Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) organised a Special Session with Shri Kamlesh Chandra Varshney, Whole Time Member, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on “SEBI’s Actions to Improve Practices in the Stock Market” on 26 August 2025 at the Conference Hall of the Chamber.
While addressing at the Session, Shri Kamlesh Chandra Varshney stated that capital market leads to growth of economy as company gets to raise money through IPOs. In last year, Rs. 4.3 lakh crore of money was raised through IPO and the amount will be substantial this year too. In last year, SEBI received an average of 16 IPO applications per month and 13 IPOs were processed each month. In July 2025, SEBI processed 21 applications and in August 2025, SEBI has received 35-40 IPOs. He hoped that within 31 August, all applications would be cleared.
Shri Varshney advised that SEBI will protect retail investors’ interest with optimum regulation. SEBI has taken care of concern about manipulation of large issues. Domestic investors holding has increased from 21.4% in March 2021 to 25.5% in March 2025 while FII holding has fallen from 21.5% to 17.5% in the same period.
He also expressed that SEBI is focusing on large manipulators who are doing “pump & dump” of penny stocks. SEBI and META have come with ad verification process on social media platforms. Only the SEBI registered companies can give advertisements on social media. SEBI will strike down any manipulative advertisement.
He urged investors to not download from any bad link. SEBI is doing its best to create a compliance culture and it tries to protect youth from being misguided. SEBI also tries to create a culture of educated investors.
Shri Amit Saraogi, President, MCCI in his Welcome Address said that in recent months, SEBI has brought in sweeping changes to the equity derivatives segment. By tightening the rules around contract sizes, standardizing expiry days, enhancing intraday risk monitoring and curbing speculative excesses, SEBI has made this segment far safer and more transparent, especially for retail investors.
With proposals to restructure major benchmarks like Bank Nifty and Nifty Financial Services—mandating broader stock inclusion and limiting concentration—SEBI is taking proactive steps to prevent manipulation and to preserve the credibility of our market barometers.
Shri Abhishek Basumallick, Chairman, Council on Capital Market, MCCI in his Theme Address thanked SEBI for ensuring a transparent security market and curbing malpractices.
The Session was concluded with hearty Vote of Thanks proposed by Shri Vinay Bagri, Co- Chairman, Council on Capital Market, MCCI.
