Kolkata: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) continuously works towards making India's capital markets more accessible, efficient and resilient, focusing on facilitating capital formation, improving ease of doing business and strengthening investor protection, Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Saturday, IANS reported. He was speaking at the Bharat Chamber of Commerce Investors Forum in Kolkata, an event marking the chamber's 125th anniversary and the launch of the forum.

Source: IANS via IANSLive

Pandey said building world-class capital markets would require more than higher market capitalisation and trading volumes, emphasising the need to connect household savings with productive investments. 'While we continue to strengthen markets for businesses, an equally important priority is investor protection. World-class markets must be not only efficient during normal times, but also resilient during periods of stress,' he said, according to IANS.

Source: IANS via IANSLive

15 crore+Unique investors in India's securities market, up fourfold since FY19
Rs 98,000 crore+Raised through 189 IPOs in the first half of FY27
Rs 61 lakh croreOutstanding corporate bonds
~17% a yearMarket capitalisation growth over the past decade

Listing the steps already taken, Pandey said SEBI has streamlined IPO processes, shortened timelines for rights issues and rationalised listing requirements for large issuers, and has allowed founders, subject to prescribed conditions, to retain certain employee stock options after listing. On the debt side, the regulator has reduced listing timelines for public issues, enabled debt securities with lower face values and relaxed the mandatory merchant banking requirement for certain eligible issuers undertaking private placements — all aimed at simplifying fundraising and reducing compliance costs, The Hindu BusinessLine reported.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

Highlighting the scale of growth, he said market capitalisation has grown at around 17 per cent a year over the past decade and mutual fund assets at around 20 per cent a year, while companies raise on average more than Rs 10 lakh crore annually through equity and debt issuances. In the first half of the current financial year, companies raised over Rs 98,000 crore through 189 IPOs, and outstanding corporate bonds stood at around Rs 61 lakh crore.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

On West Bengal's participation, Pandey said the number of investors in the state rose from around 12 lakh in FY15 to over 90 lakh, with approximately 36 per cent of them young investors below 30 years of age. He added that 379 listed companies have registered offices in West Bengal, and over 40 MSMEs from the state have accessed capital markets to raise over Rs 1,400 crore through SME IPOs, IANS reported.

Source: IANS via IANSLive