SEBI officers discuss agenda for future in the Annual Brainstorming Session

The fifth edition of the SEBI Brainstorming session was held on April 6-8, 2016 at Khopoli (Lonavala). The event was attended by more than 100 senior SEBI officers including its entire top management i.e., Executive Directors, Whole Time Members and Chairman.

This year’s program was carefully designed to meet three broad objectives i.e. i) reflect on and rediscover SEBI’s near, medium and long term agenda ii) develop leadership and team building in the organization iii) build awareness about the upcoming new campus of National Institute of Securities Market (NISM) and generate ideas about scaling up its profile and activities in the areas of capacity building and financial literacy.  

Cross functional teams headed by Chief General Managers made stimulating presentations which were followed by engaging discussion generating useful suggestions on a wide variety of topical issues such as :

i. Cyber Security
ii. Increasing the penetration of securities market
iii Revisiting regulatory framework to enable increased fund raising (both equity and debt) from securities market
iv Enhanced and effective monitoring of regulatory compliances
v Ease of doing business for market intermediaries
vi Revisiting the framework for retail distribution, investment advice and curbing mis-selling
vii Conceptualizing and creating relevant databases and analytics to improve the quality of analysis and decision making in SEBI
viii SEBI Communication Strategy

As a part of the event, on April 6, 2016, Shri Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group delivered an inspirational speech on leadership titled, ‘A Transformational Journey’.

On April 7, 2016, there was an exciting panel discussion on “India Financial Services 2025 – Powered by Innovation”by an illustrious panel consisting of Shri P.J. Nayak, Chairman, Union Bank of Colombo; ex-India Country Head, Morgan Stanley; Shri R. Gandhi, Deputy Governor, RBI; Shri Uday Kotak, Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank; Shri Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education. The panel was moderated by Prof. Atul Khosla, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Shoolini University, HP.  

To make the exercise more inclusive, new Ideas contests for junior and senior employees respectively were also conducted in the run up to the event.  The event also witnessed several interesting group and team building activities to enhance camaraderie among the participating officials.

The developmental and regulatory initiatives taken by SEBI have in the recent years transformed the landscape of the Indian Securities Market.  Yet the financial markets being dynamic and complex throw new challenges every day. In this context, need for regular reflection, innovation and generation of new ideas to enhance organizational capabilities assumes special significance.   

Towards this end, a number of steps have been taken in the recent years such as engaging an external consultant to suggest on organizational restructuring, constitution of SEBI’s International Advisory Board and an annual Brainstorming exercise. 

Mumbai
April 11, 2016