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Markets regulator Sebi has proposed a new accredited investors-only alternative investment fund (AIF) regime with lesser compliance rules, a move aimed at enabling sophisticated investors to back higher-risk ventures more efficiently, its senior official said on Thursday. Separately, Sebi is also working on an FPI (Foreign Portfolio Investors) portal, a one-stop shop that will provide clear information for existing and new foreign investors on ways to access Indian markets, its Whole Time Member Ananth Narayan G said at FICCI CAPAM 2025 event here.On Accredited Investors (AIs), he said that globally, such investors are identified as experienced and capable of handling risk, so they are given fewer regulatory protections. To qualify, investors must show they can manage risk and are willing to accept fewer safeguards. India introduced an AI framework in 2021, but it hardly gained traction because the process was cumbersome and expensive, and offered few benefits. However, this is now changing, as Sebi has already simplified the process of obtaining AI status, making it largely paper-free, and is working to make it even easier, Narayan said. He said that Sebi is looking to allow AIF (Alternative Investment Fund) managers to do the initial checks for AI status.Also, Narayan said that Sebi has now " proposed an AI-only AIF regulatory regime that has significantly less compliance requirements around investor protection--our pathway to optimum regulations around AIFs. We want to enable sophisticated investors to back higher-risk ventures in an efficient manner". On FPI front, he said, "Sebi is also developing an FPI Portal, providing clarity and transparency to existing and prospective foreign investors around our regulatory regime".This will also be a one-stop shop for global investors to understand the "how" of accessing India markets, he added. In August 2023, Sebi came out with norms requiring foreign funds with more than 50 per cent of their holdings in a single corporate group to give detailed information about all their owners and beneficiaries. However, some funds such Sovereign Wealth Funds and regulated mutual funds with strict rules on diversification and transparency were exempt, based on a trust-but-verify approach. Now, the regulator wants to turn these exemptions into a positive qualification. The idea is to create a framework called SWAGAT-FI or a Single Window Automatic & Generalized Access for Trusted Foreign Investors. This could cover up to 70 per cent of foreign portfolio investor (FPI) assets, Narayan said.Trusted FPIs would benefit from easier registration, simpler compliance requirements, and broader market access, similar to large domestic investors.On the Futures& Options market, Narayan said that Sebi is considering ways to improve the tenor and maturity profile of derivative products, so that they better support sustained capital formation."This may also need to be achieved in a calibrated manner, giving the system adequate time to adjust," he added.He said that the regulator is open to objective and simple mechanisms to ensure that derivative participation is informed, suitable, and appropriate.Sebi's approach to arriving at the optimum regulatory regime around derivatives has been, and will continue to be, analytical and consultative.Average daily traded volumes in equity cash markets have grown rapidly by over 25 per cent Compounded Annual Growth Rate over the past 5 years, to well over Rs 1 lakh crore now. Earlier in the day, Sebi Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey also stressed on improving the tenor and maturity profile of derivative products.

U.S. business activity picked up pace in August, led by a resurgent manufacturing sector that saw the strongest growth in orders in 18 months, a purchasing managers survey showed on Thursday. S&P Global's flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, increased to 55.4 this month, the highest level since December, from 55.1 in July. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the private sector. "A strong flash PMI reading for August adds to signs that US businesses have enjoyed a strong third quarter so far," Chris Williamson, chief business economist for S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a statement. "The data are consistent with the economy expanding at a 2.5% annualized rate, up from the average 1.3% expansion seen over the first two quarters of the year." The improvement came largely from the manufacturing sector, where the flash PMI surged to 53.3 - the highest since May 2022 - from 49.8 in July and defying economists' expectations for a second month of contraction. Manufacturing received a bump from new order activity at the highest since February 2024. The services sector, meanwhile, eased back to 55.4 from 55.7 in July. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the services PMI slipping to 54.2. The survey's measure of prices paid by businesses for inputs edged up to a three-month high of 62.3 from 61.3 last month, with both the services and manufacturing sectors reporting higher costs and companies citing President Donald Trump's tariffs as the key driver behind the increase. "Companies across both manufacturing and service sectors collectively reported the steepest rise in input prices since May and the second-largest increase since January 2023," the report said. "Rates of increase accelerated in both sectors." The survey's measure of prices charged by businesses for goods and services rose to a three-year high of 59.3 in an indication that companies are increasingly passing along the costs from higher tariffs to consumers. Employment also improved, the survey showed. The composite employment index for both manufacturing and services rose to 52.8, the highest since January, from 51.5 in July.