SEBI Unveils ‘Saa₹thi’ App To Educate And Inform Investors

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has launched a mobile app for educating investors called ‘Saa₹thi’ at a recently held event attended by SEBI officials.

“This mobile app is yet another initiative of SEBI with a view to empowering investors with knowledge about the securities market. With the recent surge in individual investors entering the market, and more importantly a large proportion of trading being mobile phone-based, this app will be helpful in easily accessing the relevant information,” said Ajay Tyagi, chairman of SEBI.

“I am sure that in coming times this App will be popular among the investors especially the young ones,” he added

Saa₹thi aims to create awareness about the basic securities markets concepts, KYC process, trading and settlement, mutual funds, recent market developments, investor grievances redressal mechanism, etc. It is available in both English and Hindi on the Play Store and the App Store.

Last month, Tyagi had warned mutual funds companies against making investments in crypto-related products until the government comes up with its bill and regulations on the sector. The statement was made during a media briefing after a SEBI board meeting.

During the same board meeting, the securities market regulator approved several amendments to norms regarding mutual funds and initial public offerings (IPOs) including the extension of the lock-in period for 50% of the anchor investment portion to 90 days from the current 30 days.

Most of these amendments would be coming into effect on 1 April 2022. Other changes include stricter norms for the disclosure of the usage of net proceeds from an IPO. 

SEBI said that if an issuing company has set out an object for future inorganic growth but has not identified any acquisition or investment target, the amount spent on such targets and the amount for general corporate purpose (GCP) shall not exceed 35% of the total amount being raised.