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.

As many as 189 companies or nearly 13% of the 1,457 NSE -companies missed the March 31 deadline of appointing a single woman director on their boards, according to a compilation by Prime Database.

The number stood at 245 companies as on 4:30pm on March 31. More than 50 companies including Adani Enterprises on Wednesday announced the appointment of women directors, even as many others including some state-run giants lagged behind in getting a female member on their board to comply with a new regulatory requirement.

To help start-ups and young entrepreneurs raise funds, the Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) of India today proposed an ‘Alternate Capital Raising Platform’, wherein such firms can raise money from institutions and HNIs from the capital markets under a relaxed regulatory regime.

However, retail investors would be restricted from investing in such companies, given the risks involved therein, SEBI said, while adding that the adequate disclosures would be required to be made without hampering the capital-raising potential of such firms in new-age sectors like technology.

A former member of the Securities and Exchange of India (Sebi), M S Sahoo, has become a member of the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

A senior official at CCI confirmed the development but declined to comment further.

SEBI has slapped Rs. 1 crore fine on one Sendhaji J. Thakor for failing to furnish information sought by the capital markets regulator in matters related to SEL Manufacturing.

Mr. Thakor failed to give necessary information including details of trading in the scrips of SEL, whether he was allotted any share of the company in the IPO (initial public offer) and copy of demat accounts among others sought by SEBI.

India Inc has been complaining of excessive tax demand. It seems the taxman is not sparing even the regulators now.

Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has been asked to furnish its fee income details earned since 2012 till date by the service tax department. The tax department had issued several notices to Sebi to share the details for assessment of service tax liability 2012 onwards. As per initial assessment by the tax department, Sebi's service tax liability will be more than Rs 500 crore.

To strengthen its technical capabilities including for probes, Sebi is planning to beef up its team of officers by hiring IT experts to develop data mining and intelligence tools, as also to check cyber attacks.

These officers will develop data analytics and business intelligence tools, and also manage internal IT security and audit systems to guard against data loss and theft.

India on Sunday moved a step closer to having a Singapore- or Dubai-like financial hub, with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) approving a framework for international financial centres (IFCs).

After its board meeting in New Delhi, the market regulator issued broad guidelines for IFCs, aimed primarily at reversing the export of India’s financial markets. And, for the first time, the Sebi board allowed listing and trading of municipal bonds, also referred to as ‘muni’ bonds, to aid the government’s smart-city initiatives.

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