BSE forms advisory group to fast-track startup platform

The BSE has formed an advisory group to fast-track the development of its platform - BSE Hi-Tech - for startup firms.

The advisory group will interact with various stakeholders including the ministry, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), and industry associations. It will also help frame policies to create a robust platform.

The advisory group consists of start-up professionals, investors, merchant bankers and legal professionals such as Ravi Gururaj, chairman - product council, Nasscom; lawyer Nishith Desai; and Shekhar Kirani, partner - Accel Partners. BSE Hi-Tech will be based on the new institutional trading platform regulations announced by Sebi in August 2015.

Last week, Sebi had urged investment bankers to promote a listing platform for startups. "Nowhere in the world is the regulator involved in road shows for promoting a platform," U K Sinha, chairman of Sebi, had said at an event organised by the Association of Investment Bankers in India. He pointed out that even after six months of guidelines being finalised, not a single start-up had listed.

Sebi had cleared alternate fund-raising platform for startups in June this year.