SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey has said India has emerged as the world’s leading market in terms of the number of IPOs and the third largest by value, with capital markets playing a central role in funding economic growth.

 

Addressing the 14th AIBI Annual Convention in Mumbai, Mr Pandey highlighted that 311 IPOs raised 1.7 trillion rupees in the first nine months of the current financial year, while total equity mobilisation crossed 3.8 trillion rupees. He said India’s market capitalisation-to-GDP ratio has risen sharply from 69 per cent in FY16 to over 130 per cent, reflecting deepening investor participation.

 

The number of investors has grown from 43 million in FY20 to 137 million, while unique mutual fund investors now exceed 59 million. SEBI Chairman outlined a series of reforms aimed at accelerating capital formation, including reducing IPO listing timelines to T+3 days, easing norms for rights issues, strengthening anchor investor participation, and improving disclosure standards. He also announced measures to deepen the corporate bond market, including lowering minimum retail investment thresholds and enabling online bond platforms.

 

He said SEBI will continue to focus on improving transparency, disclosure quality and investor protection, while intervening firmly in cases of misrepresentation, adding that a comprehensive review of SEBI regulations is underway to remove redundancies and outdated provisions.