Easing the burden

Encouraging companies to list and removing hurdles were the highlights of the Sebi board meeting

- 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE Board of India (Sebi) Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey told Financial Express a few months back that he had set an internal goal for his colleagues: simplifying some of the decades-old regulations. "It would be quite similar to how the Direct Tax Code was drafted. I think within the next three months, we will be able to start accelerating this process, in terms of identifying the pain points. It will be driven as an organisational mission." In less than three months, the Sebi board has delivered the first tranche of the chairman's promise. It is noteworthy that the 42-page statement after the Sebi board meeting on Thursday has used the word "ease" over 25 times. That itself tells the whole story. Sebi made 19 changes, all aimed at reducing paperwork and encouraging more companies to list on the bourses. A good example is encouraging promoters to have more skin in the game by reversing the earlier regulation that did not allow them to hold employee stock options (Esops) at the time of going for an initial publi