Intra-BRICS trade cooperation prioritises wider market access, diversified supply chains, simplified regulatory procedures and faster consignment clearance. Cooperation is proposed across agriculture, services, manufacturing, startups and emerging technologies, including professional mobility and recognition of qualifications. Payment-system linkages, local-currency trade, digital public infrastructure, artificial intelligence, fintech, data centres and semiconductors are identified as areas for collaboration. Trade facilitation, digital documentation, MSME support, business partnerships and stronger global value chains are intended to support economic integration.

Fund management entities must appoint independent custodians for retail schemes, open-ended restricted schemes, and schemes managing assets above USD 70 million, subject to an exemption for fund-of-funds schemes whose underlying schemes have independent custodians. Custodians must generally be IFSC-based, although a regulated foreign custodian may be appointed where local issuance laws require it. Existing non-IFSC custodian arrangements must be transitioned to an IFSC-based custodian within twelve months of notification.

GST refund functions under Section 54 are assigned to all Assistant Commissioners and GST Officers posted in any ward within the jurisdiction of their respective zones in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. These officers are designated to perform the functions of a Proper Officer for refund administration. The assignment continues the earlier functional arrangement while partially modifying the territorial-jurisdiction arrangement.

Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 2026 modernises the evidentiary framework for banking records and replaces the earlier legislation. It recognises records maintained in physical, electronic, digital, virtual, cloud-based, and other contemporary forms. Certification is simplified and standardised, including through manual, digital, or electronic signatures. Summoning a bank official where the bank is not a party requires special cause recorded in writing by the court. The framework may be extended to specified financial-sector entities or classes of entities.

Scheme winding up may occur on expiry of the tenure specified in the placement memorandum or offer document, or where investors holding seventy-five per cent of the scheme's investment value approve winding up through a resolution at an investors' meeting. The Authority may also direct a fund management entity to wind up a scheme, merge specified schemes, or manage schemes of another fund management entity in the interests of investors and orderly financial-market development.

Merger, demerger, or restructuring of schemes requires prior approval of the Authority and compliance with conditions specified by the Authority.

A Fund Management Entity may, at its discretion, constitute an Investment Committee to make investment decisions for its schemes. Members of the Investment Committee must, to the extent applicable, comply with all responsibilities imposed on the Fund Management Entity and Fund Managers under the governing regulations.

Fees and expenses must be clearly identified and appropriated separately for each scheme. The FME must disclose in the offer document or placement memorandum the maximum fees and expenses it may charge, with every expense shown separately as a specific line item.

Regulation 127 requires any advertisements issued by an FME to conform to the Advertisement Code prescribed in the Fifth Schedule to the International Financial Services Centres Authority (Fund Management) Regulations, 2025. The requirement establishes compliance with that Code as the governing standard for advertising by an FME and links advertising activity to the scheduled compliance framework.

A Fund Management Entity must pay annual fees, scheme filing fees, and any other fees specified by the Authority from time to time under the International Financial Services Centres Authority (Fund Management) Regulations, 2025.

Direct or indirect change in control of a Fund Management Entity requires prior approval. A branch Fund Management Entity need only inform the Authority within fifteen days where prior approval is required from its sectoral regulator at its principal place of operation. Approval may be subject to appropriate conditions, including an opportunity for investors to exit.

Guaranteed returns in a scheme or under a portfolio management services agreement are prohibited unless the fund management entity fully guarantees them. The offer document or agreement must disclose the guarantee, its details, and the manner in which it will be fulfilled.

Fund Management Entities must maintain a sound system for comprehensive risk management. Adequate internal procedures and controls, appropriate to the businesses undertaken and including outsourced activities, are required to protect clients' and investors' interests and assets and ensure proper risk management.

Registered FMEs must maintain a robust cyber security and cyber resilience framework in accordance with requirements specified by the Authority from time to time. This creates an ongoing compliance responsibility to align cyber security and resilience arrangements with applicable regulatory requirements.

Registered Fund Management Entities must maintain a business continuity plan containing procedures to address emergencies or significant business disruptions. The plan must be updated following any material change in operations, structure, business, or location, and reviewed annually to ensure it remains appropriate.

Information to the Authority requires fund management entities, fiduciaries and persons involved in regulated activities to furnish reports, returns, statements and particulars accurately and within prescribed timelines, intervals, forms and manner. The Authority may call for information, documents or records from fund management entities and entities engaged by them for related functions. A fund management entity must furnish requested information accurately within the specified time.

Fund management entities must maintain scheme-specific books, records and documents that explain transactions, disclose financial position, and present a true and fair view of scheme affairs. Electronically retrievable financial, audit, compliance, client-account and regulated-activity records must be preserved for at least eight years. Records relating to scheme assets, valuation practices, investment strategies, investor contributions and investment rationale must be retained electronically for at least five years after scheme winding up.

Every Fund Management Entity, its fiduciaries and key managerial personnel, including the Principal Officer, Fund Managers and Designated Compliance Officer, must comply with the Code of Conduct specified in the Third Schedule to the International Financial Services Centres Authority (Fund Management) Regulations, 2025.

Voluntary delisting of an Investment Trust, scheme or ETF may be undertaken by a recognised stock exchange upon a request from the Investment Trust or Fund Management Entity (FME). The process must follow the manner provided by the recognised stock exchange or the Authority.

Delisting by a recognised stock exchange may apply to an Investment Trust, scheme or ETF upon prolonged trading suspension without adequate restoration action, loss of listing or trading eligibility, or compulsory delisting from another exchange. It may also be undertaken where special circumstances require delisting or where directed by the Authority, another relevant authority, or a court of applicable jurisdiction.