SEBI constitutes Market Data Advisory Committee

SEBI constitutes Market Data Advisory Committee

A Market Data Advisory Committee (MDAC) has been formed by capital markets' regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), as a standing committee to suggest suitable policy for accessing securities market data, data privacy and regulations applicable to market data access; and identify segment-wise data parameters and data needs and gaps. To be helmed by whole-time member (WTM) of the SEBI, MADHABI PURI BUCH, the committee has as its members CEOs of depositories and stock exchanges, representatives of various stakeholders, and senior officials of the SEBI.

The SEBI marked the occasion with a press release saying: "Financial markets are traditionally data-rich and data-driven. With ever growing financial markets, the volume and variety of data has also increased manifold over the years and will continue to do so. With increasing size and complexity of financial markets, the importance of data for research, decision making, and innovation in financial markets cannot be over-emphasized."

According to SEBI, non-private data is a "public good" and access to high-quality, consistent data on securities market activities is necessary to nurture transparency, efficiency and innovation in the Indian securities market coupled with respect for data privacy.

The release stated, "Thus, MDAC is a part of SEBI's initiatives to make shareable data on the Indian securities market available to researchers, policy makers and the general public alike and to enhance the quality of such data. Some of the other initiatives undertaken by SEBI, through its Department of Economic and Policy Analysis (DEPA), include data sharing policy, curated links for securities market data, enriching data provision by market infrastructure institutions (MIIs), and reorganization of data resources on the SEBI website."

In SEBI's view, the data sharing policy intends to streamline the process of data sharing and formalization of data protection measures to prevent data from being illegally accessed or misused. For market data to be easily accessed and used for research on the Indian securities market, the SEBI has made available "curated links for securities market data" at https://www.sebi.gov.in/Curation_Links_for_Securities_Market_Data.html.

The SEBI said that these resources have been consolidated and made available at one place in the "reports & statistics" tab on the SEBI homepage so as to enhance the experience of accessing market statistics and other related resources like research, publications, statistics, and reports on the SEBI website.