Securities market: On the cusp of change

Para 68 of the Budget announcement of 2021, exactly 30 years after 1991, could be the beginning of the next round of financial sector reforms

July 1991 was 30 years ago. A great process of economic reform was initiated then. One important element of that was financial markets reform. Starting with the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) Act, 1992, there have been till now 14 legislative amendments to the laws relating to the securities markets and one constitutional amendment (to facilitate dematerialisation of securities) to reach the present state of the markets.

The main fruit of the reforms was a new level of functioning of the equity market. This involved joint work between the Ministry of Finance, Sebi, NSE, BSE and associated financial markets infrastructure