Markets rest on the edifice of trust, which is a two-way process: Ms. Madhabi Puri Buch, Chairperson, SEBI
The 17th edition of the CII Corporate Governance Summit, held at the Grand Hyatt on April 2, 2024, enabled important discussions on corporate governance ranging from startups, family businesses, ESG, cyber risk, and data privacy.
Ms. Madhabi Puri Buch, Chairperson SEBI, delivered the keynote address at the inaugural session of the summit.
She said that the markets rest on the edifice of trust, which is a two-way process, and both industry and regulator should work towards creating and building trust with each other. She also added that what is fundamental to building trust is transparency. Ms. Buch stated that the regulator is a proxy for the entire investor base. She added that the sole reason for SEBI’s existence is capital formation, and wherever there is an opportunity to raise capital from the market, the regulator tries to ensure that there is no delay in the process. She mentioned that REITs and InvITs are going to be the vehicles of growth in the future.
Speaking about the role of the Industry Standards Forum in easing and enabling compliance with SEBI regulations, the SEBI Chairperson highlighted that SEBI is committed to the process of co-creation of regulations for ease of compliance and to reduce the cost of compliance by industry.
Referring to the technology that has been deployed in the market ecosystem, she observed that today Indian Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) are at the centre of global acclaim and leading the world on cutting-edge technology and regulations.
While commending SEBI’s role as a securities market regulator, Mr. R. Dinesh, President, CII, and Chairman, TVS Supply Chain Solutions Ltd., highlighted that SEBI stands for Solution-Oriented, Empathetic, Bold, and Integrity (S.E.B.I.). Speaking about the theme of the summit, ‘Building Trust through People, Planet, Profit, and Purpose’, he mentioned that trust is the glue that binds stakeholders and maintains their faith in the business ecosystem, and building an atmosphere of trust helps in ease of doing business, growth of business, and facilitative regulation.
In his address, Mr. Sanjiv Bajaj, Chairman, CII Corporate Governance Council and Chairman and Managing Director, Bajaj Finserv Ltd., observed that SEBI has been proactive, collaborative, and facilitative in streamlining regulations for listed companies. He underlined that CII is engaging in regular dialogue with SEBI on a number of issues pertaining to corporate governance, and soon CII will come out with recommendations on corporate governance in family businesses. He focused on the need to build the right culture of accountability in business organisations to achieve the delicate balance between people and profit, which is very important.
While speaking at the summit, Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, observed that increased investors’ participation is an extremely encouraging sign for the growth of the capital market in India. He stated that India’s transition to doubling the size of its economy would be dependent on the growth capital provided by the market, and that is what SEBI is ensuring. CII will encourage members to participate in the consultation process to make SEBI regulations more robust, he added.
During the summit, the SEBI Chairperson released the “CII Corporate Governance Charter for Start-Ups,” which states the voluntary recommendations on corporate governance appropriate for startups based on the specific stages of the life cycle of the start-up.
She also launched the CII publication titled “The DPDP Act & Enterprises in India: Privacy for the Board” prepared in partnership with Deloitte. The publication focuses on the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act’s impact on enterprises in India. It will help companies and boards achieve smooth adoption and timely compliance with the new law.
This was followed by other panel discussions by eminent speakers.
