Investors Awareness Programmes (IAPs) have been organised by Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) in association with Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICoAI) and CSC e-governance India Ltd., a Special Purpose Vehicle (CSC SPV) set up by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.

Following is the year-wise details of IAPs conducted since 2013-14.

Year	Professional Institutes (PIs)	Common Service Centres	Total
2013-14	1849	20	1869
2014-15	1359	300	1659
2015-16	2019	925	2944
2016-17	1096	1075	2171
2017-18 (till 31.12.2017)	53	5519	5572
TOTAL	6376	7839	14215

Investors’ awareness initiative has also been conducted through media. Impact Assessment Study (IAPs) conducted for the purpose have revealed that the programme is very useful. As per the investors’ grievances data maintained by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, action has been initiated against 89 companies in 2015-16 and 145 companies in 2016-17. During year 2017-18 (29.12.2017) action has been initiated against 83 companies.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) under the Department of Economic Affairs (Ministry of Finance) while mentioning that scrips of some Companies which have not paid outstanding amounts are being traded on Stock Exchanges, has stated that trading of scrips is not immediately suspended on receipt of an investor complaint for non-payment of dues to investors by listed companies.

This was stated by Shri P.P. Chaudhary, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

Investor awareness programmes spotlight enforcement actions and the fact trading is not automatically suspended after payment complaints. Investor Awareness Programmes were scaled through collaboration between the Investor Education and Protection Fund, professional institutes, and Common Service Centres, supported by media outreach and impact assessment showing usefulness. Administrative follow-up included initiation of actions against companies on investor grievance data, while the securities regulator noted that trading in scrips of companies with alleged outstanding investor dues is not automatically suspended upon complaint.