Sebi to ease foreign investment norms

The Sebi plans to relax its norms for direct registration of foreign investors, and also fast-track the listing process for companies, including startups, as part of efforts to make the Indian stock market more attractive for domestic and overseas investments.

The regulator is also looking to make the corporate governance norms more robust, by encouraging greater say for independent directors and by making their removal from boards more inclusive in terms of shareholders’ approval.

Another area of concern is ‘favouritism’ and family connections in appointment of independent and non-executive directors. These would be among several reform measures to be considered by the board of the capital markets regulator in its meeting this week, a top official said.

The foreign portfolio investors from the jurisdictions complying with the global regulatory standards may get direct access to Indian markets without any procedural delay.

The aim is also to discourage investments through participatory notes, which have been long considered to have been misused for laundering of black money. The Sebi board is also likely to approve a proposed measure for making the P-Note route more expensive by levying a regulatory fee and fully stop such investments for speculative purposes.