Some of the measures like exemption from minimum public offer limit of 25 per cent on initial public offerings (IPOs), waiving of requirement of five shareholders per Rs 1 lakh of offer and permitting application for public issues in newspapers (subject to legal provision), will enable the infrastructure companies in cutting down the public issue cost tremendously and also substantially reduce the time involved in fulfilling legal formalities in the process of raising resources through initial public offerings.

The Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has also taken the safeguard of ensuring adequate disclosures about the justification of pricing of initial public offerings (IPOs) which willhave to be mandatorily given in the offer document. This is an essential feature to protect the interest of investors, Ficci said. Sebi's announcement of making all IPOs or new issues in the dematerilised form is also a positive measure, it said. This will substantially reduce the paper work in the process as well as help in moving further towards adopting T+3 settlement system.

Ficci hopes that a date for commencement of the process will soon be announced which will enable the stock market to adopt the sophisticated electronic book entry system at the earliest possible.

The lifting of ceiling for advances against shares and debentures in the case of share and stock brokers and market makers and permitting banks to provide need based finance to these categories of players in the capital market is a step in the right direction. The Reserve Bank of India's decision to allow banks to advance loans for financing promoters contribution and also advance loans against units of mutual funds is also a welcomemove, Ficci added.