SEBI OFFICE

SEBI stands for The Securities and Exchange Board of India. It is the regulator for the securities market in India. It was formed officially by the Government of India in 1992 with SEBI Act 1992 being passed by the Indian Parliament. SEBI is headquartered in the business district of Bandra Kurla Complex, complex in Mumbai, and has Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western regional offices in New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmadabad and now in Jaipur as well. Controller of Capital Issues was the regulatory authority before SEBI came into existence; it derived authority from the Capital Issues (Control) Act, 1947.

Initially SEBI was a non statutory body without any statutory power. However in 1995, the SEBI was given additional statutory power by the Government of India through an amendment to the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act 1992. In April, 1998 the SEBI was constituted as the regulator of capital markets in India under a resolution of the Government of India.

The SEBI is managed by six members, i.e. by the chairman who is nominated by central government & two members, i.e. officers of central ministry, one member from the RBI & the remaining two are nominated by the central government. SEBI has three functions rolled into one body: quasi-legislative, quasi-judicial and quasi-executive. It drafts regulations in its legislative capacity, it conducts investigation and enforcement action in its executive function and it passes rulings and orders in its judicial capacity. Though this makes it very powerful, there is an appeals process to create accountability. There is a Securities Appellate Tribunal which is a three-member tribunal and is presently headed by a former Chief Justice of a High court – Mr. Justice NK Sodhi. A second appeal lies directly to the Supreme Court.

Upendra Kumar Sinha was appointed chairman on 18 February 2011 replacing C. B. Bhave.

SEBI has also been instrumental in taking quick and effective steps in light of the global meltdown and the Satyam fiasco. It had increased the extent and quantity of disclosures to be made by Indian corporate promoters. More recently, in light of the global meltdown, it liberalized the takeover code to facilitate investments by removing regulatory structures. In one such move, SEBI has increased the application limit for retail investors to Rs 2 lakh, from Rs 1 lakh at present.

Market regulator SEBI has established a local office at Jaipur in Rajasthan. This has helped it to decentralize its operations and more effectively reach out to the investors in smaller cities.

As per a notification issued by the market regulator, the local office at Jaipur has been set up under administrative control of SEBI’s Western Regional Office at Ahmadabad.

The new local office looks after the regulatory aspects of investor protection, investor education and other functions of SEBI across Rajasthan. At a meeting held in March, 2012, SEBI’s board had approved opening of new local offices in Chandigarh, Indore, Bangalore, Kochi, Patna, Bhubaneshwar and Jaipur. Earlier last year, SEBI’s board had discussed scope of strengthening its regional offices and had initiated a series of internal discussions to explore the possibility of decentralization of work to regional offices and opening of offices at new places.

Subsequently, SEBI had decided that it should take its services to the door step of investors to promote a balanced, pan India securities market, as physical proximity of the regulator’s office to investors and intermediaries would promote deepening and broadening of the securities market. The local office was inaugurated by SEBI’s whole-time member Rajeev Kumar Agarwal. The office will look after the regulatory aspects of investor protection and investor education and all other responsibilities delegated, within Rajasthan.

The local office will be under the administrative control of SEBI’s Western Regional Office at Ahmadabad. Nagendra Parakh is the head of SEBI’s Western region.

Market watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has decided to initiate action for reforms in the IPO market soon. The objective of SEBI is to ensure good quality of IPOs as well as rational pricing of the IPOs. For this purpose, they are going to introduce several actions in the coming days.

During the inauguration of the new office at Jaipur the member of SEBI Rajeev Kumar Agarwal stated that the public needs to be made aware about the functioning of the capital market and trading.While talking about the newly opened Jaipur office, he stated that this office would meet the requirements of participants of the state and also review their grievances.