Market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will soon launch a nationwide investor education campaign for the benefit of retail investors.

“We will start a nationwide campaign in the course of the next two months. This will reach out not just to the people in the metros and people in the Tier II towns but wherever investible surpluses are available,” Sebi Chairman M Damodaran told retail investors at the India Investment show. “We have already tied up with some large institutions in order that our investor education programme reached much beyond the metros and Tier II towns,” he said.

Sebi will also be working closely with stock exchanges and the state governments in this matter to sort out the funding requirements and to have much wider participation. “We have within Sebi decided to commit money... working along side with the two stock exchanges and will be working through the National Institute of Securities Market,” he said.

Underlining the importance of the retail investors, Mr Damodaran said: “If the Indian stock market is to function in a healthy manner over a long term and is to give reasonable return..., it is the retail investor that must necessarily be present in large number.”