India’s Capital Markets Are Entering Their Next Phase
Over the past decade, India’s capital markets have undergone a structural transformation. Equity participation has widened, domestic institutional investors have emerged as a stabilising force, the Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) ecosystem has expanded rapidly, and technology has transformed how investors access financial products. Alongside this growth, regulators have had to address a new challenge, not simply expanding the market, but ensuring that its underlying infrastructure evolves with increasing scale, sophistication and complexity.
Against this backdrop, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has released a series of consultation papers over the past two months addressing diverse areas of market regulation. At first glance, proposals relating to buy-backs, AIFs, online bond platforms and IPO price discovery may appear unrelated. However, viewed collectively, they reflect a common regulatory objective: refining the mechanisms through which capital is raised, deployed, traded and returned within India’s securities markets.
With the SEBI Board scheduled to meet on 19 June 2026, these consultation papers provide an opportunity to understand the broader regulatory direction shaping India’s capital markets. Rather than predicting the Board’s decisions, this article examines the policy questions that these proposals seek to address and the mechanisms through which SEBI proposes to respond.
Capital Returning by Companies: Revisiting the Buy-Back Framework
Efficient capital allocation does not end once capital has been raised. Mature capital markets also require efficient mechanisms through which companies can return surplus capital to shareholders.
The buy-back of shares represents one such mechanism. Under the existing framework, listed companies may undertake buy-backs through specified routes prescribed under the Companies Act, 2013 and the SEBI (Buy-Back of Securities) Regulations, 2018. Historically, these included tender offers and open market purchases, including purchases through stock exchanges.
However, the stock exchange route was phased out and ultimately discontinued with effect from 1 April 2025, following concerns regarding equitable treatment of shareholders and the tax regime then applicable to buy-backs. SEBI observed that the price-time priority mechanism could result in a small number of shareholders participating in the buy-back, while others wishing to participate received no opportunity to do so.
The April 2026 consultation paper revisits this position in light of subsequent developments. Rather than merely proposing the return of the stock exchange route, the paper examines whether earlier concerns can now be addressed through revised safeguards governing execution, disclosure, promoter participation and trading restrictions.
A second consultation paper builds upon this proposal by considering operational refinements, including shareholder communication through electronic modes, timelines for completion of buy-backs, removal of separate trading windows and additional safeguards relating to promoter holdings.
Viewed together, these papers illustrate an important regulatory principle. SEBI is not simply reconsidering a discontinued mechanism; it is examining whether market efficiency can be enhanced without compromising investor protection or fairness.
Capital Flowing into Businesses: The GARUDA Mechanism for Alternative Investment Funds
If buy-backs concern capital returning to investors, Alternative Investment Funds represent the opposite end of the capital formation cycle, mobilising private capital into businesses.
India’s AIF ecosystem has expanded significantly over recent years. The consultation paper notes substantial growth in both the number of registered AIFs and cumulative capital commitments, resulting in a corresponding increase in applications requiring regulatory processing.
Traditionally, AIFs have been required to file their Placement Memoranda through merchant bankers at least thirty days before launching a scheme, enabling SEBI to review disclosures prior to launch. As the market has grown, SEBI has progressively reviewed whether this level of regulatory scrutiny remains necessary across all categories of investors.
The proposed Green-Channel: AIF Rollout Upon Document Acknowledgement (GARUDA) mechanism reflects this evolution.
Rather than fundamentally altering disclosure obligations, the consultation paper proposes streamlining the launch process. For regular schemes, the filing period may be reduced from thirty days to ten working days. For Accredited Investor-only schemes and Angel Funds, the proposals contemplate direct filing with SEBI, replacement of merchant banker due diligence certificates with management undertakings, and immediate launch upon filing.
Importantly, the consultation paper does not advocate a uniform relaxation of regulation. Instead, it differentiates regulatory processes based on investor sophistication. Accredited Investors, by definition, are regarded as possessing the financial capacity and expertise to evaluate investment risks and therefore may warrant a different procedural framework.
The GARUDA proposal, therefore, represents a broader shift towards risk-based regulation, where regulatory intensity increasingly reflects the characteristics of the market participant rather than adopting identical processes across all investment products.
Broadening Access to Debt Markets: Online Bond Platform Providers
A well-developed capital market requires efficient channels for both equity and debt financing.
Recognising the growing role of digital platforms, SEBI previously introduced a dedicated regulatory framework governing Online Bond Platform Providers (OBPPs). These platforms enable investors to access eligible debt securities through regulated digital infrastructure.
The current consultation paper focuses not on redesigning this framework but on expanding its scope.
Among the principal proposals is permitting OBPPs to offer products, securities and services regulated by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). The paper observes that while stock brokers are already permitted to undertake securities market activities within GIFT International Financial Services Centre through prescribed structures, no equivalent clarity presently exists for OBPPs.
Additional proposals include permitting specified tax-saving bonds to be offered through OBPPs and reviewing the regulatory framework governing the appointment of Compliance Officers.
Collectively, these proposals illustrate a continuing regulatory emphasis on improving market access while maintaining regulatory oversight and deepen the bond markets.. Rather than creating new distribution channels, SEBI proposes expanding the capabilities of existing regulated intermediaries in response to the evolving structure of India’s debt markets.
Capital Entering Public Markets: Refining Price Discovery
An efficient listing process extends beyond the issuance of securities. The manner in which prices are discovered on the first day of trading contributes significantly to market confidence, liquidity and orderly trading.
SEBI’s consultation paper on the pre-open call auction mechanism examines precisely this aspect of market infrastructure.
The existing framework provides for a sixty-minute call auction session prior to the commencement of regular trading for IPOs and re-listed securities. During this period, eligible orders are collected and matched to determine an equilibrium price before continuous trading begins. The framework also incorporates dummy price bands designed to minimise erroneous orders while facilitating orderly price discovery.
The consultation paper reviews the operation of these mechanisms in light of market experience and seeks stakeholder views on potential refinements.
Although highly technical, these proposals underscore a broader regulatory objective. Efficient capital markets depend not only upon disclosure and governance, but also upon robust trading infrastructure capable of supporting orderly price formation during critical market events.
The Common Thread: What These Consultation Papers Tell Us About SEBI’s Regulatory Philosophy
Considered individually, each consultation paper addresses a distinct segment of the securities market. Considered collectively, however, they reveal several recurring themes that characterise SEBI’s evolving regulatory approach.
First, they demonstrate a continued emphasis on ease of doing business. Whether through faster AIF scheme launches, expanded activities for Online Bond Platform Providers or more efficient buy-back mechanisms, the proposals seek to reduce procedural complexity without diluting regulatory safeguards.
Secondly, they reflect an increasing reliance on risk-based regulation. Rather than imposing identical requirements across all market participants, the proposals distinguish between investor categories, intermediaries and products based upon their respective risk profiles and levels of sophistication.
Thirdly, they reinforce the importance of market infrastructure. Efficient capital markets depend not only upon substantive regulation but equally upon the mechanisms through which transactions are executed, prices are discovered, and investors access financial products.
Finally, each proposal retains a consistent emphasis on transparency, disclosure and accountability. Even where procedural requirements are simplified, corresponding safeguards remain integral to the proposed framework.
Looking Beyond June 19
Whether the SEBI Board adopts these proposals in their present form remains to be seen. Consultation papers are, by design, an invitation for stakeholder participation rather than statements of final policy.
Their significance nevertheless extends beyond any single Board meeting.
Taken together, these papers illustrate the questions currently shaping India’s regulatory landscape: How should capital be returned to investors more efficiently? How can private capital be mobilised with fewer procedural barriers? How should digital market infrastructure evolve? And how can trading mechanisms continue to support orderly and transparent markets?
Viewed through that lens, the consultation papers offer more than a preview of possible regulatory amendments. They provide a window into the next phase of India’s capital market development—one characterised by calibrated regulatory reform, operational efficiency and increasingly sophisticated market infrastructure.
This blog is authored by our Partners Arka Mookerjee and Pracheta Bhattacharya.
