The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) board is expected to clear a fresh set of ease-of-doing-business measures at its June 19 meeting, including the reintroduction of open-market buybacks through stock exchanges, a faster rollout mechanism for alternative investment fund (AIF) schemes, and simplified documentation for transmission of securities to legal heirs.

Other proposals that could come up before the Board include allowing online bond platform providers to distribute products regulated by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) and 54EC capital gains tax-saving bonds, and changes to the pre-open call auction mechanism for IPOs and re-listed companies to improve opening price discovery, according to people aware of the developments.

The proposed revival and tightening of the stock exchange route for open-market buybacks, which was phased out in 2023 due to tax-related concerns, is expected to be among the most significant items on the agenda.

Through two consultation papers issued this year in April and May, SEBI has proposed bringing back the stock exchange route for open-market buybacks along with a series of safeguards.

These include reducing the buyback execution window to 66 working days from six months earlier, minimum utilisation requirement of around 40 per cent of the buyback size within the first half of the offer, stronger disclosures, and restricting purchases from promoters and promoter group entities during the buyback period.

Separately, it has proposed rationalising the Buy-back Regulations by removing redundant provisions, aligning the framework with the T+1 settlement regime, simplifying procedural requirements and reducing compliance timelines for listed companies.

Another key proposal is the GARUDA (Green-Channel: AIF Rollout Upon Document Acknowledgement) mechanism, which seeks to further reduce the time taken to launch AIF schemes from the already fast-tracked 30-day window.

The new proposal seeks to further shorten this timeline to about 10 working days, and in select cases such as accredited investor-only or angel funds, enable near-immediate launch upon acknowledgement.

The Board is also expected to consider doubling the monetary thresholds for simplified transmission of securities to ₹10 lakh for physical holdings and ₹30 lakh for dematerialised holdings, reducing documentation requirements for legal heirs and nominees.

The regulator has also proposed revising the base price and price-band framework for ETFs by allowing exchanges to adopt a more dynamic reference price linked to the indicative net asset value, helping improve price discovery and reduce unnecessary trading disruptions when the underlying securities continue to trade.

An email sent to SEBI did not elicit a response until press time.

SEBI Board’s agenda

Published on June 14, 2026