[Ritvij Ratn Tiwari is a 4th-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore] The Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (“SEBI”) recent decision to withhold its proposal for regulating index providers has placed the spotlight on a significant juncture in the regulatory landscape surrounding the financial markets in India. In December last year, SEBI...
Evaluating SEBI’s Fit & Proper Test: Striking the Right Balance
[Dhaval Bothra and Akshat Jain are law students at Symbiosis Law School Pune and National Law University Delhi, respectively] Trust remains the cornerstone in matters of public money, and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) is the watchdog of this trust. In furtherance of this aim, almost two years ago, the SEBI introduced amendments to the “fit and proper rule” under the...
SEBI’s Circular on Transition Bonds: Can it Combat Greenwashing?
[Vatsal Jain and Vedant Bhardwaj Singh are 3rd year B.A., LL.B. (Hons) students at Hidayatullah National Law University] On 4 May 2023, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (‘SEBI’), by way of a circular titled ‘Additional requirements for the issuers of transition bonds’ (‘Circular’) laid down certain additional compliance measures for the issuance of transition bonds to prevent the...
An Analysis of SEBI’s Regulatory Framework for Bond Trading Platform
[Ganesh BL and Shubhalakshmi Bhattacharya are Associates at a law firm in Mumbai] On 21 July, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) issued a consultation paper (“Consultation Paper”) proposing a regulatory framework to govern online bond trading platforms (“Bond Platforms”). This comes at a time when India has witnessed a transformation in the number of retail investors...
Extension of Insider Trading Regulations to Mutual Funds
[Ajitesh Arya is the 4th year BA LLB (Hons.) students at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] Recently, the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) floated a consultation paper proposing the expansion of the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015 [Insider Trading Regulations] to encompass mutual fund units. The move is interesting as it comes in the aftermath of a front...
Amendments and Relaxations to Pave the Way for the LIC IPO
[Arjya B. Majumdar teaches Securities Regulation and related subjects at the Jindal Global Law School. With acknowledgements to the immensely helpful discussions with Mr Sayantan Dutta, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas] On 27 April 2022, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (‘LIC’) filed its Red Herring Prospectus (‘RHP’) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (‘SEBI’) for its...
The Applicability of Insider Trading Regulations to Pooled Investment Vehicles
[Sikha Bansal is a Partner and Aisha Begum Ansari a Manager at Vinod Kothari & Co] From a surveillance and compliance perspective, the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015 (‘PIT Regulations’) focus on designated persons (DPs). Trading in securities of the listed company by DPs is sought to be “regulated, monitored and reported” by the Code of Conduct (regulation 9 read with...
Credit Rating Agencies In India: A Critique of SAT’s Ruling Against Care Rating
[Sidharth Pattnaik and Sneha Rath are 4th Year B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) and 3rd Year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) students respectively at National Law University Odisha] In this post, we focus on the developments around Care Rating Agency’s (CARE) alleged dereliction of its duty to rate Reliance Communications’ (RCom) creditworthiness over a period of four quarters, and the subsequent initiation of inquiry...
Non-Fungible Tokens: An Indian Perspective
[Aiyushi Mehrotra is a 4th Year B.A., LLB. student at Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar] Non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”) are digital blockchain tokens that identify ownership or particulars of unique items, whether they be digital or real in form. They are traded and programmed in the same way as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but that is where the similarities...
Green Bonds in India: The Present and What Next
[Naga Sai Srikar HK is a fifth-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), student at School of Law, CHRIST (Deemed to be University) Bangalore] Green bonds (GBs) have lately gained prominence globally and are being seen as a lucrative opportunity by both investors and corporations looking at debt financing options. The Covid-19 pandemic has nudged policy makers across the world to rethink on priorities and adopt...
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