India’s securities regulator is launching an extensive reform plan combining lighter compliance, advanced technology, and investor education to deepen and modernise markets in FY27, including AI-driven initiatives and regulatory simplifications.
India’s markets regulator is preparing a wider reform drive in FY27 that will combine lighter compliance rules with a stronger push on investor education, technology and market depth.
According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s annual report for 2025-26, the agenda includes an AI-enabled multilingual awareness campaign across WhatsApp and other digital platforms, a nationwide financial literacy push under Project Jagrook and simpler nomination rules for demat accounts and mutual fund folios. The regulator also wants a single-window clearance system for firms linked to multiple market infrastructure institutions, alongside the proposed SEBI Setu portal to streamline dealings with intermediaries.
SEBI chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the regulator would keep working to remove redundant rules, simplify procedures and use technology to reduce compliance pressure. He said the market’s growth had made the case for a more proactive, technology-led supervisory model that balances ease of doing business with market integrity. Earlier this year, Pandey also framed SEBI’s direction as one of “optimum regulation”, with a focus on simplifying language, removing ambiguities and reviewing key rule books.
The planned review will cover the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements regulations, the Depositories and Participants Regulations and the Portfolio Managers Regulations. SEBI also intends to create a faster route for processing private placement memorandums filed by alternative investment funds, while the chairman has said the regulator wants to deepen the cash equities market, improve the securities lending and borrowing scheme and strengthen commodity trading in both agricultural and non-agricultural contracts.
Technology will remain central to the programme. SEBI is planning a pilot project on tokenising corporate bonds using distributed ledger technology, while also preparing for quantum-era cybersecurity risks and setting longer-term technology road maps for market infrastructure institutions. In parallel, the regulator is expanding its investor-protection toolkit: Pandey has separately warned about pre-investment scams involving fake trading apps and unregistered digital advisories, saying SEBI is stepping up surveillance and using artificial intelligence to spot misconduct more quickly. Project Jagrook, which SEBI unveiled in June, is meant to make investor education a national mission delivered through both physical and digital channels in multiple Indian languages.
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