Corporate governance reports must now include half yearly disclosures of loans, guarantees and securities to promoters and insiders.
SEBI prescribes a standardized Corporate Governance compliance report format with Annex I (quarterly), Annex II (annual), Annex III (six months after year end) and Annex IV (half yearly, effective FY2021 22) which mandates tabular disclosure of loans, guarantees, comfort letters and securities provided directly or indirectly to promoters, promoter group, directors (and relatives), KMPs and entities they control, including amounts issued during the six month period, balances outstanding and an affirmation that such exposures are in the economic interest of the company, subject to specified statutory exclusions.

Investor Protection Fund rules require segregated trusts, prescribed contributions, and defined SOPs for investor claim processing.
Regulatory framework requires recognized stock exchanges and depositories to maintain segregated Investor Protection Funds administered by dedicated trusts with prescribed trustee composition, tenure and reporting. Specified contributions from listing fees, deposits, penalties and depository profits must be made; investment policies must prioritise capital protection and diversification. Uses are restricted to meeting legitimate investor claims, strengthening corpus and investor education, with detailed SOPs for member default, claim invitation, processing, auditing, committee approval and disbursement, plus disclosure, review and corpus adequacy review obligations.

Overseas investment limit for AIFs/VCFs enhanced after RBI consultation, under SEBI Act authority; existing regulatory conditions remain unchanged.
SEBI has enhanced the overall limit for overseas investment by SEBI-registered AIFs and VCFs to USD 1,500 million after consultation with the Reserve Bank of India; all other eligibility criteria, terms, conditions and procedural requirements specified in prior SEBI circulars remain unchanged.

Extension of compliance timelines for REITs and InvITs filings due to pandemic-related restrictions, under regulator powers.
Regulatory filings and compliance obligations for InvITs and REITs for the period ending March 31, 2021 are extended by one month beyond timelines prescribed under the InvIT Regulations and the REIT Regulations and related circulars due to disruptions from the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic; the extension is issued by the securities regulator under its statutory powers and applies to InvITs, REITs, their parties, recognised stock exchanges and depositories.

Change in control of portfolio managers requires prior approval via online portal; approval valid six months.
A Portfolio Manager must obtain prior approval for any change in control by applying online through the intermediary portal; such approval is valid for six months, within which a fresh registration application resulting from the change must be filed, and existing investors must be informed of the proposed change prior to effecting it.

Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting requires standardized ESG disclosures by listed companies, replacing prior BRR framework.
The BRSR requires listed entities to disclose standardized ESG information against the nine principles of the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct, with reporting divided into mandatory essential indicators and voluntary leadership indicators; the BRSR format and guidance note replace the prior BRR template. The regime aims to produce quantitative, comparable disclosures to aid investor decisions and stakeholder engagement, allows cross referencing to international frameworks, and makes filing mandatory for the largest listed companies by market capitalization from the specified financial year, with dissemination directed via stock exchanges.

Timeline relaxation for debenture trustees extends compliance deadlines due to pandemic impact on monitoring and disclosures.
SEBI extends timelines for debenture trustees to submit required reports and certifications to stock exchanges and to publish specified website disclosures-including asset cover certificates, quarterly compliance reports, utilization certificates, breach status and actions taken, and accounts under trustee supervision-and provides a separate extension for reporting regulatory compliance under the earlier circular, invoking SEBI's powers under Section 11(1) of the SEBI Act and Regulation 2A of the Debenture Trustees Regulations, 1993 to address pandemic-related operational challenges.

Timelines for SID and KIM updates require half yearly electronic filings and expedited updation after scheme launch to protect investors.
Requires SID updates for open ended and interval schemes within six months after the half year of launch and thereafter within one month from each half year end using data as of September and March; KIM must be updated at least once every half year within one month from the half year end, filed electronically with SEBI. For the half year ended March 2021, updation is to be completed by the stated compliance cutoff; circular issued under SEBI Act powers and Regulation 77 of the Mutual Funds Regulations to protect investors.

Relaxation of compliance timelines: deadline for RTA and market participant obligations extended due to Covid-19 impacts.
SEBI revises its April 13, 2020 relaxations by adding processing of demat requests to the Annexure list, making thirteen eligible items for timeline relief. Compliance timelines for items 1-13 are extended to July 31, 2021 for intermediaries and market participants. Separately, the deadline for submission of the half yearly Internal Audit Report (IAR) by RTAs for the half year ended March 31, 2021 is extended to July 31, 2021. The circular is issued under Section 11(1) of the SEBI Act to protect investor interests and regulate the securities market.

Relaxation of compliance timelines for market intermediaries extended to accommodate pandemic-related operational disruptions.
SEBI extended compliance deadlines for Trading Members, Clearing Members, Depository Participants and KYC Registration Agencies due to Covid-19, deferring deadlines for call recordings, KYC uploads to KRA, issuance of annual global statements on request, client funding reporting and operation from alternate terminals to end-June 2021, and extending audit, net worth, system/cyber audit, risk reporting, AI/ML reporting and related submissions to end-July 2021. Depository Participant timelines for BO grievances, investor grievance redressal, demat account closure and demat request processing were similarly relaxed. Exchanges and depositories must notify members and publish the circular.

Risk-o-meter disclosure required with scheme performance and portfolio details sent only to subscribed investors via email.
Mutual funds/AMCs must disclose the risk-o-meter of the scheme and the benchmark alongside scheme performance, and send scheme portfolio details by email only to investors who are subscribed to the relevant schemes; these portfolio details should accompany fortnightly, monthly and half yearly portfolio statements, effective June 1, 2021.

Listing compliance extensions granted for debt, municipal bond and commercial paper filers; digital signatures permitted for filings.
SEBI temporarily extends timelines under the Listing Obligations framework for entities with listed debt securities, municipal bonds and commercial paper for the quarter/half year/year ending March 31, 2021, covering Regulation 52 filings and statements of deviation/variation, and permits the use of digital signature certifications or digitally signed documents for stock exchange filings until December 31, 2021.

Relaxation of LODR compliance timelines grants extensions for specified filings and permits digital signature use through year end.
Relaxation of certain compliance obligations under the LODR Regulations grants extensions for filing the annual Secretarial Compliance Report, quarterly and annual audited financial results, and the statement of deviation or variation in use of funds for the reporting period ending March 31, 2021, with revised deadlines. Listed entities are permitted to use digital signature certifications for authentication of filings to stock exchanges under the LODR Regulations for all filings through the end of the calendar year, issued under SEBI's regulatory powers.

Compensation in units to align AMC key employees' interests with unitholders, including lock in and clawback safeguards.
Require a minimum of 20% of gross annual CTC net of income tax and statutory contributions for Key Employees of AMCs to be paid as units of schemes they oversee, allocated proportionately to scheme AUM (excluding ETFs, index funds, overnight funds and existing close ended schemes), paid over 12 months, locked in for three years or scheme tenure, subject to redemption restrictions, limited loan provisions, clawback for misconduct with proceeds credited to the scheme, trustee monitoring, disclosure of aggregate unit compensation, and defined scope of Key Employees with specified exclusions.

Provisional rating rules require CRAs to label ratings 'Provisional' and convert them into final ratings within specified timeframes.
Provisional ratings for debt instruments must be prefixed with Provisional and are those contingent on execution of support agreements, legal documents, assignment or escrow arrangements, debt service reserve accounts, or pending formation and registration of REITs/InvITs; CRAs must convert provisional ratings into final ratings within prescribed timeframes with possible committee approved extension, disclose pending steps, associated risks and alternative ratings in press releases, and publish supplementary disclosures when provisional ratings are not accepted by the issuer.

Relaxation of listing procedures extended; issuers must complete refunds by the next business day and ensure registrar data accuracy.
SEBI extends specified one time procedural relaxations for Rights Issues to apply for issues opening up to September 30, 2021, provided issuers and Lead Managers continue to comply with the remaining conditions of the May 6, 2020 circular. Issuers, Lead Managers, Registrars and other intermediaries must ensure refunds for un allotted or partially allotted applications are completed by the business day after the basis of allotment and that refund instruction data is error free, with prompt remediation of any technical rejections.

Warehousing norms for commodity derivatives: accreditation, financial safeguards and mandatory monitoring to ensure good delivery.
Clearing Corporations must establish comprehensive warehousing norms to ensure good delivery for physically settled commodity derivatives, including transparent accreditation of WSPs and assayers, fit-and-proper and governance requirements, prescribed financial safeguards (security deposits and incremental financial security deposits with monitoring and coordination with WDRA), facility and operational standards for agricultural and metal commodities, mandatory SOPs, sampling/assaying protocols, periodic and surprise audits, fortnightly physical reconciliation with electronic records, and extensive public disclosures and grievance mechanisms.

Mutual fund reporting obligations revised: quarterly compliance and trustee reporting schedules and formats updated effective from specified reporting periods.
AMCs will discontinue Bi-monthly and Half-yearly Compliance Certificates and instead submit a prescribed Quarterly Report to trustees by the 21st calendar day following each quarter. AMCs must also submit a complete quarterly Compliance Test Report to the regulator on the same timetable. Trustees must file a revised Half Yearly Trustee Report to the regulator, including corrective steps for non-compliance, within two months for half-years ending September and March. QR and CTR apply from the quarter ending June 2021; HYTR applies from the half-year ended March 2021.

Regulatory reporting by AIFs: quarterly activity and leverage reports required in revised formats via the regulator's online portal.
Alternative Investment Funds must submit standardized quarterly activity reports to the securities regulator in revised formats via the regulator's intermediary portal; Category III AIFs must also file quarterly leverage reports in prescribed formats. Separately, any changes to private placement memoranda and fund/scheme documents must be intimated to investors and the regulator on a consolidated basis within one month of the financial year end, with explicit reference to revised sections and pages.

Contribution basis for AMC capital revised to average AUM of debt-oriented schemes for the latest financial year; other terms unchanged.
SEBI modifies its prior circular so that AMC contributions to the LPCC's share capital shall be calculated in proportion to the Average AUM of specified debt-oriented schemes for the 2020-21 financial year; scheme scope and all other terms and conditions of the earlier circular remain unchanged.