New Delhi: India’s capital markets are playing an increasingly central role in funding economic growth, with the country ranking first globally in terms of number of IPOs and third by value, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Wednesday.
Addressing the 14th AIBI Annual Convention, Pandey said that in the first nine months of the current financial year, 311 IPOs raised about ₹1.7 trillion, while overall equity mobilisation crossed ₹3.8 trillion. Debt issuances during the same period stood at ₹6.8 trillion, underscoring the growing role of markets in financing India’s expansion.
India’s market capitalisation has also deepened sharply, with the market-cap-to-GDP ratio rising from 69% in FY16 to over 130% now, reflecting broader participation and improved investor confidence, he said. The number of investors has surged from 43 million in FY20 to 137 million, while unique mutual fund investors have crossed 59 million, up from just 10 million a decade ago.
SEBI has undertaken a series of reforms to accelerate capital formation. The IPO listing timeline has been cut to T+3 working days from T+6, giving issuers faster access to capital. Rights issues have been fast-tracked to be completed within 23 working days from board approval, while listing norms are being eased to help large issuers meet minimum public shareholding requirements.
The regulator has also strengthened the anchor investor framework, improved information access through abridged prospectuses at the draft stage, and tightened transparency norms around IPO advertisements, Pandey said.
On the debt side, SEBI is pushing to deepen the corporate bond market by encouraging retail participation. Measures include allowing incentives in public bond issues, lowering the minimum investment threshold in privately placed bonds to ₹10,000, and enabling online bond platform providers to facilitate retail transactions.
A liquidity window facility, which allows investors to sell bonds back to issuers before maturity, has also been introduced to improve market confidence and liquidity.
Pandey cautioned that SEBI continues to observe disclosure gaps in offer documents, particularly in areas such as risk factors, valuation rationale and use of proceeds. Merchant bankers, he said, must strengthen independent due diligence rather than relying on issuer undertakings, especially for projections and capex plans.
Looking forward, SEBI plans a comprehensive review of regulations, including LODR norms, to remove redundancies and outdated provisions. The regulator is also engaging with institutional investors and other regulators to deepen participation in REITs, InvITs and corporate bonds, as India positions its capital markets as a gateway to global capital and a key enabler of long-term growth.
“India’s capital markets have never been more resilient. The task now is to sustain this momentum and fuel the next phase of national growth,” Pandey said