CHENNAI: Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Saturday said the regulator will soon initiate public consultations on creating a secure, end-to-end digital KYC framework for non-resident Indians (NRIs), a move aimed at deepening overseas participation in India’s rapidly expanding capital markets.
Addressing ANMI’s 15th International Capital Market Convention here, Pandey said the proposed framework would allow NRIs to complete onboarding without travelling to India, building on recent regulatory relaxations. “Simpler onboarding motivates first-time participation. Facilitating NRIs is an important priority as we expand the investor base while safeguarding trust,” he said.
Highlighting the scale of market growth, Pandey said the number of unique investors has surged from 4.3 cr in FY20 to 13.7 cr, while equity mobilisation through IPOs crossed Rs 3.8 lakh cr in the first nine months of the current financial year.
He underlined Sebi’s push for “optimum regulation”, citing the Stock Brokers Regulations, 2026, penalty rationalisation, single-point compliance reporting, and technology-led supervision using AI-driven surveillance and cyber resilience frameworks.
NSE managing director and CEO Ashish Chauhan spoke on the trust-investment linkage, while noting that investments must remain the core focus of capital markets.
Calling Chennai an integral part of India’s financial DNA, Chauhan said Tamil Nadu has nearly 70 lakh unique investors registered with
NSE, yet remains under-represented on the SME platform.
He also urged intermediaries to bring more companies from the southern state to NSE Emerge, as the state’s 23 SME listings that led to Rs 1,100 crore raise (smaller than Maharashtra and Gujarat), reflected its below potential status.
Chauhan pointed out that TN firms have raised over Rs 65,000 crore through mainboard IPOs since 2010, while debt issuances over the last decade exceeded Rs 3.6 lakh crore, reflecting strong entrepreneurial depth supported by brokers and exchanges.
BSE managing director Sundararaman Ramamurthy, in his speech, placed the spotlight on the trust deficit underlying low participation, despite headline growth.
He noted that India’s market capitalisation and issuances have expanded sharply over the last decade, aided by technology-led democratisation of access.
However, Sebi’s investor survey shows while 63 per cent are aware of capital markets, only 9.5 per cent participate, with fear of loss, complexity and limited financial literacy acting as barriers.
“Building trust is no longer philanthropy...it is meaningful business,” Ramamurthy said, urging brokers and exchanges to deepen financial literacy and investor awareness, complementing Sebi’s initiatives such as validated UPI handles, Sebi Check and direct payouts.
Nehal Vora, MD-CEO, Central Depository Services Ltd, reflected on what he described as a strategic shift in India’s investing landscape, marked by the inter-generational transfer of wealth and the growing participation of first-time investors including the youngest male demat holder (52 days old) and a 71-day-old female demat holder.
The growth of over 15.47 crore demat accounts reflected the trust factor in the market system, he said.