“Help in growing the equity culture in the area in people’s language. Most of our communication tends to be English. We need to get all of this communication done in the local languages without which we are losing huge audience”, Sebi chairman C B Bhave said at a function here. He said the stock exchanges’ should focus on investors’ education and the spread of financial literacy in their respective regions.

Notably, only two per cent of Indians invest in stock markets. Analysts attribute the increased volatility in the Indian stock market to the insiginificant participation of countrymen.

“We need to educate our investors and we need to tell them really what the risks are in the business. We should also educate them what risks they are protected against and what risks they take themselves,” Bhave said.

“It is very important they get this communication across so that we get an informed investor into the market,” he said, inaugurating a strategic partnership between Madras Stock Exchange (MSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) to facilitate members of the former to trade on both cash and derivatives segments on the NSE platform.

Bhave also said Sebi would be happy to extend any help to the stock exchanges in their efforts to educate investors.

In order to end delay in refunds from companies when the investors were not alloted shares, Bhave said Sebi was considering automation of the system where the investor’s money would not be taken away from his account till he knew how many shares he was going to be alloted.

“We are trying to promote a mechanism whereby the investors money is not taken away from his account till he is told as to how many shares are going to be allotted to him.

“Only to the extent that shares are being allotted, the money will be taken from his account, so that the question of refund does not arise at all”, Bhave said.