Debashis Basu

Some Lesser Known Facts About Debashis Basu

• Does Debashis Basu drink alcohol?: Yes

  

• After completing his education, Debashis started his career by writing columns for popular business newspapers, such as Business India, Business World, Financial Express, The Times of India, and Business Today from 1984 to 1994.

• In 1992, he helped his wife, Sucheta Dalal, in unravelling India’s biggest financial scam. On 23 April 1992, Sucheta wrote an article about a discrepancy of INR 500 crores in the accounts of the State Bank of India, prompting CBI to start an investigation. This led to the exposure of the securities scam of 1992 and the fall of the Big Bull Harshad Mehta.

• In 1993, Debashis and Sucheta wrote a book titled ‘The Scam: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Got Away,’ based on the incidents of the scam. The couple conducted intensive interviews of various participants (mainly Harshad Mehta) involved in the scam for their book. There is also an anonymous source, referred to as ‘Deep Throat’ in the book, who helped them in their research.

• The book became a bestseller, and its first edition was completely sold out. The book was revised in 2001, and the story of the Ketan Parekh scam (2001) was added. The book was retitled ‘The Scam: From Harshad Mehta To Ketan Parekh.’

• Other than books based on scams, Debashis has also written business books, which include ‘Face Value: Creation and Destruction of Shareholder Value in India,’ ‘Growth Alchemy: Why Smaller Firms Fail to Find Finance,’ ‘Pathbreakers 1&2,’ and ‘The Plain Truth Series on Stocks, Mutual Funds and Investments.’

• Mr. Basu has also written columns for The Economic Times. As of 2021, he writes a column for Business Standard every other Monday.

  

• In 2006, Debashis started a business magazine, Moneylife. According to him, the reason behind Moneylife was that he felt traders could use a magazine with an unbiased and in-depth analysis of the stock market. Debashis is the editor and publisher of this magazine. As of 2021, it is a weekly online magazine and covers articles on gold, mutual funds, fixed income, stocks, insurance, consumer rights, and smart borrowing and spending.

  

• In 2010, the journalist established the non-profit organisation Moneylife Foundation to teach people about investing and advocate safe and fair market practices. Mr. Basu’s foundation has organised a record 385 seminars and workshops to spread financial literacy as of 2020.

  

• Debashis was conferred with the Shriram Sanlam Award for Excellence in Financial Journalism for his weekly columns in Business Standard in 2015.

  

• His pastimes include reading and collecting business books.

• He has been a member of the mutual fund advisory committee of SEBI. He was also enlisted in SEBI’s task force that created the IndoNext market segment for smaller companies.

• Debasish and Sucheta‘s book ‘The Scam: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Got Away’ was adapted into a web series called ‘Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story,’ directed by Hansal Mehta and released in 2020. Faisal Rashid played the role of Debashis in the series.