Companies are required to inform shareholders of their annual general meetings 21 days before the event. However, shareholders who watch stock exchange websites for this information might not always get this three-week notice, according to Shriram Subramanian, managing director of InGovern Research Services. Reason: only some companies make an exchange disclosure; many don’t.

This problem related to non-uniform disclosure standards by companies on issues such as the important dates (as above) and material developments such as getting large orders or trading in securities by insiders is likely to be addressed with finality by the regulator.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has moved the Supreme Court, challenging a tribunal order in the matter of disclosure norm violations by real estate major DLF. The regulator filed its appeal last week and has sought an early hearing, according to two people in the know.

The appeal contests several grounds of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) order. "One of the observations in the SAT order was that clearance of the Sebi board was not taken before initiating investigation proceedings. On this, the appeal has said the investigation was directed by the Delhi high court in 2011," one of them said.

In a fresh crackdown on suspected tax evasion and laundering of black money through stock markets, regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Friday barred Mishka Finance and Trading and 128 other entities from the securities market.

While the total amount involved could not be ascertained, these entities are estimated to have shown fictitious capital gains to the tune of Rs.254 crore and just 29 of them made unlawful gains to the tune of Rs. 92 crore on an investment of just Rs. 2 crore.

The capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), under pressure to tighten scrutiny, is taking as long as a year to approve initial public offerings (IPOs). This has prompted criticism from companies, already grappling with unpredictable demand and a lack of alternative funding sources. The stock market has soared, touching record highs last month. It was Asia’s second-best performer last year, thanks to largely $16 billion of foreign investment.

But the boom has failed to translate into many IPOs, a vital source of capital, especially for small companies which make up the bulk of the economy yet often struggle to access keenly priced bank loans.

In a new twist to the high profile SEBI-Sahara case, the Indian capital markets regulator has approached a US court with a $12 million claim on proceeds from sale of a corporate jet owned by a Sahara Group firm.

The court has rejected the demand for now, saying that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) could not “properly file a claim prior to the Bar Date and in accordance with the terms of the Court’s order“.

To deepen the securitisation market, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has made it easier for banks and public financial institutions to act as trustees, while a new code of conduct has been put in place to safeguard investors’ interest.

Amending its Securitised Debt Instruments Regulations, Sebi said the move would further develop the market and “rationalise and clarify the role and responsibilities of trustee”.

As regulators try to contain one of India's most spectacular investment scandals, dozens of smaller but similar schemes continue to mushroom, employing tactics similar to the ones that enriched the Sahara group and later brought it to its knees.

Sahara began as a scheme for small depositors, but it grew over decades with investment plans that critics say were designed to avoid regulatory scrutiny. At its height, it was one of India's biggest business empires, stretching from Formula One motor racing to New York's Plaza Hotel.

Mumbai: Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday said it is worried over state sponsored cyber attacks and has suggested creating a framework for protecting the securities market.

“We are worried over state sponsored cyber attacks. There are worries that the vulnerability in markets are increasing. We need to create a framework for future plan of action on securities market resilience,” Sebi chairman U. K. Sinha said here at Cyber Security and Resilience conference, organised by Sebi and the BSE.

To safeguard capital markets from cyber attacks, regulator Sebi plans to put in place detailed guidelines to be followed by stock exchanges and other market infrastructure institutions to secure their IT systems.

"The move is aimed at securing the data, applications, database, operating systems and network layers of Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) from various forms of cyber attacks such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, phishing, hacking, man-in-the-middle attack, sniffing, spoofing, key-logging and malware attacks," a senior official said.

Regulator Sebi will soon put in place new norms for changes in constituents of the key stock market indices, including Sensex and Nifty, as it frames a separate mechanism for regulating the index providers.

The index operators, which include subsidiaries of stock exchanges and independent entities such as S&P, currently do not come under Sebi's direct regulatory purview and the new norms would also include a 'code of conduct' for them while mandating more disclosures and greater transparency while including or excluding a stock from the indices.

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