Individual scrip-wise price bands imposed on non-derivative index constituents; exchanges must update systems and notify members.
Individual scrip-wise price bands of up to 20% are mandated for securities that are part of index derivatives but not eligible for F&O, to curb excessive price movements. Stock exchanges must implement the bands effective February 17, 2014, put in place systems, amend byelaws/rules, notify trading/clearing members and publish the measure on their websites, under the authority of Section 11(1) of the SEBI Act to protect investor interests.

Government debt investment limits expanded for specified foreign investors, increasing reserved sub limit within the overall cap.
The reserved sub limit for specified foreign institutional investors (Sovereign Wealth Funds, Multilateral Agencies, Endowment Funds, Insurance Funds, Pension Funds and Foreign Central Banks) has been increased from USD 5 billion to USD 10 billion within the overall Government debt limit of USD 30 billion. The overall envelope is allocated as USD 20 billion for FIIs and QFIs and USD 10 billion for the specified categories, with a Treasury Bills investment cap of USD 5.5 billion within the USD 20 billion limit.

Information technology governance requires depositories to adopt board-level IT oversight, appoint a CISO and strengthen BCP.
SEBI requires depositories to establish a Board-level IT Strategy Committee and an executive IT Steering Committee to align IT with business objectives and implement IT strategy. Depositories must adopt an IT strategy document and an Information Security policy approved by the Board and reviewed annually, create an Office of Information Security, appoint a Chief Information Security Officer to manage IT risk and incidents, and designate a senior official to head the Business Continuity Plan; necessary systems must be implemented and bye-laws amended where applicable.

FII Position Limits in interest rate futures: monitoring with government debt aggregation and halt on further long increases at threshold.
The circular sets FII position limits for IRF-capping gross open positions and restricting gross short positions relative to long holdings-and mandates that aggregate FII long exposure in cash and IRF not exceed the permissible government securities investment limit. It requires exchanges to report aggregate gross long IRF positions to depositories; depositories must aggregate these with FII government debt investments, publish the totals, and notify regulators when utilization crosses specified thresholds, after which FIIs must not increase long IRF positions until exposure falls below the lower threshold.

Designated Depository Participant obligations: DDPs must register and monitor foreign portfolio investors and enforce eligibility and group investment limits.
The circular mandates that each FPI engage a Designated Depository Participant (DDP) and that the DDP and the FPI's Custodian be the same entity; DDPs must scrutinise Form A applications against a checklist of eligibility and fit and proper criteria, may grant conditional Category II registrations subject to broad based undertakings and 180 day confirmation, and must manage surrender, name changes, DDP transfers and material changes. DDPs must obtain investor group declarations and report to depositories to ensure clubbing of investment limits so aggregate group holdings remain below the prescribed limit, and must implement tax deduction/payment mechanisms and procedures for post expiry disinvestment permissions.

Standardized Delivery Instruction Slips strengthen transfer controls through serial numbering, electronic validation and mandatory scanning to protect investors.
Delivery Instruction Slip issuance and processing are standardized to strengthen transfer controls by mandating pre-printed serial numbers, DP ID and BO ID, unique serial numbering within each DP, prohibiting mixed-use slips and multiple execution-date use, requiring immediate electronic reporting of DIS issuance, validation of serial numbers at execution to prevent used or unissued DIS from being processed, and mandatory next-working-day scanning with retained archived images and audit trails.

Securitised debt reporting: mandatory single platform trade reporting and designated clearing settlement to improve market transparency.
All trades in securitised debt instruments by specified institutional investors must be reported on a single recognized trade reporting platform by both buyer and seller within a short timeframe; reporting platforms must publish continuous market data and relevant disclosures. Trades between those investors and entities regulated by the central banking authority must be cleared and settled through designated clearing corporations and will be subject to norms prescribed by those clearing corporations.