Speech by the President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee at the inauguration of the Commonwealth Science Conference

I am happy to participate in the inaugural ceremony of the Commonwealth Science Conference being organized by the Royal Society for the first time in India. The Royal Society is one amongst the great science academies of the world. It is not only one of the oldest but also an academy with a great history of accomplishments. The Royal Society has represented quality and defined directions in science for long decades. For a person to be elected Fellow of the Royal Society is a signal achievement and honour. Many of independent India`s best scientists have been elected Fellows. A star amongst them is Professor C. N. R. Rao, one of the principal organizers of this meeting. India is particularly proud of Prof. Rao and his contributions to science and institution building. In recognition of his services to science and the nation, he was awarded earlier this year, our highest civilian honour - the Bharat Ratna, making him the first and only scientist ever to receive this award. It is wonderful that Bangalore, India`s IT hub and home to many scientific institutions is host to this Commonwealth Science Conference. I understand that several of the more recent Fellows of the Royal Society from India are from Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Science and the Tata Institute’s National Centre for Biological Sciences. The headquarters of the Indian Space Research Organization, whose scientists are the pride of India is also located here. The ISRO`s most recent achievement of Mangalyaan or mission to Mars has been described by the Time magazine as one amongst the top 25 inventions of the year and something which portends well not just for our space programme but for science in general. India is the fourth in the world to reach the Mars. It is also the first to attain this goal in its very first attempt and at a cost of US $ 74 million, a fraction of the money spent by others. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, The Commonwealth is a unique international organization. It straddles the North-South divide in the world with an immense diversity of races, religions, cultures, geographical spread and stages of development. The bulk of its membership comes from 31 small states with a population size of 1.5 million or less. The larger member states at the same time share many similarities with them. Thus, the Commonwealth is a very useful forum for dialogue, promoting understanding on global issues and forging consensus on international action. India is a founding member of the Commonwealth and its largest member state, being home to nearly 60% of the total population of the association. India is the fourth largest contributor to Commonwealth budgets and programmes. It is second only to the UK in providing technical experts to Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation for the purpose of extending assistance to developing Commonwealth countries. Ladies and Gentlemen, India is strongly committed to the fundamental values and principles of the Commonwealth. It believes the Commonwealth, has the potential to play an even greater role in relation to contemporary challenges facing the world and can be a bridge builder between the developing and developed countries. It is our view that the Commonwealth, with its diverse membership and democratic style of functioning based on consensus and informality, is well placed for global advocacy on contemporary issues. It is therefore important that all Commonwealth countries get together not only to discuss contemporary issues related to science and technology but also to explore how best science can be used to address the pressing challenges that confront humanity. India, under the guidance of our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, adopted science and technology as a priority from the early days of our independence itself. The creation of new educational and research institutions began from 1950 itself. As early as 1951, the country decided to set up an Atomic Energy Commission which has enabled India build her own reactors. The space programme was also soon started enabling us launch rockets and satellites into space. At the time of Independence, our agriculture sector was under-developed and we were a net importer of food grains. It is the synergy between science and public policy which resulted in technologically upgrading our agriculture system. The excellence of our scientists and toil of our farmers, together led to the Green Revolution of the sixties, which made our country self-reliant in food and also, a major exporter today. Such a transition has few parallels in human history. In the years that followed, India based research led to the emergence of a strong pharmaceutical industry followed by more recently the Biotechnology and Information Technology industries. We in India see our future as inextricably linked to the progress we can make in the field of science and technology. ICT and the digital revolution is rapidly transforming our lives. The number of mobile phone users in India was around 930 million at the end of September 2014 which is the second highest in the world after China. Our mobile phone density of 74.55 compares favourably with other top ranking countries. India also ranks third after China and the USA in terms of number of internet users. At the same time, the penetration of internet use as a percentage of our population is only around 19.2% at present indicating the huge potential that exists for further growth. The Parliament of India adopted in 1958 a science policy resolution which promised to "foster, promote and sustain” science in all its aspects. In 2013, a Science, Technology and Innovation Policy was initiated by the Government aiming to shape the future of an aspiring India. Today, we are determined and committed to continued investment in basic science even as we use science to transform our society. Indian scientists were proud partners in the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle in 2012. We were part of global collaborations in life sciences which resulted in a low-cost vaccine against Rotavirus, which will soon be introduced in our national immunization programme. The Indian scientific community has been also part of projects such as the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), Darmstadt, Germany; Macromolecular crystallography and high pressure physics beam line at the Elettra Synchrotron Facility, Trieste, Italy; Neutrino Experiments at Fermilab, USA; the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) Project at Mauna Kea, Hawaii; the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Project, South Africa and Australia; and experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva. We hope to soon also launch international collaborative programmes in disease biology, marine biology and bioinformatics. Nanoscience and Technology is another area of focus. An umbrella programme, called the ‘Nano Mission’ has been launched to promote research and development in this emerging and active area. India today is placed third in the world in terms of scientific publications in this area. The `Nano Mission` is a good case study as to how capacity and capability in a specific field of Science can be strengthened through focused Government initiative. Professor C.N. R. Rao has led this successful effort. I take this opportunity to congratulate him for this wonderful initiative. Many new initiatives are also on the anvil in the fields of solar energy, electric mobility, high-energy physics, astronomy, vaccines and drug discovery, marine biology etc., to name only a few. We hope to focus in the future on three types of scientific efforts: (1) Blue sky research dealing with the important developments in fundamental science, including advanced materials and medical biology. (2) Research and development related to man’s pressing problems such as water and diseases specific to India. (3) Areas where India can emerge as one of the leaders in the world. We hope to identify such areas and support them adequately. Ladies and Gentlemen, I understand building scientific capacity in developing nations is one of the important topics which will be discussed in this Conference. I am also happy to learn about the initiatives the Royal Society is taking to stimulate science in Africa. The collaboration of young scientists from Commonwealth countries with leading laboratories of the world must be enhanced. There is also need to improve teaching and teacher quality at every level, especially schools. I believe this Commonwealth Science Conference can be transformative for our future if concrete programmes of action can be evolved in these areas. I understand one of the goals of this Conference is to recognize and encourage young scientists. I also see that young scientists have been invited to participate in the meeting and present papers. The attraction of talented students to study science and pursue a career in science is a big challenge in many developing countries and indeed the world over. Young boys and girls from every social and economic context from every corner of the world must have the opportunity to learn the rigorous tools of science to fulfill their dreams to understand the mysteries of our planet and the universe. I am happy to inform you of a major initiative of my Government in this regard called the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research scheme or INSPIRE which is being implemented through our Ministry of Science & Technology. Over the past five years, more than a million students have been provided awards from which more than 230 innovations are being processed for provisional patenting. Commonwealth nations must join hands in bilateral and international ‘Mega Science’ initiatives. Because of their scale and technical complexity, such ‘Mega Science’ projects are manifestly multi-agency, multi-institutional and, most often, international in character. I encourage the Royal Society to develop programmes of international collaboration which could stretch from the West Indies to Australia, with support from national funding agencies and private philanthropy. Together, the brilliant intellects gathered in this room can promote science and the scientific method to young people worldwide and make the world a better place. India would be happy to collaborate in whatever manner possible, especially to strengthen the scientific base and research capabilities of the smaller countries of the Commonwealth. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Science is one of the creative endeavours of human mind. Science seeks universal and fundamental truths. Science plays a vital role in the advancement of human life and its study is central to technological progress. Modern societies and nations must be built on scientific knowledge. A scientific culture and logic must determine the choices and decisions made by individuals, societies and nations. Let me conclude quoting Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who often pointed out: (quote) "The future belongs to science and to those who make friendship with science” (unquote).

The demographic challenge

The rhetoric on the capacity of countries to reap the so-called demographic dividend cannot mask the more complex reality of a not-so-young world in 2014, and non-uniform patterns of growth. About a quarter of the world’s population — 1.8 billion — is in the age-group of 10-24 years, according to the latest United Nations Population Fund report. In 1950, the proportion was higher, at almost a third of the global total, at 721 million. The 10-24 age segment has thus declined overall, while it has more than doubled in absolute terms during the period. This means that in theory, people in this age bracket, their number larger than China’s population, can hope to live longer, be better fed and educated, do decent jobs and earn adequate incomes. In concrete terms, this segment would swell the share of the working-age population — those between 15 and 64 years — over the next few decades. But here is the catch. Nine out of ten people, or 89 per cent, in the 10-24 age-group live in less developed countries, says the UNFPA report. Most people who are alive today are below 30 years of age. In 17 states, 15 of them from sub-Saharan Africa, one half of the population is under 18 years. One in three girls in the developing world is married before reaching 18, raising the risk of early and perhaps unintended motherhood among children and hampering the realisation of their full potential. One in seven HIV infections occur during adolescence.

According to the World Bank, last year there were 100 dependants (those below 15 years and above 64 years) for every 100 people in the working age in Angola. The ratio was even higher, at 103, for Chad; for other states in the conflict zones of sub-Saharan Africa, the figures were in the 80s and more. Whereas India’s age-dependency ratio has ranged in the 50s per 100 working population between 2010 and 2013, China has stayed in the mid-30s during the corresponding period. India’s higher ratio underscores the extent to which social protection measures would have to be strengthened for both the components to ease their mutual interdependence and enhance the quality of life. Alongside measures to boost growth and attract multinational corporations in the manufacturing and services sectors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi must take up massive public-funded programmes in basic education, health care and vocational training, with a thrust on building a clean economy. Only then could the current younger age profile of the population prove advantageous. The demographic dividend refers to the potential among countries to increase economic growth by taking advantage of the changing age structure in the population. Clearly, a great deal remains to be done to realise this potential.

Capital Goods Sector

A scheme on” Enhancement of Competitiveness in the Indian Capital Goods Sector” has been notified on 5.11.2014.             The Scheme aims to make Indian capital goods industry globally competitive by strengthening technology development, providing common manufacturing infrastructure and extending financial assistance for technology acquisition.             The Scheme envisages Government Budgetary Support of Rs. 581.22 crore and Industry contribution of Rs. 349.74 crore.             The proposed Scheme has components consisting of infrastructural interventions as well as financial intervention to boost competitiveness of the domestic capital goods industry as under: ·        Setting up of Five Centers of Excellence (CoE) at Indian Institutes of Technologies/ Central Manufacturing Technology Institute for Technology Development in different sub sectors of Capital Goods. ·        Setting up of one Integrated Industrial Infrastructure Facility (IIIF). ·        Setting up of two common Engineering Facility Centers. ·        Setting up of Test and Certification Centre with full Government Support. ·        Technology Acquisition Fund Programme for acquisition of technology.             Detailed Guidelines of the Scheme including funding pattern are available on the website of the Department of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises at http://dhi.nic.in.             The scheme is likely to be implemented in five year.

Steps Taken by Govt. to Accelerate Pace of Reduction for MMR to Achieve MDG Goals

Under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, the target is to reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three quarters between 1990 & 2015. Based on the UN Inter–Agency Expert Group’s MMR estimates in the publication “Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2013", the target for MMR is estimated to be 140 per 1,00,000 live births by the year 2015  taking a baseline of 560 per 100,000 live births in 1990. As per the latest report of the Registrar General of India, Sample Registration System (RGI-SRS), Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of India has shown a decline from 212 per 100,000 live births in the period 2007-09 to 178 per 100,000 live births in the period 2010-12. If the MMR declines at the same pace, India will achieve an MMR of 141 per 100,000 live births which is almost equal to the estimated target of 140 per 100,000 live births under MDG -5 for the MDG. The key steps taken to accelerate the pace of reduction for Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) under the National Health Mission (NHM) for achieving MDG goals are: v  Promotion of institutional deliveries through Janani Suraksha Yojana. v  Capacity building of health care providers in basic and comprehensive obstetric care. v  Operationalization of sub-centres, Primary Health Centres, Community Health Centres and District Hospitals for providing 24x7 basic and comprehensive obstetric care services. v  Name Based Web enabled Tracking of Pregnant Women to ensure antenatal, intranatal and postnatal care. v  Mother and Child Protection Card in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Child Development to monitor service delivery for mothers and children. v  Antenatal, Intranatal and Postnatal care including Iron and Folic Acid supplementation to pregnant & lactating women for prevention and treatment of anemia. v  Engagement of more than 8.9 lakhs Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) to generate demand and facilitate accessing of health care services by the community. v  Village Health and Nutrition Days in rural areas as an outreach activity, for provision of maternal and child health services. v  Health and nutrition education to promote dietary diversification, inclusion of iron and folate rich food as well as food items that promote iron absorption.  v  Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK) has been launched on 1st June, 2011, which entitles all pregnant women delivering in public health institutions to absolutely free and no expense delivery including Caesarean section.  The initiative stipulates free drugs, diagnostics, blood and diet, besides free transport from home to institution, between facilities in case of a referral and drop back home.  Similar entitlements have been put in place for all sick infants accessing public health institutions for treatment. v  To sharpen the focus on the low performing districts, 184 High Priority Districts (HPDs) have been prioritized for Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child Health+ Adolescent (RMNCH+A) interventions for achieving improved maternal and child health outcomes.

Mangalyaan among Time's best inventions list

The spacecraft is among the 25 ‘Best Inventions of 2014’ listed by Time magazine that are "making the world better, smarter and-in some cases-a little more fun."

Mangalyaan has been named among the best inventions of 2014 by Time magazine which described it as a technological feat that will allow India to flex its “interplanetary muscles.”

“Nobody gets Mars right on the first try. The U.S. didn’t, Russia didn’t, the Europeans didn’t. But on September 24, India did. That’s when the Mangalyaan ...went into orbit around the Red Planet, a technological feat no other Asian nation has yet achieved,” Time said about Mangalyaan, calling it “The Supersmart Spacecraft.”

Mangalyaan is among the 25 ‘Best Inventions of 2014’ listed by Time magazine that are “making the world better, smarter and—in some cases—a little more fun.”

Developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation, the Mars spacecraft cost India just $74 million, less than the budget for the multi—Academy Award winning science fiction thriller film ‘Gravity.’

The Blue Room

The list also includes inventions by two Indians for developing an exercise space for prisoners in solitary confinement and a tablet toy for kids.

Nalini Nadkarni, forest ecologist and college professor helped develop the ‘Blue Room’ with Snake River Correctional Institution in Oregon for inmates in solitary confinement, who for 23 hours a day see nothing but a tiny, white-walled cell, an experience some research suggests heightens mental illness and makes prisoners prone to suicide attempts and violence.

Former Google engineer Pramod Sharma developed ‘Osmo’, a tablet toy that gets physical. Sharma got the inspiration when he saw his daughter playing with the iPad, but did not want her to be glued to the tablet all day long.

The toy, which debuted in October, has helped Osmo raise $14.5 million in capital and is now being sold in the Apple Store.

The other inventions are a reactor developed by aerospace company Lockheed Martin that could realize nuclear fusion, Apple’s smart watch that besides telling time, can send messages, give directions, track fitness and make wireless payments and Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3, a “hybrid” that bundles laptop into a 12—inch tablet and can run desktop apps.

Rebuilding a regional architecture

The much delayed South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Kathmandu, on November 26-27, exactly six months to the date from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony, affords him an opportunity to reconnect with India’s neighbours, this time inventively to revive moribund regional cooperation in South Asia. When SAARC was constituted three decades ago, India was hampered by limited resources for financing partnerships and investments in the region. This now is no longer the case.

Good relations with neighbours is a priority for India. But for this, India has to commit to and accelerate its efforts towards forging closer bilateral and regional partnerships and economic integration within the subcontinent and beyond.

India accounts for well over two-thirds of SAARC’s area, three quarters of its population, and nearly four-fifths of its GDP. More than its relative size, population and resources, it is India’s ongoing social and economic transformation that makes it the natural fulcrum of cooperation in the region.

A sombre outlook

India will have to underwrite the creation of regional public goods for South Asians to integrate. It can do so by facilitating optimal utilisation of the region’s natural resources, building regional infrastructure, creating connectivity within the region and with the world — with energy grids, cross-border transport networks, coastal shipping, air links, roads, railways and waterways, besides flood and other natural disaster mitigation and prevention measures. It can implement trade facilitation measures, thereby lowering transaction costs and generating greater regional investment and employment.

South Asian cooperation faces multiple challenges. With about a quarter of the world’s population spread over four per cent of the global surface, South Asia constitutes the world’s second least developed region after Sub-Saharan Africa. Its per capita GDP, in terms of purchasing power parity, is three times below the global average. It has more poor people than the rest of the world. There is a dramatic disproportion between its population and share in global output and trade.

While the contiguity of countries constituting SAARC is complemented by cultural commonalities and common terrain, temperament, and civilisational space, these were fractured by the borders created in 1947, and poor political relationships thereafter. The advantages of their cultural congruence and shared history and geography were soon dissipated. SAARC has remained saddled with this legacy, and India is viewed with angst by many in its neighbourhood.

Sixteen years ago, the SAARC Group of Eminent Persons had charted an ambitious, three-stage road map for South Asia: a South Asia Free Trade Area, followed by a Customs Union and a broader Economic Union by the year 2020. Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee lent his support for the creation of a South Asian Economic Union at the previous summit in Kathmandu in 2002. The 2004 Islamabad Summit called for South Asian energy cooperation and strengthened transportation, transit and communications links across the region. These good resolutions have not been realised. Intra-regional trade and investment remain well below double digit figures, making South Asia the least economically integrated area in the world. South Asian States are connected more to the outside world than to each other.

Why regional cooperation matters

Unhindered regional linkages can help in improving the living conditions of people, especially the most impoverished among them, which is no doubt the most important goal for all South Asian governments. The negative opportunity cost for non-integration of South Asian economies amounts to losing an estimated two per cent of additional GDP growth annually. Integration and connectivity, by permitting economies of scale, have attendant social benefits by promoting growth, and improving public health and environment management. Per capita incomes rise in all integrating regional groupings and SAARC should not have a dissimilar experience.

Regional cooperation can also attenuate inter-state conflicts and raise the threshold below which bilateral relations will not fall. Increasing integration, entailing interweaving interactions and interdependence, based on mutual benefit, will reduce regional tensions, augment India’s leverage vis-à-vis the great powers, and stabilise the region by raising the costs of non-cooperative behaviour.

Initially, SAARC had lukewarm political support and lacked dynamic leadership. Notwithstanding its positive vision, India remained timid in the scope of its ambition and commitments. Progress was achieved in fits and starts, not dissimilar to other similar bodies, in part because regional cooperation, inherently, is a difficult exercise.

The single market in the European Union (EU), was created after a 30-year effort in 1992, when internal barriers to the movement of goods were dismantled and external tariffs were harmonised. The EU is still working on a single market for services and energy, and labour mobility and social welfare payouts for non-nationals are becoming contentious. Within SAARC, the South Asia Free Trade Agreement has an accord on tariffs but the negative lists cover almost half the goods of export interest. Its march towards a customs union might be even more grudging.

The absence of connectivity is another impediment. India and Bangladesh share a land boundary over 4,000 kilometres long, but their trade is mainly conducted by sea. South Asia has no regional production chains, as logistics related trade costs are inordinately high.

The leaders of SAARC must concentrate their efforts on its strategic priorities, instead of spreading cooperation across every aspect of South Asian culture, society and economy. Without losing sight of the longer term goal of achieving a South Asian Union, their focus should be on selecting activities that have the most optimal results in terms of readily accruable mutual benefits. The two core objectives, with significant synergy between them, are promoting freer and more trade and investment, and building connectivity and infrastructure.

What India must do

India must invest in SAARC as Germany did in the EU, through structural funding for infrastructure, and social investment through the Cohesion Fund in order to reduce regional disparities. The distributive element, entailing a larger, immediate pay-off for the weaker economies, would speed integration, in turn adding to regional growth, inward investments and rising incomes and welfare.

Besides these, India-led unilateral, bilateral and sub-regional initiatives could significantly spur regional cooperation. The illustrative examples below could easily be multiplied:

Mr. Modi could build on his resolve, articulated during his last visit to Nepal, to turn the border into a bridge, not a barrier. India could speed initiatives to build gateways for freer movement of goods and peoples.

On hydropower, Nepal declared in 1983 that water resources in the Himalayan watershed “represents one of the world’s last great frontiers of development.” India could take the lead in developing South Asian power trade, which could alter the social and fiscal dynamics of Nepal and contribute to the region’s welfare, besides helping reduce greenhouse gases emissions damaging the Himalayan ecosystem.

If Nepal were to build the Kosi high dam ensuring availability of navigable waters in the channels connecting Nepal to India, India could help unlock Nepal from its landlocked status by gaining access to the Bay of Bengal through India’s national waterway on the Ganga.

India and Bangladesh have agreed already on further measures to facilitate bilateral and third country trade between Bangladesh and Nepal and Bhutan, respectively. India will have to hasten infrastructure building in Bangladesh, focussing on improved energy and transportation connectivity with India.

Afghanistan joined SAARC in 2007 in the hope of becoming a land bridge between Central Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East and a trade, transportation, energy and minerals hub in the region. This idea must be pursued, howsoever difficult it might appear at present.

The shared inheritance of South Asia provides an instinct for comfort and ease of interaction, important but not sufficient factors for promoting regional cooperation. Positive relationships among States require trade and investment, educational, scientific and cultural exchanges, and people-to-people contacts. Since politics cannot really be taken out of any venture between States, they also need an innovative use of diplomacy and statecraft.

India must lift its game for SAARC’s rescue and resuscitation. It must lead by example, building trust with its neighbours, showing solidarity, and forging with them a habit of cooperation. India has the strength to shape regional partnerships that lift neighbouring economies along with its own, not as a symbol of Indian altruism but of its enlightened self-interest. It must help build a regional architecture that creates a congenial space for all its members.

Such a transformation cannot come quickly. It will be conditioned by India’s own growth prospects, and unpredictable circumstances can derail the momentum. It is time, however, for India to take the first determined steps in Kathmandu in the next few days.

Against insider trading

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the capital markets regulator, made a series of far-reaching changes to its regulations in a meeting last week. Some of the major changes pertain to insider trading regulations. There are also big changes in listing and delisting norms and some changes to the consent order regime. Taken together, these should lead to better corporate governance and help align Indiancapital market standards more closely to international practices.

The regulator adopted most of the suggestions of the judge Sodhi committee, which had examined the Sebi (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations (1992). The new Prohibition of Insider Trading Regulations (2014) updates and broadens the 1992 regulations. The new definition of an "insider" is broader, including within its ambit any "connected person" with access to "unpublished price sensitive information" (UPSI). This includes relatives of directors, employees and of other persons covered under the earlier definition of an insider. If such connected persons trade, the onus will be on them to prove that they were not in possession of theUPSI at the time of trade. The UPSI and the norms under which the UPSI can be communicated have also been defined more clearly. Third-party connected persons may be asked to declare any holdings in the company in question. Connected persons and insiders who wish to trade a stock may do so only by disclosing trading plans in advance to the stock exchange. For instance, such a pre-declared plan would enable employees with vested stock options to book profits. The UPSI would have to be communicated at least two days in advance of a trade.

Until case law develops, it would be difficult to see how the new regulations work in practice. But on the face of it, the new regulations should reduce rampant insider trading. In particular, it would be difficult for a connected person as defined under the new regulations to prove that he or she did not possess the UPSI. Of course, that disincentive could help curb insider trading, but it could also prove to be a barrier against legitimate trading.

Sebi's decision to transform the erstwhile Listing Agreement into new Listing Regulations, along with some changes, is designed to impart the force of law to what used to be a bipartite private agreement between a stock exchange and a company. Listing obligations and disclosures will now have to be adhered to closely since mandatory disclosures, compliance, etc, become strictly enforceable. The time period for compliance in delisting processes has been reduced to 76 working days from the earlier 137 calendar days. All delisting, takeover and buyback offers must come through stock exchanges. The changes in the delisting regulations do contain at least one provision that will be difficult to comply with. At least 25 per cent of the public shareholders as of the date of the board meeting that approves the delisting proposal must tender in the reverse book building process. This last requirement may be hard to comply with, especially for companies with widely dispersed shareholding patterns.

Apart from these key changes, Sebi has also aligned its regulations in line with the Reserve Bank of India's "wilful defaulter" norms, by blocking defaulters from raising money via the capital markets. It has relaxed its norms for consent regulations allowing "minor offences" to be settled this way. Small mutual funds will be allowed to run two schemes even before hitting the stipulated Rs 50 crore in net worth. Procedurally speaking, electronic initial public offerings should also ease the burden of paperwork and accelerate processes. Theoretically at least, the new provisions do seem to strengthen the legal and enforcement framework as Sebi claims.