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To protect investors from cyber frauds and market manipulators, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is planning to put in place robust system in coordination with investigative agencies which will go live soon. The regulator is also working to put in place a specific system wherein when investors are putting money through UPI, it will only go to the registered bank accounts thereby preventing fraud, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in an exclusive interview with The Hindu. Edited excerpts: 

At least from the compliance point of view there was a closure for my predecessor, because these were personal allegations. But you are right in saying that the chairperson represents an institution, so I would always feel that everyone in the institution right from the chairperson down to a single officer who is working with SEBI is above board. From the institutional perspective our effort should be always there.

We want to make it very clear that being a market regulator we are responsible for market integrity. We want people to work with integrity. All investors should be rightly be placed to the extent possible, on an equal footing and no body must be trading based on unpublished price sensitive information.  

When one can make more money than others [through the price sensitive information] it would spoil the integrity of the market and that was the a very fundamental principle. We have people who are trying to do the pump and dump kind of operations. That’s an impious behavior. Recently we had passed an order on spoofing and we found that the people are spoofing, giving a dodge, so there are different kinds of market manipulations, some are standardised. People are quite creative and innovative also to keep on creating some of the other manipulations which I think it would be our effort to curb it by investing both in terms of human resources and technology. Combined with our intent, we intend to really see that the surveillance and enforcement continues to be on our radar always.

Yes, I think our efforts should always be to do that. Sometimes it may be possible, sometimes it may not be. I think there are many players including board of directors, independent directors, and auditors. All of these things are there to see that that things do not come to that level because after all, we cannot be in every boardroom. Disclosures are there. So false disclosures have to be caught. Auditors have to see what’s going on. Independent directors also see the going on but still some egregious behavior comes and then it ends up in that situation.

I would say it is not a general phenomena. After all, you build businesses and the businesses might go wrong also sometimes, risk that equity holders shareholders always take and is the nature of the market but you have to have an honest intention. The intent is very important. But fraud and falsification are unacceptable. Particularly in a market situation where we have many rules and regulations, many more players. There I think, sometimes you have to come in very hard. In case of IndusInd, we came out with an interim order.

Normally we would have gone for a show cause. But there are certain things which need to be prevented because  time is of essence, market is always playing and the investigations do take time. We are able to at least prevent the things. In many cases, we would like to give an opportunity to the person and then come to a final conclusion like in the case of Gensol. That had to be done because it was discovered that there was so much of lenders’ money was getting diverted. In fact, the lenders should have been more circumspect. This is a role that the company should play. So I think when they fail we have to do that. It is something that we don’t feel happy about but we have to do it.  

 Regulation is only the first part of dealing with wrongdoings. The second part is prevention, third is corrective action when finally someone doesn’t listen. That’s the nature of human behavior. You can deter a large number of people through regulations, but there will be some people who would be careless enough not to bother about the regulation.  You can just make things more complicated for the good people. Regulation is there and if people violate we punish them. 

I never said deregulate. I said optimum regulation. To say that you put more regulation then you can do better is not the way to do that. Effectiveness of regulation is important. If you want to hit where the high risk is, you do not have to get into micro-regulation. We are not able to have effective regulation or effective compliance because if you have too much of it, you can’t focus on the riskier part of it. We can simplify but still be very stringent on something where it actually matters a lot. 

 I think my take is that context is important. Financial capital market development is the essence of growth. If the companies are not able to raise money, then how are they able to invest ? So intermediation is important. Suppose the real economy is faltering and you are simply talking. Then that means there may be a bubble, but real economy fundamentally must carry on in order for that to give a credible fundamental based on which the growth should come and fully agree with him. 

 A lot of it is the temporary sentiment and the moment the sentiment is corrected, it just picks up again. So there is no way we can intervene in those situations and secondly, regulators’ job is to provide the market infrastructure. We will develop the capital market and we develop through instruments which are properly regulated.  

 The point is that we have got literally millions of small enterprises. They are family owned, mostly private, limited or proprietorships, and others. Some have got potential, some are big, but they’re still unlisted, so it is an opportunity. So they should come to the capital market and  raise money and they can graduate. We will not like to just stereotype and make a sweeping statement at the same time. But we don’t have tolerance for false disclosures. We have relatively done a little bit of a tightening  to weed out  completely loss making firms. It’s not that every investor should put money just because somebody is offering IPO. We take a lot of effort keeping the investor aware of responsible investing.

However, there could be some egregious cases as well. We are watching and analyzing to determine the extent of deviant behavior. People should be able to disclose; good or bad.  This false disclosures give a false sense of information to the people, which actually distorts the reality. Therefore, we are also working out a system to verify the claims of a listed company through the exchanges. In that case, that information can very quickly come in loud and we can catch them at that place. So this is the system which we are bringing. We have already told the exchanges and they are working how to make it happen. 

We have to constantly watch it. I would say that complacency is not the place for the regulators. Because you never know what is a new risk. So we have to constantly see how upgrade ourselves and fortunately we also have a lot of young force joining. We are inducting technically savvy, engineers and chartered accountants. And so we really want to encourage them to develop tools and effectively use technology to analyze large data. If you are able to do data analytics of a larger scale, you are able to get alerts from a larger data sets and then from alerts you can do further research. So it’s a painstaking job, but then it’s worth doing that way because the more the data the more we have to have tools to handle it. 

 It is not a question of a personality. SEBI is a Parliamentary institution and Parliament has given us three types of mandates; investor protection, development of markets and regulation of markets. Therefore, it is not bad to know that we are able to maintain market integrity. People will trust a market when you say that we are able to give a fair regulation. So if my job is to only create fear, then do I suppress the economic activity? That is not the kind of an approach that we should have.  We  write fair regulations and we get them implemented. We see that these are implemented and that is dynamic process.  

 There are no concerns. I would say that India is quite a resilient market and our market system is fairly robust. World recognises that.  So instead of becoming complacent, we have to constantly evolve. We have got a nice moment in history with demographic dividend, democracy, demand and talent. 

We are not really saying that we are overly dependent on foreigners. We have our own domestic money coming in as people have faith in the market. But at the same time we should understand the cyber risks. That is one of our very big focus; awareness building.  We are working with platforms to see that only whitelisted apps will be there, others will be pulled down from the play stores. We are working to see that there is a system whereby when you are putting money through UPI, we will have a specific UPI system in built  which will only go to the registered bank accounts. We will just try and create all those things to ensure people do not lose the money.

We are also trying to squeeze business plan of finfluencers out. We have taken down 70,000 finfluencers and we are taking down an average of 5,000 of them every month. We are also squeezing their business model as no regulated entity of SEBI can give advertisement to someone who is not registered in this debate.  I would say that we will do much more, much wider thinking of awareness building through everyone coming together and also bringing other agencies, the state police and, the cyber crime police, the ED and CBI. We are trying to build much more for the investment side and stock side on these crimes. 

We really want to have a massive kind of a plan which will actually penetrate to everyone which includes some simple messages where it can reach down and we are able to say that at least come to the market safely. It is tougher to bring awareness on allocation of portfolio. People are just losing money in F&O.  They can save and invest. That’s how people used to. It’s not a grow rich kind of a thing overnight. It never works. It’s a gambling behavior. In a gambling [the] den house always wins. 

 We are using it. In fact, without artificial intelligence it would not be possible to exactly pinpoint which are the influencers that need to be taken down.

 First of all, the protests happened during my predecessor’s time. I would not like to comment. Now the conflict of interest issue is a very important. In our case, the conflict of interest issue for employees was emanating from the ESR and I mean ESR will have to deal with it and for board members and the chairperson it was from a code of conduct which was came in 2008. They were in different times. They are appointed by the government through the appointment committee so therefore, these were two different things and they are looking at both.  They’re free to interact with anyone. They’re an independent committee formed by SEBI but not reporting to SEBI. 

 I would say that we are trying to bring it together in a more cohesive manner to a SEBI driven strategy but ownership has been taken by other organisations too. The brokers, the market infrastructure institution, the market intermediaries, SEBI and NISM should be able to really work out a more comprehensive awareness campaign together. We are still at concept stage. We have actually done an investor survey which will be out by July and this will help assess the deficiencies and help us formulate the campaign. 

 Yeah, it’s very important.  We are doing it already, but I think we have to further upgrade in terms of sharing of information. Even in cyber crimes affecting investing, we are going to plan in a big way along with various state agencies. So today we have the I4C and the national level and 1930 as a as a single line national line in order to report that the people will do it. But I still think lot of guidance is needed with respect to the cyber crime police as  to how to really go about things quickly in matters which are relating to investment crimes. We also want to give clear alternatives that are safe pipelines. So if we are able to make the people adopt to that, then there will be a very little chance of putting money in wrong account. 

I think it is for you to judge my leadership, I can’t judge my own leadership. 

The Coca-Cola Company is optimistic about expanding its portfolio of billion-dollar brands, with India playing a key role in this growth trajectory, said Henrique Braun, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, on Thursday.Speaking during his visit to Mumbai, Braun highlighted the significance of India in the company’s global growth strategy. He noted that Coca-Cola currently has three billion-dollar brands originating from India — ThumsUp, Maaza, and Sprite — which reflects the strength and vibrancy of the Indian beverages market, PTI reported.“We have today 30 billion-dollar brands (globally) of which 15 were built organically and 15 we acquired and built into billion-dollar brands over the years,” Braun said, expressing confidence that more Indian brands would join this elite club in the future.Industry sources indicate that Coca-Cola’s flagship cola drink in India may soon enter the billion-dollar revenue club as well.“I have no doubt that we will have another one coming in the future because we believe in the vibrance of the country and the industry,” Braun added.India is currently Coca-Cola’s fifth-largest market by volume growth, and the company is continuing to build what Braun described as the “right foundations” for long-term sustainable expansion. He also acknowledged India’s evolving status in global rankings, influenced by various market conditions and geopolitical factors.On the broader demand landscape, Braun observed: “We continue to see resilience in the demand. It’s never a straight line, but if you compare year on year, in a bigger time frame, it continues to be resilient. There might be variations, but it’s a market with growing demand.”Coca-Cola already has seven of the top ten beverage brands in the Indian market and plans to continue building and localizing its portfolio. However, Braun noted that the decision to introduce more global brands will depend on the timing and maturity of the Indian market.India remains one of the highest-taxed markets globally for carbonated beverages, attracting a GST of 28 per cent along with an additional cess of 12 per cent. On the issue of whether a reduction in tax rates could spur growth, Braun was measured: “We have learned in 139 years that we have to deal with the local framework. We focus more on what we can control.”

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has come up with a new framework for risk monitoring and increased the position limits for futures and options. In its latest circular, the markets watchdog said it had changed the method to calculate the value of open interest (OI) from notional value-based to delta-based. The new method will weigh OI by the price sensitivity making it impossible to manipulate trades.

SEBI has also increased the limits for positions for options. The net end-of-day open interest limit for options will be ₹1,500 crore and gross OI will be at ₹10,000 crore, SEBI said in the circular. For futures, the OI limits are fixed based on the type of investors ranging from 5% of future OI value to 15% of future OI value.

The regulator has decided not to impose limits on intraday trading.

“This is a progressive step. Delta-adjusted open interest is a true reflection of the positions taken by traders at large. In effect, positions are being assigned weights as per the delta, making the risk management framework stronger,” said Sahaj Agrawal, derivatives analyst at Kotak Securities. 

SEBI had come out with a consultation paper in February to tighten rules on derivative contracts after it discovered growing concerns of few people manipulating the market and gaining benefits. The proposals were reportedly too stringent for the market. SEBI came out with the circular after receiving comments from the stakeholders on the paper. It has set a phased timeline for exchanges to implement these steps till December 6.

The Indian government is assessing the potential impact of a U.S. court’s ruling that said President Donald Trump’s retaliatory tariffs on other countries were “unconstitutional”, according to government sources. 
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Indian government is assessing the potential impact of a U.S. court’s ruling that said President Donald Trump’s retaliatory tariffs on other countries were “unconstitutional”, according to government sources. 

These sources also confirmed that the U.S. team of negotiators for the ongoing India-U.S. Free Trade Agreement discussions would be in India on June 5-6, and added that negotiations were “progressing well”. The Indian delegation, led by Commerce and Industry Ministry Piyush Goyal, returned from an around week-long trip to the U.S. last weekend. 

‘The Court of International Trade in the U.S. on May 28 ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977— the legislation under which Mr. Trump imposed his ‘Liberation Day’ retaliatory tariffs— did not confer on the U.S. President the “unbounded authority” to impose unlimited tariffs on nearly all countries in the world. 

As such, the court set aside the tariffs, which were in any case paused by Mr. Trump until July 8. “The Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariff Orders exceed any authority granted to the President by IEEPA to regulate importation by means of tariffs,” the court noted. “The Trafficking Tariffs fail because they do not deal with the threats set forth in those orders.”

According to trade experts, India must use the opportunity provided by the U.S. court decision to pause and reassess its strategy in the FTA negotiations. 

“India should resist any agreement shaped by threats or based on unlawful measures,” former Director General of Foreign Trade Ajay Srivastava said. “Not only do these Trump-era tariffs violate World Trade Organization rules, but the U.S. court has now confirmed they also breach U.S. domestic law.” 

“With the Trump tariffs standing on shaky legal ground, India must pause and reassess its negotiation strategy before committing to an FTA that could disproportionately favor U.S. interests,” Mr. Srivastava added. 

Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded on Thursday (May 29, 2025) after two days of decline, mirroring a rally in global markets as a U.S. court blocked President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 320.70 points or 0.39% to settle at 81,633.02 in a volatile session amid monthly expiry in derivative contracts. During the day, it jumped 504.57 points or 0.62% to 81,816.89.

The 50-share NSE Nifty went up by 81.15 points or 0.33% to 24,833.60. The index swung sharply in both directions on the monthly expiry day before ending with gains. Metal, realty, pharma and IT sector indices were major gainers.

Among Sensex firms, IndusInd Bank climbed 2.41% a day after markets regulator Sebi barred its former CEO, Sumant Kathpalia, and four other senior officials from accessing the securities markets in connection with an alleged insider trading in the bank’s shares.

Sun Pharma, Adani Ports, Eternal, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra and Axis Bank were also among the gainers.

Bajaj Finance, ITC, Bajaj Finserv and Asian Paints were among the laggards.

Investors rejoiced a U.S. federal court’s decision to block President Donald Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs on imports.

“Global sentiment improved after a U.S. court struck down Trump’s reciprocal tax policy. However, the domestic market remained mostly rangebound during the day due to rising oil prices and higher U.S. 10-year bond yields. Some recovery was seen toward the end of the session, driven by F&O expiry-led covering.

“Export-focused sectors like IT and Pharma performed well, supported by hopes of easing trade tensions,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

The BSE midcap gauge climbed 0.48 per cent and smallcap index went up by 0.39%.

Among sectoral indices, realty jumped the most 1.21%, followed by metal (0.89%), BSE Focused IT (0.79%), services (0.69%t), teck (0.65%), consumer discretionary (0.55%) and commodities (0.53%).

FMCG emerged as the only laggard.

As many as 2,022 stocks advanced while 1,954 declined and 135 remained unchanged on the BSE.

“While markets witnessed sideways movement in the first half, key indices rebounded on selective buying amid short covering on the monthly derivatives expiry day,” Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

“Strong Asian and European cues also aided sentiment, even as investors await the release of the minutes of the US FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting,” Mr. Tapse said.

In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng settled in positive territory.

Markets in Europe were trading higher. U.S. markets ended lower on Wednesday (May 28, 2025).

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth ₹4,662.92 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

Also, the Reserve Bank said that the country is poised to remain the fastest-growing major economy in the world even in FY26.

India’s industrial production growth slowed to 2.7% in April 2025 due to poor performance of manufacturing, mining and power sectors, according to official data released on Wednesday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 1.42% to $65.82 a barrel.

The 30-share BSE barometer declined 239.31 points or 0.29% to settle at 81,312.32 on Wednesday. The Nifty dropped 73.75 points or 0.30% to 24,752.45.

Image for representational purposes only.

The rupee declined 10 paise to close at 85.48 (provisional) against the U.S. dollar on Thursday (May 29, 2025) due to a strong American currency against major crosses overseas and rising global crude oil prices.

However, positive domestic equity market and foreign fund inflows supported the local currency and restricted its slide, forex traders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened at 85.56 and touched the intra-day low of 85.62 against the greenback. The unit hit the day’s high of 85.40 before ending the session at 85.48 (provisional) against the dollar, 10 paise lower from its previous close.

The rupee ended Wednesday’s session two paise higher at 85.38 against the dollar.

Anuj Choudhary, Research Analyst at Mirae Asset Sharekhan, said a surge in the U.S. dollar index and crude oil prices weighed on the rupee.

“Month-end dollar demand and FII outflows may also pressurise the rupee. USD-INR spot price is expected to trade in a range of ₹85.15 to ₹85.80,” he said.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading higher by 0.11% at 99.89.

Analysts said the American currency index gained after a US federal court blocked President Donald Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariff order, fuelling hope of easing global trade uncertainties.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, climbed 1.25% to $65.71 per barrel in futures trade.

In the domestic equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex rose 320.70 points, or 0.39%, to close at 81,633.02, while the Nifty went up 81.15 points, or 0.33%, to 24,833.60.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased equities worth ₹4,662.92 crore on a net basis on Wednesday (May 28, 2025), according to exchange data.

The Reserve Bank, in its latest annual report on Thursday, said the country is poised to remain the fastest-growing major economy in the world even in FY26.

According to official data released on Wednesday, India’s industrial production growth slowed to 2.7% in April 2025 due to poor performance of manufacturing, mining and power sectors.

Domestic gold jewellery consumption is likely to decline by 9-10% in 2025-26, according to a report. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“Domestic gold jewellery consumption is likely to decline by 9-10% in 2025-26, mainly due to a 33% surge in gold prices,” a report said on Thursday (May 29, 2025).

“The consumption of bars and coins increased 17% and 25%, respectively, in FY24 and FY25, reflecting investor preference for safe-haven assets amid global macroeconomic uncertainty and heightened geopolitical and trade tensions,” ICRA said in the report.

“This trend is likely to persist in FY26, with demand for bars and coins likely to grow by around 10%, accounting for 35% of the total gold demand,” it added.

The agency estimates that domestic gold jewellery consumption volumes to decline by 9-10% in FY26, following the 7% drop in FY25, even as investment demand will remain resilient.

Meanwhile, ICRA anticipates domestic gold jewellery consumption by value to continue to witness double-digit growth in FY26, with an estimated increase of 12-14%, notwithstanding a projected decline in volumes. “This is similar to the price-driven expansion seen in FY25 when the sector registered a 28% rise in value, largely attributable to a 33% surge in gold prices,” the report said.

“Organised large retailers are expected to post revenue growth of 14-16% YoY in FY26. This will be supported by continued gold price appreciation, planned retail expansion, and market share gains from the unorganised segment. A higher number of auspicious days in the fiscal is also expected to lend some support to demand, despite elevated prices and declining volumes,” ICRA senior vice-president and group head Jitin Makkar said.

In FY25, revenue growth for organised jewellers was driven largely by buoyant realisations, even as most players experienced volume contraction — except for a few that pursued aggressive store expansion, it stated. “This trend is expected to continue in FY26, supported by the sustained cultural importance of gold, stable wedding demand and a good number of auspicious days,” it added.

“Gold prices are expected to stabilise at current levels unless there are major global or geopolitical events influencing the price movements,” the report said.

ICRA estimates the industry’s operating margin to expand by approximately 30 basis points (bps) to 7.2% in FY26, aided by scale efficiencies and favourable pricing. However, net margin expansion is likely to be constrained by rising financing costs.

“Despite a projected 30 bps expansion in operating margins in FY26, net margin expansion will remain limited within 10 basis points due to higher financing costs stemming from elevated GML rates and increased working capital borrowings driven by high gold prices and planned store additions,” Mr. Makkar added.

View of the Vedanta office building in Mumbai. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Thursday (May 29, 2025) granted an interim stay on the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) order rejecting part of Vedanta Ltd’s proposed demerger of its various businesses.

The diversified natural resources conglomerate Vedanta Ltd. decided to retain its Base Metals business and proposed to demerge 4 businesses into respective subsidiary companies, namely Vedanta Aluminium Metal Ltd., Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd. (TSPL), Malco Energy Ltd. and Vedanta Iron and Steel Ltd.

In March, NCLT Mumbai rejected the demerger of Vedanta’s power business and its merger with the resulting company TSPL, citing insufficient debt disclosure, after China’s Sepco Electric Power Construction Corporation (Sepco) objected to the proposal over its debt of ₹1,245 crore.

TSPL had moved NCLAT against the NCLT order.

“The issues raised before us need to be considered at length and presently in view of the submissions made, the scheme is severable and thus in case the stay is not granted to the impugned order, it may affect the second motion application filed in respect of other three transferor companies pending in different tribunals,” the NCLAT said in its order dated May 27.

The NCLAT also asked TSPL to provide a bank guarantee of ₹1,245 crore to protect the interest of Sepco, within two weeks.

The NCLAT stayed the portion of the scheme rejected by the NCLT till the next date of hearing. It posted the case for hearing on August 4 hearing.

Post the interim stay, Vedanta on Thursday said it remains committed to its strategic reorganisation plan and continues to work toward unlocking long-term value for all stakeholders.

India is set to be the main engine of global economic growth in 2025 and 2026, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Chief Economists Outlook report. The report, which surveys leading economists, highlights India’s strong economic fundamentals and positive outlook despite ongoing global uncertainties. “India, the region’s largest economy, looked set to be the primary engine of growth.” WEF stated, quoted ANI. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects India’s GDP growth at 6.2 percent in 2025 and 6.3 percent in 2026, positioning it as the fastest-growing major economy in South Asia. This robust growth makes India central to the region’s economic momentum.While South Asia faces challenges such as the impact of rerouted Chinese exports, the report notes encouraging signs. Recent purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data show better-than-expected performance, particularly in new export orders, indicating strong demand for goods and services in the region.The WEF also pointed out that the recently concluded trade agreement between India and the United Kingdom has bolstered India’s trade outlook, further strengthening economists’ confidence in the region.Among global regions, South Asia stands out as the most promising, with one-third (33 percent) of economists forecasting strong or very strong growth for the remainder of 2025.The outbreak of military tensions between India and Pakistan in early May has increased uncertainty in the region. Additionally, most chief economists expect inflation in South Asia to range from moderate (61 percent) to high (26 percent) in the coming months.On a global scale, the economic environment remains fragile. The WEF report highlights a weakening of the world economy since the beginning of the year, with particular worry over shifting US economic and trade policies.About 79 percent of surveyed economists view the recent dramatic US policy changes as part of a long-term structural shift, up from 61 percent in late 2024.In April, the US implemented sharp tariff increases on several countries, escalating economic tensions. Although most of these tariffs have been paused for 90 days, uncertainty about future actions persists.Despite global challenges, the outlook for India and South Asia remains positive, supported by strong economic indicators, trade gains, and growing investor confidence.