Hello everybody. Thank you for this opportunity Assocham.

Our topic of
discussion today is Regulatory Landscape and Structural Reforms for a Vibrant
Capital Markets. But the theme is Capital formation for a Viksit Bharat 2047, so
we will be looking ahead and try to take a peek into the future.

I'm sure most of you will have heard the famous song from The Buggles band,
"Video killed the radio star." The theme of this song has been playing out all
along in the financial markets. The wave of technology is shaping the global
engine of growth i.e. the financial markets and they are dancing only and only
to the tune of this Buggles song. It is this fast paced change that will be shaping
the next three decades of reforms and growth in India, where new stars will be
created and the old ones, who could not keep pace, will become obsolete.

In the past two decades as a journalist, I have seen that Indian financial markets
saw two big engines of growth being created. One of course was the National
Stock Exchange and the other was your MCX. We all know how the NSE got
all the support from SEBI and the government and it became so big. MCX had
to fight its way but eventually has managed to gain the same monopoly status
like the NSE, in the segment it trades. But we are talking about a sweet spot
here, since both these exchanges got a long enough time of nearly 20 to 25 years
to reach the level where they are today. Comparatively, the competition in the
brokerage industry has been more fierce where the wave of technology gave rise
to the likes of Zerodha, Upstox and so on.

This wave is getting stronger. What is new today becomes stale the next week
or the next month due to technology. In such a scenario, we want to know from
our panelists how they are keeping pace with the swift changes and what is their
version of structural reforms.
We have three senior officials from the brokerage industry here. Mr. Luv
Chaturvedi, CEO of Reliance Securities, Sandeep Bhardwaj, chief operating
officer, HDFC Securities and Mr. Naveen Mathur, Director Anand Rathi Stock
Broking.

To these three gentlemen, I would like to ask Point Blank. Are stock brokers
even required today? KYC is on your finger tips with Aadhar, exchanges take
upfront margin for trading, so the headache of risk management is gone. Clients
can directly connect to the exchanges with their devices. So what role do
brokers play in such a structure or set-up?

I would like to go to the Whole Time Member of SEBI. From SEBI's

perspective, are brokers essential now Mr. Ananth Narayan for the system?

To the brokers: Do you think the high amount of government taxes, exchange
transaction charges have actually squeezed the brokerage industry since they are
not left with any margin to earn?

If the brokers are so important to the system Mr. Narayan then why allow stock
exchanges to earn excessive profits and eat from the brokers pie?

My next question is to Mr. Ananth Narayan, Whole Time Member, SEBI. Sir,
we talk about reforms for the markets and the industry. But my experience as a
journalist tells me that SEBI as an organisation secretly abhors or dislikes this
word "reform" since if actual reforms take place then the regulator stands to lose
its unprecedented powers. And I say this because, SEBI in its current form has
powers of the Judiciary to adjudicate, the powers of Parliament to make laws
and the powers of police to catch the culprit and also punish them with fines and
penalty. Don't you think separation of all these powers from SEBI is the
immediate reform we require?

(SEC in the US is accountable due to senet hearings) How do we make SEBI

more accountable? We have seen so many orders being returned by SAT and
the scolding SEBI gets from SAT on its ex-parte orders.

I would like to ask Ms.Savithri Parekh, Company Secretary & Compliance

Officer, Reliance Industries. Mam, we have seen a barrage of regulatory
circulars and even frequent changes to the laws that keep coming. Whenever
there is a new law, SEBI keeps announcing changes to it several times. Do you
think it is cumbersome and a patchwork approach to regulations or you are fine
with it?

With so many new laws does it become difficult to monitor its effective
implementation?

My next question is to Mr. Rishi Nathany of MCX. Sir, exchanges are facing
the same challenges as brokers due to the wave of technology. In such a
scenario do you think many other exchanges will remain and
monopoly exchanges will keep ruling as long as the regulators support?

A new Securities Market Code is being designed as was announced by the

Finance Minister in her 2023 budget speech. I would like to know what the
expectations are from brokers, exchanges and SEBI.

Earlier, India had 50 lakh investors. Now, the country has 10 crore stock market
investors. Do you agree with me that Share Market Investors have evolved as a
force and a Vote Bank that country's politicians need to pay attention towards?