The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) organises Investor Awareness Programmes (IAPs) with the objectives of creating awareness amongst the investors about fraudulent schemes and facilitating informed investment decisions. The IAPs are organized in association with the three Professional Institutes, namely, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Institute of Company Secretaries of India and Institute of Cost Accountants of India. During the period 01.04.2012 to 28.02.2015, 6402 such programmes have been organized. Besides, 100 programmes were also organized in rural areas during 2012-13 and 2013-14 through Common Service Centres (CSCs) set up under Department of Electronics and Information Technology. In addition, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) also conducts similar programmes through Resource Persons, Investor Associations, Exchanges, Depositories and various trade bodies. SEBI also carries out mass media campaigns relating to cautioning of investors against schemes offering unrealistic returns.

The Government has been taking various initiatives to facilitate small investors to participate in corporate sector. The Companies Act, 2013 and the rules made thereunder seek to promote good corporate governance and protection of interest of investors. Provisions for postal ballot and e-voting have been stengthened/introduced to enable small investors to widely participate in decision making. Under the offer for sale mechanism SEBI has provided for minimum reservation of 10% of offer size to retail investors who bid for shares not more than ₹ 2 lakh aggregated across the exchanges.

The Government has put in place a liberal policy on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), including investments from Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). The Government reviews the FDI policy from time to time with a view to making it more investor friendly, including for NRIs. The Government promotes investment through dissemination of information on the investment climate and opportunities in India. The Government also coordinates with apex industry associations, in their activities relating to promotion of industrial cooperation to stimulate inflow of foreign direct investment into India. The Government has also set up ‘Invest India’, a joint venture company with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), as a not-for-profit, single window facilitator, for prospective overseas investors and to act as a structural mechanism to attract investment into the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. In 2007, the Government established the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC) in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to facilitate NRIs who desire to invest in India. OIFC has organized several Investment and Interactive Meets in different countries, as also during Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) in India. Further, an electronic portal has also been launched to reply to the queries of potential overseas investors by OIFC and its knowledge partners.

This was stated by Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

Investor protection: awareness programmes, governance reforms, and retail allocation measures enhance informed participation by regulators. Investor protection is advanced through Investor Awareness Programmes and SEBI-led campaigns to warn against fraudulent schemes, while corporate governance reforms under the Companies Act, 2013 strengthen postal ballot and e-voting to broaden small investor participation and offer-for-sale rules include a reserved retail tranche; complementary measures to attract overseas and non-resident investors include a liberal FDI policy, Invest India, the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre, industry coordination, and targeted outreach and portals.