Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to implement next-generation reforms to ensure greater ease of doing business.

Sitharaman also asked SEBI to deepen the corporate bond market and further develop the green bond market in light of rising focus on ESG (environment, social and governance) investments.

The Finance Minister, in her customary post-Budget address to the SEBI, appreciated the initiatives taken by SEBI. She also emphasised on the need for the regulator to take further steps to reduce compliance burden,reduce cost of market intermediation, take more investor protection measures.

She also asked the SEBI to prepare itself against any possible market turbulence on the backdrop of the tapering by the US Federal Reserve.

The US Federal Reserve has already declared plans to expedite the pace of tapering of the pandemic-era stimulus to cool inflation in America, Financial Express reports.

The event was attended by the Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Bhagwat Karad and other senior officials of the central government.

Speaking on the occasion, SEBI chairman Ajay Tyagi briefed about the major trends and outlook of Indian securities market, including fund raising activity, increased participation of individual investors, etc. He also apprised the finance ministerabout the status of implementation of last year’s Union Budget proposals pertaining to capital market.