The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has revised the framework for its innovation sandbox allowing individuals, in addition to fintech companies to participate. Under the sandbox, the markets regulator will give participants access to market data to recommend or build new products and technology solutions for India's capital market. The first main difference between the revised framework and the earlier framework, which came out in May 2019, is that SEBI has expanded the eligibility criteria to individuals. Secondly, it has created a graded entry criteria and has made existing market organisations responsible for on-boarding the participants. Third, while the previous framework says that participants in the sandbox can seek protection on their intellectual property rights under the sandbox, the revised framework says that participants cannot seek to enforce their IPR since there could be multiple applications with similar ideas SEBI said that fintechs can develop improvements in the securities market system to bring about more efficiency, fairness and transparency. "To create an ecosystem which promotes innovation in the securities market, SEBI is of the opinion that fintech firms should have access to market related data which is otherwise not readily available to them, as well as to a test environment to enable them to test their innovations effectively before the introduction of such innovations in a live environment," it said. Eligibility criteria Any citizen or registered entity can apply to be part of Stage-1 of the sandbox, provided they have complied with Know-Your-Customer norms The applicant needs to…
