She said the board observed that the number of delisting applications received over the last five years is small, and therefore the data set is very limited to draw a very significant conclusion.

“The board guided us to go back and do further examination of certain data and do consultation with stakeholders. That is the reason that it (changes delisting regulations) was not done this time,” Buch said.

Earlier this year, the regulator had said that it may allow companies to delist shares at a fixed price as against the current reverse book-building process.

On SSE framework, SEBI board has reduced the minimum issue size in case of public issuance of zero coupon zero principal instruments (ZCZP) by NPOs on SSE to Rs 50 lakh from Rs 1 crore.

In order to enable wider participation of subscribers including retail, the minimum application size in case of public issuance of ZCZP by NPOs on SSE has been reduced from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10,000.

With the objective of fostering transparency and accountability in governance and administration of financial benchmarks in the securities market, the board approved a regulatory framework for Index Providers. The regulations will provide a framework for registration of Index Providers which license ‘Significant Indices’ that will be notified by SEBI based on objective criteria.

The Board approved amendments to SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014 in order to create a regulatory framework for facilitation of Small & Medium REITs (SM REITs), with an asset value of at least Rs 50 crore vis-à-vis minimum asset value of Rs 500 crore for existing REITs.

It also brought in amendment to SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012, to facilitate ease of compliance and strengthen protection of interest of investors in AIFs.

“Any fresh investment made by an AIF, beyond September 2024, shall be held in dematerialised form,” the board said.

However, the existing investments made by AIFs have been exempted from the requirement in cases where Investee company has been mandated under applicable law to facilitate dematerialisation of its securities and investments where the AIF, on its own, or along with other SEBI registered intermediaries, has control in the investee company.

Speaking on T+0 settlement of trades in the securities market, SEBI chairperson said the progress has been very good. Currently, the settlement happens on a trading-plus-one day (T+1) basis, which will be shifted to T+0 or same day settlement. The regulator has also announced plans to move to trading-plus-one hour (T+1 hour) settlement and then to instantaneous settlement.

“The feedback (from market infrastructure and brokers) is that it will be quicker and less expensive to move to T+0 and then move to instantaneous settlement rather than to move to one-hour (settlement) and then to instantaneous settlement. Since that roadmap is working out very well, we feel that the incremental benefit of inserting a one-hour (trade settlement) in the middle may not be there,” Buch said.

“The timeline for T+0 is before this financial year and then another one year from there for instantaneous settlement of trades,” she said.