The Centre is planning to amend the Banking Regulation Act to tighten the regulation of urban cooperative banks besides integrating the commodity and capital markets as follow-ups to the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2001 stock scam.

"It is our resolve that sufficient remedial measures are taken to ensure that such events do not recur," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said while presenting the third progress report on the JPC recommendations in the Lok Sabha.

The government said that a board-level committee had been set up in UTI to look at all the investigation reports. Besides, investigations against some of the companies accused were also underway.

Chidambaram said that amendments to the Securities Contract Regulation Act to minimise the control of brokers over the board of the stock exchanges and corporatisation of the bourses were a major step towards bringing about transparency and improving the efficiency of the exchanges.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India has already held preliminary consultations with the stock exchanges and proposes to complete the demutualisation process within a year. Most of bourses have submitted their demutualisation schemes to Sebi.

"Further, this would also help provide liquidity in the investments made largely by small investors in remote corners of the country in small-and medium-cap companies by providing for a national trading platform, INDONEXT, for trading of such shares," the minister said. The government is to present its Action Taken Report to Parliament every six month.

Until May, 2003, when the first ATR was presented, the government had acted on 111 of the 276 observations and recommendations of the JPC. Action is pending on 72 observations, the ministry said.

Stricter norms

• Govt plans to tighten the regulation of urban cooperative banks besides integrating the commodity and capital markets as follow-ups to the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2001 stock scam.
• Chidambaram said that amendments to the Securities Contract Regulation Act to minimise the control of brokers over the board of stock exchanges and corporatisation of the bourses were a major step towards bringing about transparency and improving efficiency of the exchanges
• The Securities and Exchange Board of India has already held preliminary consultations with the stock exchanges and proposes to complete the demutualisation process within a year. Most of the bourses have submitted their demutualisation schemes to Sebi