Role of SEBI in investor protection

In India, SEBI established in 1988 as a non statutory body for regulating the securities market. But as SEBI is 25 years old and thus requires monitoring rather than over-regulation. The present paper aims to study the present role of SEBI in investor protection. Are the investors really feel safe in investing their money in securities market. For this 50 retail investors are selected as a sample size to know the effectiveness of SEBI's investor protection guidelines through a questionnaire method. Study uses bar charts and pie charts to interpret the data. It was found that SEBI took several measures with a two-pronged approach to discipline and take action against erring entities and at the same time to educate the investors about the risks associated with investing in unregulated schemes. Market watchdog SEBI seems to be moving at fast pace in at least five years while taking up cases for investigation, but the same speed seems to be lacking in completing them. Thus SEBI need to act as the nodal agency to receive complaints of investors, transmit them to agencies concerned and follow them up for speedy action.