Prime Minister’s Speech
SEBI’s Silver Jubilee Celebration : Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh’s Speech
Statutory Body..!.
I am delighted to participate in SEBI’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. I share a very special
bond with SEBI because I was the Finance Minister of the India when it became a statutory
body.
I have watched the evolution of SEBI since then with great interest, and I can say with
confidence that the institution has every reason to be proud of its achievements.
SEBI has successfully modernised our capital markets & brought international best
practice to this sector. It is a matter of pride that the Indian stock exchanges today rank among the
best in the world in terms of technology as well as value-cum-volume of business. This is in a
large measure due to the efforts of SEBI.
Protection of Investors..!
The protection of the interests of investors in securities is central to the mandate of SEBI. It
should give us a sense of satisfaction that the Indian securities market has seen major
improvements in this area in the last 25 years.
Dematerialization of shares has eliminated the problems of delays, bad deliveries, theft &
forgery of share certificates. At the same time it has facilitated the introduction of shorter
settlement cycles and later rolling settlement.
India is amongst the first countries in the world to have screen-based trading in which the price & volume data become instantly available to investors in all parts of the country. Computerised trading has led to reduction in the scope for price rigging and manipulation.
Investors are more empowered today than ever before because of the availability of a large
amount of relevant information. The issuance of Initial Public Offers (IPO) has undergone a major
reform process with special focus on protection of the interests of retail investors. The new method
for divestment of shares through Offer for sale of shares held by promoters to public has proved to
be very successful, including for PSU disinvestment transactions.
Mutual Funds..!
Recently, a number of steps have been taken to attract retail investors into the market such
as introduction of Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme (RGESS), incentives for Mutual funds to reach beyond top 15 cities, separate plan for direct investment in existing as well as new schemes in Mutual Funds, expansion of asset classes that can be held in demat form and so on.
I am confident that these measures will enthuse retail investors to access capital markets, increase financial intermediation, widen and deepen the financial system and positively influence the distribution of savings in favour of financial assets.
I commend SEBI for its stellar performance in all these dimensions in the last 25 years... I
wish it even greater successes in the time to come.
Thank you...!
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