Mehta’s Hindi web series Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, which was released in 2020, is based on Debashis’s book Scam: Who Won, Who Lost and Who Got Away. It features a character based on him, played by actor Faisal Rashid.
Faisal Rashid and Shreya Dhanwanthary play journalist couple Debashis Basu and Sucheta Dalal
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education