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ORGANISATIONAL MATTERS OF THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE BOARD OF INDIA Board During the year 1997-98 (April - March), 6 Board Meetings were held. Of these, a Meeting each was held at Chennai and Calcutta for the first time. With a view to achieving better coordination between the SEBI and the Department of Company Affairs, the SEBI Board resolved that Secretary, Department of Company Affairs, Law and Justice should be extended permanent invitation to participate in the Board Meetings of the SEBI. Accordingly; Secretary, Department of Company Affairs attended the Board Meetings as a permanent invitee during 1997-98. Human Resources As on March 31, 1998, the SEBI had 185 officers and 154 staff members in various other categories. During the year, a Management Consultant was entrusted with the work relating to "Human Resources Requirements" of the SEBI. He has submitted the draft report after interacting with Executives and other members of staff and the report is being examined for appropriate implementation. As the existing SEBI Service Regulations 1988, were framed prior to the SEBI acquiring the status of an autonomous body, necessary steps have also been taken to re-draft these regulations incorporating certain additional provisions etc. The draft regulations are being finalised. Training Apart from deputing the officers for various specific functional training programmes, a few officers were also deputed for overseas training arranged under the auspices of the Financial Institutions Reform and Expansion (FIRE) Project sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development and the Government of India during the year. Parliamentary committees
In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 15K of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 (15 of 1992), the Central Government established the Securities Appellate Tribunal at Mumbai to hear appeals and pass orders under Section 15T of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 vide notification date July 28, 1997. Consequent to the appointment of Shri C Achuthan, Jt. Secretary and Legal Adviser to the Government of India, as Presiding Officer, the Tribunal commenced its functioning with effect from November 1, 1997 at Earnest House 14th Floor, 194 Nariman Point, Mumbai. Promotion of Official Language The SEBI’s endeavor has always been to implement the Official Language Policy of the Govt. of India effectively. In this direction, the Board has taken various effective steps which include availability of all publications, rules, regulations and notifications issued by the SEBI in bilingual form; making available the first-hand information relating to the activities of the Capital Market, as well as various material in Hindi for the timely guidance of the investors. As a result of its laudable efforts, the SEBI brought out a book titled "Capital Market Guide" which provides information in Hindi on various aspects of the Capital Market. Moreover, the Board also played a lead role in development of the regional languages. In this direction, the Board put in strenuous efforts for making available to the investors the relevant information on various aspects of the Capital Market in respective regional languages. In furtherance of its role as a regulatory body of the Capital market, the SEBI brought out a book titled "SEBI - Rajbhasha Sahayika" which provides the standardized bilingual glossary in order to bring uniformity in the usage of various words, phrases generally used in the activities of the Capital Market. Another publication of the SEBI "Rajbhasha Sandarshika" covers various aspects of Official Language Policy of the Government of India and also provides for educative material useful in discharging the official work in Hindi and bilingually. Keeping in view the increasing popularity and usage of the computers in the activities of the Capital Market, the SEBI has published a book titled "Hindi Aashu-Tankan Sandarshika" which provides first-hand information relating to the computer based package training in Hindi typewriting and shorthand, which would definitely play a lead role in providing the training to the secretarial staff. On the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of India’s independence, the Board actively participated in all-India level Official Language seminars organised by the various institutions. Besides this, the Board also contributed immensely in various activities being organized by the various institutions for implementation of the Official Language. In future also, the Board’s endeavor would be to implement the Official Language policy more effectively. Automation The underlying philosophy for the SEBI’s information technology strategy is to equip its officers with an electronic office wherein the required information is readily available at their desktop itself. The SEBI is in the process of implementing an organisation-wide database from which individual officers would draw information to facilitate their day to day work. In a fast evolving environment, the speedy and effective communication between the SEBI’s own departments at Mumbai and its regional offices spread throughout the country are critical prerequisites for quick and timely response. To achieve this objective it is necessary to network all the computers in a manner that they act as a single corporate resource. Initiatives were taken in 1997-98 to implement a Local Area Network (LAN). This is expected to provide the basic infrastructure for unified database access, client-server computing as well as the foundation for sharing information. As part of the SEBI’s information technology plan, the entire computing infrastructure was upgraded during the previous year with the introduction of 250 "Pentium" workstations. These were supplemented in the year under review with the addition of 100 "Pentium" workstations and over 50 high end multimedia computers. These computers were provided with the latest productivity tools including software products for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. With the implementation of the LAN, officers were also being provided with e-mail and Internet access to encourage the transmission of electronic information and to help users access the vast resources of the Internet relating to securities markets. A training programme was organised to enable users to make effective use of information technology and computing resources within the SEBI. Database servers were acquired to initiate the development of the SEBI’s own database and application systems. These servers are equipped with fault tolerant and security features to ensure uninterrupted and controlled access. The SEBI’s web site is hosted at https://www.sebi.gov.in. This site was heavily accessed during the year. In response to the needs and comments of users, the site was substantially redesigned during the year. The site contains statutes, rules, regulations, guidelines relating to SEBI; annual reports, draft prospectuses, press releases and investor related information. A mirror site is also hosted at http://www.sebi.com. New technologies such as imaging, document management, workflow, video conferencing and electronic data interchange are being explored for their feasibility and introduction within the organisation. Year 2000 At the turn of the century, computers systems which have been designed to store and recognise dates with only the last two digits of the year are expected to face problems. The SEBI has embarked on a Year 2000 initiative that will ensure that all the SEBI databases, applications, systems and user interfaces that are dependent upon dates shall not be affected by the advent of the century mark, the year 2000. |
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