Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday put out draft regulations for so-called infrastructure investment trusts that were announced in the finance minister’s budget speech last week to provide easier financing options to developers of public works.

Such trusts will be able to invest in infrastructure projects only directly or through special purpose vehicles (SPVs), the market regulator said. For public-private partnership (PPP) projects, investments can be routed only be through an SPV, it said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday slapped a penalty of around Rs 3,000 crore on five former Satyam Computer executives, including founder B Ramalinga Raju, for violation of various securities market regulations like the one on insider trading. The market regulator also barred these individuals from accessing the securities market for 14 years.

In a fresh crackdown on illegal money pooling schemes, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has conducted surprise inspections on two West Bengal-based groups, suspected to have garnered hundreds of crores of rupees through such activities.

A team of Sebi officials from Kolkata and Mumbai conducted inspections at four locations of Prayag Group offices and three locations of Palian group offices in Kolkata, a senior official said.

As the debate continues on extra powers given to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to take on fraudsters and defaulters, the number of attachment orders passed by the capital markets watchdog has crossed 700 for recovery of about Rs 1,600 crore.

India's mutual fund industry, which has long been critical of Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) regulations in the past few years, seems to have no complaints from the regulator when it comes to speedy clearances of new fund offers (NFOs). In particular, the fast approvals to fund houses' new equity schemes is something which has impressed the industry players.

MUMBAI: Concerned about gullible investors being defrauded by certain companies existing only on paper, capital markets watchdog Sebi is planning to conduct surprise inspections of such entities to bring them to book.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is working on a comprehensive framework to deal with the listing and trading of only-on-paper companies and tackle this menace, a senior official said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has directed attachment of bank and demat securities accounts of a former director of Ranbaxy and his wife, to recover dues worth Rs 77.83 lakh from them in a matter related to insider trading in the shares of Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has pulled up the mutual fund (MF) sector for not complying with the ‘20-25’ minimum exposure norm and for misuse of funds meant for investor awareness programmes.

By Sebi norms, any MF scheme is required to have at least 20 investors, with each owning less than 25 per cent of the assets. However, U K Sinha, chairman of Sebi, said on Thursday that several MF schemes were in violation of this norm, with investor concentration in some schemes as high as 98 per cent.

Sebi has directed attachment of bank and demat securities accounts of Shiv Impexs to recover pending dues worth about Rs 3.13 crore in a case related to irregularities in the IPO of Edserv Softsystems.

The pending dues to be paid by Shiv Impexs includes Rs 2.41 crore penalty imposed by the regulator on the entity in December 2011.

Capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has put a spoke in the wheel of AstraZeneca Pharma India's plan to take the company private.

It has said AstraZeneca can purchase shares in the delisting offer only after seeking approval of the stock exchanges. And, directed the two exchanges, BSE and the National Stock Exchange, to "closely monitor the entire delisting process…and allow the final delisting of its shares only after satisfying themselves that the process has been fair and transparent," said Rajeev Kumar Agarwal, wholetime member of Sebi in an order on Tuesday.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.