Sebi overhauls advisory panels on FPIs, social stock exchange

Capital markets regulator Sebi has restructured its advisory committees pertaining to foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and social stock exchange.

Rejigging its FPI Advisory Committee, Sebi has said former finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia will now chair the 16-member panel. It was earlier headed by K V Subramanian, former chief economic adviser to the government of India.

Chew Hai Jong, Managing Director at GIC, and Michael Drumgoole, Managing Director - Direct Custody and Clearing at JPMorgan, are the new inductees, an update with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed.

Earlier, Madhav Kalyan of JPMorgan Chase Bank, was part of the 15-member committee formed by Sebi in August.

The committee has been entrusted with the task of advising the capital markets regulator on measures to facilitate ease of doing business by FPIs in India as well as encourage their participation in the bond market.

Other terms of reference of the committee include review investment avenues available for FPIs and advise on feasibility of new investment avenues. The panel is required to recommend measures for simplification of FPI regulations and to advise on custodian-related matters pertaining to such foreign investors.

With regard to social stock exchange, Sebi has inducted Anil Kumar SG, Founder & CEO, Samunnati Financial Intermediation & Services; Santosh Jayaraman Global Head- Sustainability, HCL Tech; Pushpa Aman Singh, Founder and CEO of GuideStar India; and Hemant Gupta, Managing Director at BIL Ryerson Technology Startup Incubator Foundation, among others.

TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education and former director of Infosys; Roopa Kudva, MD of Omidyar Network India; and Girish G Sohani of BAIF Development Research Foundation are no longer part of the committee.

The 18-member committee will now be headed by R Balasubramaniam, chairman of Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM). It was earlier chaired by Ishaat Hussain (Director at SBI Foundation and former Finance Director at Tata Sons).

The panel is responsible for advising Sebi on the issues pertaining to regulatory framework for social enterprises, suggests the regulator on the matters to be taken up for changes in legal framework for simplification and transparency in systems governing such social enterprises.

In July, the capital markets regulator notified a framework for the social stock exchange to provide social enterprises with an additional avenue to raise funds. The social stock exchange is a novel concept in India and such a bourse is meant to serve the private and non-profit sectors by channelling greater capital to them.