Financial Markets, Instruments, Insurance and Pensions

1. Financial markets: functions, structure and the regulatory map

Read the detailed note →

Functions and classification

• What they do. Financial markets move savings from households (savers) to firms and governments (borrowers) without going through a bank loan. They also provide:
• Price discovery: the market sets the price of a share or bond.
• Liquidity: you can sell an asset quickly for cash.

• Risk-sharing: risk is spread across many investors.

• Ways to classify them.

Basis	Types
Tenor (how long)	Money market (up to 1 year) vs capital market (over 1 year)
Claim	Debt (bonds, loans) vs equity (shares) vs hybrid (convertibles, preference shares)
Stage	Primary (new issue) vs secondary (trading existing securities)
Venue	Exchange-traded (standard, cleared) vs OTC (over the counter; private deals between two parties)
Delivery	Spot (immediate) vs derivatives (future contracts)

• Capital market = the market for long-term funds, where equity shares, bonds and other securities are issued and traded.
• Equity share = a unit of ownership in a company. It carries voting rights and a residual claim, meaning the holder gets what is left after all other obligations are paid.
• Class 7, Banks and the Magic of Finance explains this with two analogies. You borrow from friends to expand your restaurant, and in return for a share of profits they become part-owners. A company is like a big chapati, and each share is one piece.

• Companies issue shares to raise funds. Investors buy them expecting the price to rise.

• Preference share = a share that is paid its dividend first and gets its capital back before equity holders, but usually has no voting rights.

• Stock market = the market, organised through stock exchanges such as BSE and NSE, where shares and other securities are bought and sold.
• BSE was set up in 1875 as the Native Share and Stock Brokers' Association. It is Asia's oldest stock exchange.
• Class 7 notes that deals were once done on paper tickets. Paper share certificates and open-outcry trading (shouting bids on the floor) have since given way to computer screens.

• NSE was set up in 1992 and began screen-based equity trading in 1994.

• Financialisation of household savings. Indian households are moving their savings out of gold, property and bank deposits into mutual funds, equity, NPS and insurance. This theme runs through the whole note.

Regulatory map

Regulator	Domain
SEBI	Securities markets, mutual funds, AIFs, credit rating agencies; commodity derivatives since the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) merger (Sept 2015). Non-statutory body from 1988; statutory under the SEBI Act 1992, passed after the Harshad Mehta scam
RBI	Money market, G-secs, forex, interest-rate and currency derivatives
IRDAI	Insurance (IRDA Act 1999)
PFRDA	Pensions: NPS, APY (set up 2003; statutory under the PFRDA Act 2013)
IFSCA	Single regulator for GIFT City IFSC (IFSCA Act 2019; set up 2020)
MCA	Company law (Companies Act 2013)
FSDC	Financial Stability and Development Council; coordinates the regulators, chaired by the Finance Minister

• International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) = a zone that offers financial services to non-residents in foreign currency under its own separate rules. India's first is at GIFT City, Gujarat. Its exchanges include NSE IX and India INX, plus the India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX, 2022). The idea is to bring back to India financial business that now goes to Singapore and Dubai.
• When regulators overlap:
• ULIP dispute (2010): SEBI and IRDA both claimed Unit-Linked Insurance Plans. An ordinance gave them to IRDA.
• Crypto: no single regulator covers it yet (see section 12).

2. Money market: call money, T-bills, CPs, CDs and repo

Read the detailed note →

Uncollateralised segment and bills

• Money market = the market for borrowing and lending for up to one year. Instruments include call money, T-bills, commercial paper, CDs and repos.
• Banks manage their day-to-day liquidity here.

• Monetary policy transmission starts here too. (WACR as RBI's operating target is covered in banking-monetary-policy.)

• Call money market = the interbank market for unsecured short-term funds.

• Call money is overnight.
• Notice money runs 2-14 days.
• Term money runs 15 days to 1 year.

• Only banks and primary dealers may take part.

• Treasury bills (T-bills) = short-term government securities of 91, 182 and 364 days.

• They are issued at a discount and repaid at face value. There is no coupon; the difference between the two prices is the return.
• RBI auctions them on behalf of the Centre.

• NCERT error: Class 12, Money and Banking says the bonds and treasury bills that banks hold as reserves are "issued by the RBI". In fact they are Government of India securities. RBI only issues them as the government's debt manager.

• Cash Management Bills (CMBs) = very short-term T-bills of less than 91 days, used since 2009. They cover the Centre's temporary gaps between spending and receipts.

• Commercial Paper (CP) = an unsecured short-term promissory note issued at a discount.
• Tenor is 7 days to 1 year. It must be credit-rated.
• Issuers: highly rated companies, NBFCs and all-India financial institutions (AIFIs).
• It is used for working capital.

• When IL&FS defaulted in 2018, the CP market froze and NBFCs could not roll over their debt.

• Certificate of Deposit (CD) = a negotiable (tradable) short-term deposit instrument issued at a discount.

• Banks issue CDs for 7 days to 1 year.
• AIFIs issue them for 1 to 3 years.
• CDs can be sold in the secondary market; ordinary fixed deposits cannot.

Collateralised segment and benchmarks

• Repo = borrowing against securities, with a promise to buy them back later (Class 12, Money and Banking explains repo and reverse repo).
• In a market repo, banks, mutual funds and others lend to each other.

• In RBI's LAF repo (Liquidity Adjustment Facility), the central bank is on the other side.

• Tri-party repo = a repo where a third party handles the collateral, its valuation and settlement.

• In India that third party is CCIL (Clearing Corporation of India).
• TREPS (Tri-party Repo Dealing and Settlement) replaced CBLO in November 2018.

• TREPS is now the largest money-market segment.

• MIBOR = the benchmark rate for overnight interbank lending in India, published by FBIL (Financial Benchmarks India Ltd).

• It is used to price floating-rate loans and overnight index swaps (OIS).

• LIBOR = the former global benchmark for interbank lending rates.

• Banks were caught rigging it (scandal from 2012).
• It was phased out by June 2023 and replaced by rates such as the US SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate).

• India's LIBOR-linked MIFOR was replaced by MMIFOR (Modified MIFOR).

• Trend: benchmarks are moving from rates banks simply report to rates based on actual secured transactions. India is working on a secured overnight rupee benchmark (verify current).

3. Bond basics: present value, coupon, yield and the yield curve

Read the detailed note →

NCERT spine (Class 12, Money and Banking)

• Bonds = tradable papers issued by governments or firms to borrow money. They promise a stream of future payments over a maturity period against a face value.
• Coupon rate = the fixed annual payment as a percentage of face value.
• NCERT example: a firm issues a bond with face value Rs 100, maturity 2 years and coupon 10%. It pays Rs 10 after year 1 and Rs 110 (Rs 10 + Rs 100 principal) after year 2.
• Present value (PV) = the sum you would need today, at the market interest rate, to earn a given future amount.

Market rate	PV (= equilibrium bond price)
5%	10/1.05 + 110/(1.05)² ≈ Rs 109.29
6%	10/1.06 + 110/(1.06)² ≈ Rs 107.33

• Why price = PV. Suppose the bond sells at Rs 100 but is worth Rs 109.29:
• Buyers rush in, and the price rises towards Rs 109.29.
• If the price goes above PV, people sell, and it falls back.

• So in competitive equilibrium, price = PV.

• Bond price and interest rate move inversely. When the market rate rises, the PV of fixed future payments falls, so the bond price falls.

• Capital gain = the gain (or loss) from a rise (or fall) in an asset's price.
• If rates rise, bond prices fall and holders suffer a capital loss.
• If rates fall, bond prices rise and holders make a capital gain.

• This is why people hold money for speculation, and it leads to the idea of the liquidity trap. (Both are covered in money-evolution-functions.)

• Yield measures:

• Current yield = coupon ÷ price. At Rs 109.29 this is 10/109.29 ≈ 9.15%.

• Yield to maturity (YTM) = the single discount rate that makes PV equal the price. In the NCERT example, YTM = 5%.

• Zero-coupon bond = pays no periodic interest. It is issued at a discount and repaid at face value. Examples: T-bills and STRIPS (G-secs split into separate coupon and principal pieces).

• Floating rate bond = a bond whose coupon is reset from time to time in line with a benchmark. For example, GoI Floating Rate Bonds (FRBs) reset to the 182-day T-bill yield.
• Mark-to-market (MTM) = valuing assets at current market prices.
• When yields rise, banks' bond portfolios lose value (MTM losses).
• RBI's investment norms from April 2024 put bank investments into three categories: HTM (held to maturity), AFS (available for sale) and FVTPL (fair value through profit and loss).
• Global example: Silicon Valley Bank (US, March 2023) collapsed after large unrealised bond losses.

Yield curve and credit

• Yield curve = a graph of yields on bonds of the same credit quality across maturities.
• A normal curve slopes upward, because longer bonds carry a term premium and a liquidity premium.
• A flat curve means short and long yields are about equal.
• An inverted yield curve means short-term yields are above long-term yields. It is widely read as a sign that a recession is coming, because markets expect rates to be cut later.

• Example: the US 10-year minus 2-year yield stayed inverted through 2022-24.

• India's benchmark is the 10-year G-sec yield.

• Credit rating = a rating agency's view of how likely a borrower is to repay.
• The scale runs from AAA (safest) down to D (default).

• BBB- is the lowest investment grade. Anything below it is non-investment grade, or "junk".

• Credit spread = the extra yield a riskier bond pays over a G-sec of the same maturity.

• Credit rating agencies (CRAs) have been regulated by SEBI since 1999.
• Registered CRAs include CRISIL (1987, India's first), ICRA, CARE, India Ratings, Acuité and Infomerics.
• Issuer-pays conflict: the company being rated pays the agency, which can soften ratings.

• IL&FS (2018) was rated AAA until shortly before it defaulted.

• India's sovereign ratings:

• S&P upgraded India to BBB in August 2025, its first upgrade in about 18 years.
• Moody's rates India Baa3 and Fitch BBB- (verify current).

4. The government securities market

Read the detailed note →

Instruments and plumbing

• Government securities (G-secs) = tradable debt issued by the Centre or states. They carry practically no default risk.
• Legal basis: the Government Securities Act 2006.
• RBI manages the Centre's debt by statute and the states' debt by agreement with each state.

• There is a long-running debate on moving debt management to a separate Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA), so that RBI does not face a conflict between managing debt and setting interest rates.

• Short-term: T-bills and CMBs (see section 2).

• Dated securities = long-term G-secs.
• The coupon is fixed or floating and is paid half-yearly.

• Maturities run from about 2 to 50 years. The first 50-year bond was issued in 2022.

• State Development Loans (SDLs) = dated securities that states issue through RBI auctions to borrow from the market (Article 293).

• They trade at a spread (a higher yield) over central G-secs. Details are in fiscal-federalism.

• Primary dealer (PD) = an entity authorised by RBI to underwrite G-sec auctions and make markets in them (quote buy and sell prices).

• PDs were introduced in 1995-96. They are either standalone PDs or banks running PD business.

• Other plumbing:

• NDS-OM: RBI's electronic trading platform for G-secs.
• RBI Retail Direct (November 2021): individuals can open a G-sec account directly with RBI.
• SLR: banks must hold G-secs to meet the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (Class 12 mentions SLR), which makes them captive buyers.

• OMOs: RBI buys and sells government bonds in open market operations (Class 12).

• Inflation-indexed bond = a bond whose principal or coupon rises with inflation, so the investor's real return is protected.

• Capital-indexed bonds were issued in 1997.
• WPI-linked IIBs and CPI-linked IINSS-C were issued in 2013.

• Demand was weak, and issues stopped.

• Oil bonds = non-cash securities issued to oil marketing companies in 2005-10 to compensate them for selling fuel below cost.

• They pushed the fiscal cost into later years; repayment runs through the 2020s.

• They are cited in the debate over high fuel taxes.

• Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) = a government security denominated in grams of gold, launched in November 2015 to reduce imports of physical gold.

• It pays 2.5% a year on the issue value.
• Tenure is 8 years, with an exit option after year 5.
• It is redeemed at the gold price prevailing at the time.
• Capital gains on redemption are tax-free.
• No fresh tranche has been issued since February 2024. Gold prices rose sharply, so redemptions became costly for the government.

Foreign access

• FPI (foreign portfolio investor) debt investment works within limits set under a medium-term framework.
• Fully Accessible Route (FAR) (March 2020) = a channel that lets non-residents invest in specified G-secs with no investment limit.
• Global bond index inclusion = adding a country's government bonds to global indices, which brings passive foreign inflows (index funds must buy the bonds).
• JP Morgan GBI-EM from 28 June 2024, with the weight raised in steps to 10% by March 2025.
• Bloomberg EM Local Currency index from January 2025.

• FTSE EMGBI from 2025 (verify current).

• FPIs held about 3.3% of outstanding G-secs as of May 2026, mostly through FAR (verify current).

• Benefits: lower yields for the government, a deeper market, and financing for the current account deficit (CAD).
• Risks:
• Passive money can leave suddenly.
• Outflows put pressure on the rupee.
• RBI has less freedom in monetary policy (the impossible trinity; see balance-of-payments-exchange-rate).

5. Corporate, offshore and thematic bonds

Read the detailed note →

Corporate and offshore debt

• Corporate bond = a debt security issued by a company. It pays periodic interest and repays principal on maturity.
• Debenture = a company's long-term debt instrument, often unsecured.
• An NCD is a non-convertible debenture.

• Secured debentures are backed by assets; unsecured ones are not.

• Convertible bond = a bond the holder can convert into a set number of the issuer's shares.

• Why the market is shallow:
• Corporate bonds are small relative to GDP.
• Issuance is dominated by AAA-rated PSUs and financial firms.
• Lower-rated firms still depend on bank loans.

• Fixes proposed: NITI Aayog report on deepening the corporate bond market (2025), and the Bharat Bond ETF (see section 10).

• Masala bonds = rupee-denominated bonds issued abroad by Indian entities.

• The foreign investor bears the currency risk.
• IFC issued the first in 2014. HDFC was the first Indian corporate issuer, in 2016.

• They come under the ECB (external commercial borrowing) framework.

• Foreign Currency Convertible Bond (FCCB) = a bond issued abroad in foreign currency by an Indian company, convertible into its equity.

• The company bears the currency risk.

• When share prices crashed in 2008, holders did not convert. Firms then faced a crunch refinancing FCCBs in 2008-12.

• Foreign bonds = bonds issued by a foreign borrower in another country's market and currency.

Name	Market
Yankee	USA
Samurai	Japan
Bulldog	UK
Panda	China
Kangaroo	Australia

• Perpetual bond = a bond with no maturity date that pays interest indefinitely. The issuer may redeem it by exercising a call option.
• AT1 bonds = perpetual, unsecured bonds issued by banks.
• Coupons are discretionary: the bank can skip them.
• They can be written down or converted into equity if the bank's capital falls below a trigger.
• Yes Bank (2020): Rs 8,415 crore of AT1 bonds were written off.
• Credit Suisse (2023): AT1 holders were wiped out while shareholders got something.
• SEBI rule (2021): mutual funds must value AT1 bonds as if they mature in 100 years.
• How AT1 counts as bank capital is covered in banking-regulation-npas.

Labelled bonds

• Green bonds = debt whose proceeds are earmarked for climate- and environment-friendly projects.
• Yes Bank made the first Indian issue in 2015.
• SEBI's green debt securities framework dates from 2017 and was revised in 2023 to cover blue bonds and yellow (solar) bonds.

• Greenwashing risk: the money may not really go to green projects.

• Sovereign green bonds = green bonds issued by the government.

• Framework: November 2022.
• First issue: January-February 2023, Rs 16,000 crore in 2022-23.
• Greenium: investors accept a slightly lower yield on them than on ordinary G-secs.

• Excluded uses include fossil fuels and nuclear power.

• Blue bonds = bonds that finance ocean and marine conservation and the sustainable blue economy. Seychelles issued the first in 2018.

• Social and sustainability bonds:
• Social bonds finance projects with social outcomes, such as affordable housing or healthcare.

• Sustainability bonds finance a mix of green and social projects.

• Municipal bonds = bonds issued by urban local bodies (ULBs) to fund civic infrastructure.

• Bengaluru issued the first in 1997.
• Ahmedabad issued the first without a state guarantee in 1998.
• SEBI ILDM Regulations 2015 govern debt issues by municipalities.
• Pune revived the market in 2017.
• Ghaziabad issued the first green municipal bond in 2021.
• Under AMRUT, the Centre gives an incentive of Rs 13 crore for every Rs 100 crore a city raises.
• Constraint: ULBs have weak own revenues (see fiscal-federalism).

6. Primary market: raising equity capital

Read the detailed note →

The IPO pipeline

• Primary market = where companies or governments issue new securities directly to investors to raise fresh capital.
• Initial Public Offering (IPO) = a company's first sale of shares to the public, after which it is listed.

• It is governed by SEBI ICDR Regulations 2018 (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements).

• Offer documents, in order: 1. DRHP (draft red herring prospectus), filed with SEBI. 2. Red herring prospectus, which gives company details and the price band but not the final price or number of shares. 3. Final prospectus.

• Book building = investors bid within a price band, and the final price is set by demand.

• The cap of the band can be at most 120% of the floor.
• Retail investors may bid at the "cut-off price" (whatever final price is set).

• The alternative is a fixed-price issue.

• Allocation in a book-built issue:

• QIBs up to 50%.
• Non-institutional investors (NIIs) at least 15%.

• Retail investors at least 35%.

• Qualified Institutional Buyer (QIB) = an institution judged expert enough to evaluate capital-market investments. Examples: banks, mutual funds, insurers, FPIs and pension funds.

• Anchor investor = a QIB allotted shares one day before the IPO opens, which signals confidence.
• Anchors can take up to 60% of the QIB portion.

• 50% of their shares are locked in for 30 days and the other 50% for 90 days.

• Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA) = the application money stays in the investor's bank account, blocked. It is debited only if shares are allotted.

• Introduced 2008; mandatory from 2016.
• Retail investors can block funds through UPI since 2019.

• Listing must happen by T+3 (three working days after the issue closes), mandatory from December 2023.

• Green shoe option = lets the issuer allot up to 15% more shares than the issue size. The extra shares are used to stabilise the price after listing.

• Underwriting (capital-market sense) = an investment bank guarantees, for a fee, to buy any unsubscribed part of an issue. The insurance sense of the word is in section 11.
• Grey market premium (GMP) = the unofficial premium at which IPO shares trade informally before listing. It is unregulated and only a rough guide to listing demand.
• Other routes to raise equity:
• Follow-on Public Offer (FPO) = a public issue by a company that is already listed. Adani Enterprises withdrew its fully subscribed FPO in January-February 2023, after the Hindenburg report.
• Offer for Sale (OFS) = promoters or the government sell existing shares through the exchange (since 2012). It is the main route for disinvestment (see industrial-policy-psu-msme). No new money reaches the company.
• Rights issue = new shares offered to existing shareholders in proportion to their holdings, usually at a discount. The right can be renounced (sold to someone else).
• Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) (2006) = a listed company issues shares or convertibles only to QIBs. It is quicker than a public issue.

Special platforms and instruments

• SME exchange = a separate platform with lighter listing rules for small and medium enterprises. Examples: BSE SME (2012) and NSE Emerge.

• SEBI tightened the rules in 2025 after speculative froth in SME IPOs (verify current).

• Social stock exchange (SSE) = a segment where non-profit and for-profit social enterprises raise funds (SEBI framework 2022).

• NPOs issue Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) instruments. These are essentially donations: no interest, and the principal is not returned.

• Social-impact reporting is mandatory.

• Depository receipts = certificates issued by a depository bank abroad that represent shares of a foreign company.

• ADR (American) and GDR (Global) let Indian firms trade abroad.
• An IDR (Indian Depository Receipt) lets a foreign firm trade in India. Standard Chartered issued the only IDR, in 2010.

• The Depository Receipts Scheme 2014 liberalised the regime.

• Direct overseas listing = an Indian company lists its shares directly on a foreign exchange, without depository receipts. It was enabled in 2024, starting with the international exchanges in GIFT City IFSC.

• Differential voting rights (DVR) = shares with more or fewer votes than ordinary shares. They let founders of new-age firms raise capital without losing control.
• Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) = a shell company that raises money through an IPO only to buy a private firm, taking that firm public without its own IPO.

• Not permitted on mainland Indian exchanges; allowed in the IFSC.

• IPO fund-raising hit a record in 2024-25 (verify current).

7. Secondary market: trading infrastructure, indices and valuation

Read the detailed note →

Plumbing

• Secondary market = where existing securities are traded among investors. It provides liquidity and price discovery.
• What moves share prices (Class 7, Banks and the Magic of Finance):
• Company performance. A good outlook raises the price. A bad product, a workers' strike or a big loss lowers it.
• Government policy, new laws and tax rules.

• Political instability, wars and economic shocks (disasters, pandemics, sudden policy changes).

• Depository = an institution that holds securities electronically and transfers ownership by book entry.

• NSDL (1996) and CDSL (1999), under the Depositories Act 1996.

• Depository participants (DPs), usually brokers or banks, act as their agents for investors.

• Demat account = an account that holds shares electronically instead of as paper certificates. The number of demat accounts has grown sharply since 2020 (verify current).

• Clearing corporation = clears and settles trades. Examples: NSE Clearing and ICCL (BSE).
• It becomes the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer (novation), which removes counterparty risk.

• A settlement guarantee fund backs it.

• Settlement cycle:

Period	Cycle
Before 2001	Weekly account settlement with badla (carry-forward)
2001	T+5 rolling
2003	T+2
2022 to 27 Jan 2023	T+1 phased in; complete on 27 January 2023
March 2024	Optional T+0 (beta)

• T+1 settlement = shares and money change hands one business day after the trade. India was among the first major markets to move fully to T+1.
• Algorithmic trading = computer programs place orders automatically based on pre-set rules, often at very high speed (high-frequency trading).
• The NSE co-location case: some brokers got unfair early access to price data.

• SEBI has a framework for retail algorithmic trading (verify current).

• Circuit breaker = a halt in trading when prices move beyond set limits.

• Market-wide: trading halts when the Sensex or Nifty moves 10%, 15% or 20%. This was triggered in March 2020.
• Individual stocks have price bands of 2%, 5%, 10% or 20%.

Indices and valuation

• Sensex = BSE's benchmark index.
• Base 1978-79 = 100.
• 30 large, actively traded companies.
• Weighted by free-float market capitalisation since 2003.
• Class 11, Index Numbers: a rising Sensex means investors expect better earnings and have growing confidence in the economy's health. It is "a useful guide for investors".

• NCERT outdated: Class 11 calls it the "Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index" with 30 stocks from 13 sectors, and its example has the Sensex "crossing 8000". Now the exchange is BSE Ltd, the sector mix changes with each rebalancing, and index levels are far higher (verify current).

• Nifty 50 = NSE's benchmark of 50 large, liquid companies. Base 3 November 1995 = 1000. Also free-float weighted.

• Market capitalisation = share price × number of shares outstanding.

• SEBI's bands: large-cap = top 100 companies; mid-cap = 101-250; small-cap = 251 onwards.

• Free float = shares actually available for trading. It excludes promoter and locked-in holdings.

• Market capitalisation-to-GDP ratio = total market cap ÷ GDP. Also called the "Buffett indicator", it is used to judge whether markets are over- or under-valued.
• Price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio = share price ÷ earnings per share. It shows how much investors pay for each rupee of profit.
• Volatility index (India VIX) = expected near-term volatility, derived from Nifty option prices. It is called the "fear gauge" because it rises when investors are anxious.
• Bull and bear market:
• A bull market is a long rise in prices with optimism.

• A bear market is a long fall, commonly 20% or more from a peak.

• Stock market boom = the share prices of many companies rise together (Class 7).

• Stock market crash = the prices of many companies fall steeply at the same time, usually because of panic selling.
• Key episodes:
• Harshad Mehta scam (1992), which led to SEBI's statutory powers.
• Ketan Parekh scam (2001).
• The 2008 global financial crisis.
• The March 2020 COVID crash, when circuit breakers were hit.
• Record highs in 2024.

8. Corporate actions, listing obligations and market integrity

Read the detailed note →

Corporate actions and listing rules

• Dividend = part of profits paid to shareholders per share.
• The board decides it; unlike interest, it is not a fixed obligation.

• Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) was abolished in 2020, so dividends are now taxed in the shareholder's hands (see taxation).

• Bonus issue = free extra shares given to existing shareholders by converting reserves into share capital.

• It raises no new money.

• The share price adjusts downward in proportion.

• Stock split = each share is divided into several shares of lower face value.

• There are more shares, but total value does not change.

• The aim is a lower price per share and better liquidity.

• Buyback = the company buys back its own shares, which reduces shares outstanding and returns surplus cash.

• The tender route (an offer to all shareholders) continues.
• The open-market route was phased out by April 2025.

• From October 2024, buyback proceeds are taxed in shareholders' hands (verify current).

• Minimum public shareholding (MPS) = at least 25% of a listed company's shares must be held by the public (SCRR 1957, rule 19A).

• Companies get time after listing to reach it.

• Large issuers and PSUs such as LIC get relaxations (verify current).

• Delisting = permanent removal of shares from an exchange.

• Voluntary delisting: price set by reverse book building (shareholders offer prices), with a fixed-price option added later.
• Compulsory delisting: a penalty.
• Governed by SEBI Delisting Regulations 2021.

Market abuse

• Insider trading = trading on unpublished price-sensitive information (UPSI) gained through a position of trust or access.
• Governed by SEBI PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations 2015.

• Insiders may trade only when the trading window is open.

• Front-running = trading ahead of a big client order, using advance knowledge of it, to profit from the expected price move.

• Banned under the PFUTP Regulations 2003 (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices).

• After cases involving mutual fund dealers (2022), SEBI required AMCs to set up an institutional mechanism to detect it (2024).

• Short selling = selling securities you do not own, hoping to buy them back later at a lower price.

• SEBI framework dates from 2007.
• Naked short selling (without borrowing the shares first) is banned.
• Institutions must disclose a short sale upfront.

• Trigger case: the Hindenburg report on the Adani group (January 2023).

• Securities Lending and Borrowing (SLB) (2008) = investors lend idle shares for a fee through the clearing corporation. It supports covered (legal) short selling.

• Other concerns:
• Pump-and-dump schemes: prices are hyped up, then the promoters sell.
• SEBI barred regulated entities from dealing with unregistered "finfluencers" (financial influencers) in 2024.
• Corporate governance rules for listed firms are in LODR 2015 (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements).

9. Derivatives: forwards, futures, options, swaps and CDS

Read the detailed note →

Instruments and uses

• Derivatives = contracts whose value comes from an underlying asset such as shares, currencies, commodities or interest rates.

Instrument	Key feature
Forward contract	Customised OTC deal to buy or sell at a fixed price on a future date. Carries counterparty risk
Futures	Standardised, exchange-traded forward. Settled daily (MTM) and backed by margins. Index futures in India since June 2000
Options	The right but not the obligation to buy (call) or sell (put) at a strike price. The buyer pays a premium. The seller (writer) has the obligation
Swap	Exchange of cash-flow streams
Credit default swap	Protection against a borrower's default

• Swap types:
• Interest rate swap: fixed interest payments exchanged for floating ones on a notional principal. An OIS (overnight index swap) uses MIBOR as the floating leg.

• Currency swaps exchange payments in two currencies. Central-bank swap lines are covered in balance-of-payments-exchange-rate.

• Credit default swap (CDS) = the buyer pays regular premiums to the seller. If a named borrower defaults (a credit event), the seller pays compensation.

• RBI issued guidelines in 2011 and widened them in the Master Direction on credit derivatives, 2022.

• AIG's huge CDS losses nearly brought it down in 2008.

• Commodity derivatives = futures and options on metals, energy and farm produce.

• The Forward Markets Commission (1953) regulated them until it merged into SEBI in 2015.
• Main exchanges: MCX and NCDEX.

• Futures trading in seven farm commodities has been suspended since December 2021 and the suspension has been extended (verify current). The seven: wheat, non-basmati paddy, chana, mustard, soybean, crude palm oil, moong.

• Uses of derivatives:

• Hedging = taking an offsetting position to reduce risk. A farmer can sell futures to lock in a harvest price. An exporter can sell dollars forward to guard against a rupee rise.
• Speculation = betting on price moves.
• Arbitrage = buying and selling the same asset in different markets at once, to profit from a price gap with little or no risk. Example: cash-futures arbitrage.

The retail F&O boom

• Futures and options (F&O) trading = exchange-traded futures and options on stocks and indices. India is the world's largest derivatives market by number of contracts traded.
• SEBI studies on losses:
• FY22-FY24: 93% of individual F&O traders lost money, with aggregate losses over Rs 1.8 lakh crore.

• FY25: about 91% lost, and net losses rose about 41% to over Rs 1.05 lakh crore (verify current: SEBI FY25-FY26 study).

• SEBI's October 2024 measures:

• Minimum contract size raised to Rs 15 lakh.
• Only one weekly index expiry per exchange.
• Option premium collected upfront from buyers.
• No calendar-spread margin benefit on expiry day.

• Position limits monitored during the day.

• Budget 2024-25 raised STT on F&O (see taxation).

• The debate:
• For F&O: it aids price discovery, hedging and market depth.
• Against: it works like gambling, drains household savings, and mostly transfers money from retail traders to proprietary traders and algorithmic firms. The Economic Survey has warned about it.

10. Pooled vehicles, private capital and institutional investors

Read the detailed note →

Retail pooled vehicles and institutions

• Mutual fund (MF) = pools money from many investors and invests it in shares, bonds or money-market instruments under professional management.
• History: UTI (1963) was the first. Private MFs came from 1993. SEBI MF Regulations 1996 govern them. AMFI is the industry body.
• Structure: sponsor → trust (trustees) → AMC (asset management company, which manages the money) → custodian (which holds the assets).
• Open-ended funds allow entry and exit any time. Closed-ended funds have a fixed term and are listed.

• SEBI standardised scheme categories in 2017.

• Net Asset Value (NAV) = (market value of assets − liabilities) ÷ units outstanding. It is computed daily, and units are bought and redeemed at NAV.

• Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) = investing a fixed sum at regular intervals.
• It averages the purchase cost ("rupee-cost averaging"): more units are bought when prices are low.

• Monthly SIP inflows and industry AUM are at record levels (verify current).

• Index fund = a passive fund that copies an index such as the Nifty 50, which keeps costs low.

• Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) = a fund that tracks an index, commodity or basket of assets and trades on an exchange like a share.
• Nifty BeES (2001) was India's first ETF.
• The CPSE ETF (2014) and Bharat 22 ETF (2017) were used for disinvestment.

• The Bharat Bond ETF (2019) invests in PSU bonds.

• Gold ETF (from 2007) = holds physical gold and lets investors own gold electronically.

• Compared with an SGB, it pays no interest but is more liquid.

• Compared with physical gold, there is no storage worry, no making charges and no purity risk.

• Fund of funds = a fund that invests in other funds.

• REITs and InvITs (SEBI regulations 2014) must distribute at least 90% of net distributable cash flow.
• Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) = owns income-generating property such as offices and malls. At least 80% must be in completed, rent-yielding assets. The first was Embassy Office Parks REIT (2019). Small and Medium REITs (SM REITs) followed in 2024.

• Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) = holds infrastructure assets such as roads and power lines. The first was IRB InvIT (2017). PowerGrid and NHAI InvITs (2021) are tools of asset monetisation under the National Monetisation Pipeline (see infrastructure).

• Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) = Indian MFs, insurers (above all LIC), banks and pension funds (EPFO, NPS).

• SIP flows now let DIIs absorb FPI selling, making markets less dependent on foreign money.
• DII ownership of listed shares has moved past FPI ownership (verify current).

• NCERT outdated: the Class 11 chapter Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation: An Appraisal mentions "Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)", mutual funds and pension funds being allowed into Indian markets. FIIs were merged into the FPI regime in 2014.

• Participatory notes (P-notes / ODIs) = offshore instruments issued by registered FPIs to foreign investors who want exposure to Indian securities without registering in India.

• Concerns: round-tripping (Indian black money coming back disguised as foreign money) and hidden beneficial owners. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money flagged them.
• SEBI curbed them in 2007 and 2017.
• Their share of FPI assets has fallen from about half (2007) to low single digits (verify current).

Private and risk capital

• Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) (SEBI regulations 2012) = a privately pooled fund of sophisticated investors.

Category	Examples
Cat I	Venture capital, SME, social impact, infrastructure and angel funds
Cat II	Private equity, debt funds
Cat III	Hedge-fund strategies using leverage and derivatives

• The minimum investment is Rs 1 crore.

• In December 2023, RBI curbed banks from "evergreening" bad loans through AIFs, that is, lending to a borrower through an AIF so it could repay an old loan.

• Hedge fund = a lightly regulated pool for wealthy investors that uses leverage, short selling and derivatives.

• Private equity (PE) = investment in unlisted firms, or buyouts of listed ones. PE funds restructure the firm and exit after some years through an IPO or a strategic sale.
• Venture capital (VC) = equity finance for early-stage, high-risk start-ups. Funding comes in rounds: seed → Series A → B → C.
• Angel investor = a wealthy individual who invests personal money in start-ups, often before VC.

• "Angel tax" under s.56(2)(viib) was abolished by Budget 2024-25.

• Unicorn = a private start-up valued above US$1 billion.

• A decacorn is valued above US$10 billion. A soonicorn is close to unicorn status.
• India has the third-largest start-up ecosystem (verify current count).

• SIDBI runs the Fund of Funds for Startups (2016). Start-up policy is in factors-of-production.

• Sovereign wealth fund (SWF) = a state-owned fund that invests national surpluses, such as oil money or reserves, in global assets.

• Examples: Norway's GPFG, ADIA (Abu Dhabi), GIC (Singapore) and PIF (Saudi Arabia).
• India has no classic SWF because it runs fiscal and current account deficits.
• NIIF (National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, 2015; GoI holds 49%) is a quasi-SWF.

• Foreign SWFs get tax exemptions for investing in Indian infrastructure.

• ESG investing = investing that weighs a company's environmental, social and governance record alongside financial returns.

• SEBI's BRSR (Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report) is mandatory for the top 1,000 listed companies from FY23. BRSR Core adds assured key metrics.
• ESG rating providers are regulated since 2023.
• ESG mutual fund schemes exist, and greenwashing is a risk here too.

11. Insurance and pensions

Read the detailed note →

Insurance

• Why insurance: it pools risk. Many people pay small premiums, and the few who suffer a loss are paid.
• Life insurance covers death or survival.

• Non-life (general) insurance covers health, motor, fire, marine, crop and so on.

• History:

• LIC was set up in 1956 by nationalising 245 insurers.
• GIC was set up in 1972 for general insurance.
• The Malhotra Committee (report 1994) recommended opening up.

• The IRDA Act 1999 allowed private entry.

• FDI cap in insurance: 26% → 49% (2015) → 74% (2021) → 100% under the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act 2025, passed 17 December 2025.

• The same Act cut the Net Owned Fund (NOF) required of foreign reinsurers from Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 1,000 crore.

• Composite insurance licence = one company may sell both life and non-life insurance. Whether the 2025 Act allows it needs checking (verify current).

• Insurance penetration = premiums as a percentage of GDP. India's is about 3.7%, against a global ~7%.
• Density = premium per person (verify current).
• IRDAI's goal is "Insurance for All by 2047".

• Bima Sugam will be a one-stop digital marketplace. Bima Vistaar will be a low-cost bundled product.

• Bancassurance = banks sell an insurer's products to their customers as corporate agents and earn commission.

• Concern: mis-selling, for example pushing policies on loan applicants.

• Reinsurance = an insurer passes part of its risk to another insurer (a reinsurer) to limit its exposure to large losses.

• GIC Re is the national reinsurer. Indian insurers must cede a fixed share of business to it (obligatory cession).

• Foreign reinsurers operate through branches, including in GIFT IFSC.

• Microinsurance = low-premium, low-cover insurance for poor households (IRDAI regulations 2005, revised 2015).

• PMJJBY (life) and PMSBY (accident), both launched in 2015.

• Parametric insurance = pays a pre-agreed sum when a measurable trigger crosses a threshold, such as rainfall, wind speed or earthquake magnitude. There is no loss assessment, so payouts are fast.

• Some states have bought parametric disaster cover, for example Nagaland (verify current).

• Contrast indemnity insurance, which pays the actual loss after assessment. Crop insurance schemes are covered in financial-inclusion-rural-credit.

• Catastrophe bonds = insurance-linked bonds. Investors lose part or all of their principal if a specified disaster happens, so disaster risk moves to capital markets.

• The World Bank has issued cat bonds for Mexico, the Philippines and Chile.

• India is exploring one (verify current).

• Surety bond = an insurance-backed guarantee that a contractor will fulfil the contract.

• It replaces bank guarantees in infrastructure contracts, which frees up contractors' bank credit lines.

• Announced in Budget 2022-23; IRDAI guidelines 2022; first issued December 2022.

• Adverse selection and moral hazard are defined in banking-regulation-npas. Applied to insurance:

• Adverse selection: high-risk people are more likely to buy cover.
• Moral hazard: insured people take less care.

Pensions

• Two basic designs:

	Defined benefit pension (OPS)	Defined contribution pension (NPS)
Benefit	50% of last pay, indexed to DA	Depends on contributions and returns
Funding	Unfunded, pay-as-you-go from the budget	Funded, market-linked
Who bears the risk	Government (fiscal)	Employee

• National Pension System (NPS):
• Covers central government recruits from 1 January 2004 (armed forces excluded). States opted in.
• Open to all citizens from 2009.
• Tier I is the locked-in pension account. Tier II is a voluntary, withdrawable account.
• Regulated by PFRDA under the PFRDA Act 2013.
• At exit, up to 60% can be taken as a tax-free lump sum, and at least 40% must buy an annuity.

• 2025 amendments give non-government subscribers more flexible exit and withdrawal rules (verify current).

• Annuity = a regular income, usually for life, bought from an insurer with a lump sum. It covers longevity risk, the risk of outliving your savings.

• Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) (from 1 April 2025; an option within NPS):
• Assured pension of 50% of average basic pay over the last 12 months, after 25 years' service.
• Minimum Rs 10,000 a month after 10 years' service.
• Family pension.

• Lump sum at retirement of one-tenth of monthly emoluments for each completed six months of service.

• OPS revival: some states moved back to the Old Pension Scheme. RBI warned this is fiscally unsustainable: it saves money now but creates large future liabilities.

• Other schemes:
• Atal Pension Yojana (2015): a guaranteed pension of Rs 1,000-5,000 a month for unorganised workers.
• NPS Vatsalya (2024): an NPS account for minors.

• EPFO and EPS-95 are covered in employment-informal-sector.

• Coverage gap: India's population is ageing, and most informal workers have no pension.

12. Crypto-assets, stablecoins and tokenisation: the regulatory frontier

Read the detailed note →

Crypto in India

• Cryptocurrency = a privately issued digital asset secured by cryptography and recorded on a blockchain. Bitcoin (2009) was the first.
• Blockchain technology is covered in payment-systems-digital-finance.
• Crypto is not legal tender in India.
• It is very volatile.

• RBI's view: it has no underlying cash flows, so it has no intrinsic value.

• Policy timeline: 1. RBI caution notices (2013, 2017). 2. April 2018: an RBI circular barred regulated entities from dealing with crypto firms. 3. March 2020: the Supreme Court struck down the circular as disproportionate in IAMAI v. RBI. 4. 2021: the draft Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill was listed but never taken up. 5. Budget 2022-23 brought in the tax on virtual digital assets (VDAs), with NFTs included:

  • 30% tax on transfer gains (s.115BBH), with no set-off of losses.
  • 1% TDS (s.194S). 6. March 2023: VDA service providers were brought under PMLA and must register with FIU-IND. Non-compliant offshore exchanges were blocked from December 2023. 7. 2023: the G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration endorsed the IMF-FSB synthesis paper on crypto-assets.

• A government discussion paper on crypto is still pending (verify current).

• RBI prefers its own CBDC (the digital rupee; see banking-monetary-policy) to private crypto.

Stablecoins, DeFi, NFTs, tokenisation

• Stablecoin = a crypto-asset designed to keep a stable value by pegging to a reference asset such as the US dollar.

Type	How the peg is held	Example
Fiat-backed	Reserves of cash and T-bills	USDT, USDC
Crypto-collateralised	Over-collateralised with other crypto	—
Algorithmic	Code expands or shrinks supply	TerraUSD, which collapsed in May 2022

• Risks of stablecoins:
• Runs, if holders doubt the reserves.
• Dollarisation and loss of monetary sovereignty, if people shift from rupees to dollar stablecoins.

• Capital flight around capital controls.

• Global rules:

• The US GENIUS Act (July 2025) legitimised payment stablecoins.

• The EU's MiCA (applicable from 2024) regulates crypto-assets.

• RBI's Financial Stability Report (December 2025) flags stablecoins as an emerging risk. Some argue for a regulated rupee stablecoin (verify current).

• Decentralised finance (DeFi) = lending and trading run by smart contracts on blockchains, with no intermediaries.

• There is no KYC, and users are exposed to hacks and code bugs.

• Non-Fungible Token (NFT) = a unique token on a blockchain that certifies ownership of a specific digital or physical item. No two are interchangeable. NFTs are taxed as VDAs in India.

• Asset tokenisation = representing ownership of real-world assets (bonds, property, invoices) as digital tokens, so they can be owned in fractions and traded easily.

• Pilots: RBI's wholesale CBDC and tokenisation pilots, SEBI and IFSCA regulatory sandboxes, and the BIS Project Agorá (verify current).

• The debate:

• For: innovation, cheaper cross-border payments, financial inclusion.
• Against: risks to financial stability, weak consumer protection, tax evasion and terror financing.
• Options: ban or regulate. Crypto crosses borders, so rules need global coordination through the FSB and the FATF "travel rule" (exchanges must pass on sender and receiver details).

---

Exam angles

Prelims — high-yield facts and traps

• Money-market instruments:
• T-bills: 91/182/364 days, issued at a discount, no coupon.
• CMBs: under 91 days.
• CP: corporates, NBFCs and AIFIs; 7 days-1 year; unsecured.
• CD: banks 7 days-1 year; AIFIs 1-3 years.
• Call money is overnight, notice money 2-14 days, term money 15 days-1 year; only banks and PDs take part.

• TREPS (CCIL) replaced CBLO in November 2018.

• Government securities: dated G-secs run up to 50 years; SDLs are issued by states through RBI auctions.

• "T-bills are issued by RBI on its own account" — FALSE. They are GoI securities; RBI only issues them as debt manager.
• Bond logic:
• Price = PV. At 5% the NCERT bond is worth Rs 109.29; at 6%, Rs 107.33.

• A rise in interest rates → bond prices fall → capital loss.

• "Bond prices rise when interest rates rise" — FALSE.

• Yield curve and ratings: an inverted yield curve signals recession; BBB- is the lowest investment grade.
• Special bonds:
• Zero-coupon bonds are issued at a discount.

• Perpetual and AT1 bonds have no maturity, and AT1 can be written down (Yes Bank 2020).

• "Masala bonds put currency risk on the Indian issuer" — FALSE. The foreign investor bears it (unlike FCCBs, where the issuer does).

• Sovereign Gold Bonds: 2.5% interest, 8-year tenure (exit after 5), capital gain on redemption tax-free, no issue since February 2024.
• Sovereign green bonds: first issued January-February 2023; they exclude fossil fuels and nuclear.
• Municipal bonds: Bengaluru was first (1997); Ahmedabad was first without a state guarantee (1998).
• Foreign access: P-notes are issued by registered FPIs to unregistered offshore investors; FAR has no limit on specified G-secs.
• Catastrophe bond vs surety bond: a cat bond transfers disaster risk to investors; a surety bond replaces bank guarantees for contractors.
• "A bonus issue raises fresh capital" — FALSE.
• "A stock split changes total market value" — FALSE.
• Other issue routes: OFS is used for disinvestment; QIPs are only for QIBs; green shoe = up to 15% over-allotment; ASBA blocks funds until allotment.
• IPO rules: anchors take up to 60% of the QIB book, locked in 50% for 30 days and 50% for 90 days; allocation is QIB 50 / NII 15 / retail 35.
• Listing rules: minimum public shareholding 25%; T+1 complete on 27 January 2023; market-wide circuit breakers at 10/15/20%.
• Indices: Sensex = base 1978-79 = 100, 30 stocks. Nifty 50 = base 3 November 1995 = 1000, 50 stocks. Both are free-float weighted. India VIX comes from Nifty option prices.
• Derivatives:
• Forward = OTC; futures = exchange-traded with daily MTM.
• Call = right to buy; put = right to sell. The option buyer has a right; the seller has an obligation.
• CDS = protection against default; a swap exchanges cash flows.

• Commodity derivatives have been under SEBI since 2015 (FMC merger).

• "93% of F&O traders lost money" — SEBI study, FY22-FY24. Contract size is now Rs 15 lakh, with one weekly expiry per exchange.

• Who regulates what:
• SEBI: securities, MFs, AIFs, CRAs, commodity derivatives.
• RBI: money market, G-secs, CDS, interest-rate and currency derivatives.

• IRDAI: insurance. PFRDA: NPS and APY. IFSCA: GIFT City.

• Pooled vehicles:

• AIF Cat I = VC/SME/social/angel; Cat II = PE/debt; Cat III = hedge-fund strategies.

• REIT = real estate (at least 80% completed, rent-yielding); InvIT = infrastructure. Both distribute at least 90% of cash.

• Pensions: OPS = defined benefit, unfunded; NPS = defined contribution, funded; UPS = assured 50% after 25 years, minimum Rs 10,000 after 10 years. At NPS exit, up to 60% lump sum and at least 40% annuity.

• Insurance: parametric pays on a trigger, with no loss assessment; indemnity pays the assessed loss. Insurance FDI is now 100% (Act of December 2025).
• "Crypto is illegal in India" — FALSE. It is not legal tender, but it is taxed at 30% plus 1% TDS and brought under PMLA. The Supreme Court quashed RBI's 2018 ban in 2020.

Mains — GS-III themes

1. Financialisation of household savings. The shift from gold, property and deposits to MFs, SIPs, equity and NPS. Benefits: capital for firms, less dependence on bank credit, domestic buyers that cushion FPI exits. Risks: retail F&O speculation and IPO froth. SEBI's response and the limits of paternalism (protecting investors vs their freedom to take risk).
2. Deepening the corporate and municipal bond markets for infrastructure. Why Indian credit depends so heavily on banks. The role of InvITs, REITs and asset monetisation (NMP), credit enhancement, and fixing ULB finances.
3. Global bond index inclusion and FPI debt flows. Lower cost of capital and CAD financing vs volatile passive flows, rupee pressure and impossible-trinity trade-offs. The role of FAR.
4. Green and climate finance through capital markets. Sovereign green bonds and the greenium, a green taxonomy, blue and catastrophe bonds, and the risk of greenwashing.
5. The insurance protection gap. Low penetration (about 3.7% vs ~7% globally), health and disaster exposure, 100% FDI and more reinsurers, and parametric and catastrophe insurance for disaster risk financing.
6. Pension reform. OPS vs NPS vs UPS: fiscal sustainability vs old-age security. The shock to state finances from reverting to OPS, ageing, and pension coverage for informal workers (APY, NPS for all).
7. Crypto-assets and stablecoins. Ban vs regulate. Monetary sovereignty and dollarisation, the CBDC as an alternative, tax and PMLA as de facto regulation, and G20/FSB coordination.
8. Market integrity and governance. Insider trading, front-running, short-seller reports (Hindenburg-Adani) and regulator credibility. GIFT IFSC as a strategy to bring offshore finance back to India.

Current-affairs hooks

• Union Budget: STT and capital-gains changes, the market borrowing calendar, sovereign green bond issues, SGB discontinuation, insurance FDI, pension announcements. The Economic Survey chapter on financial markets and household savings.
• SEBI: board decisions and studies (F&O loss studies, IPO and SME rules, settlement cycles, retail algo trading, MPS relaxations); record IPO years and index milestones; crashes and circuit-breaker events.
• RBI: the Financial Stability Report (stablecoins, market risks), G-sec auctions and yields, FPI flows through FAR, index-weight changes (JP Morgan, Bloomberg, FTSE), sovereign rating actions (S&P, Moody's, Fitch).
• IRDAI and PFRDA: the IRDAI annual report (penetration and density) and rules under the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Act; PFRDA notifications (UPS uptake, NPS exit changes, NPS Vatsalya); states' OPS decisions.
• Global triggers: US yield-curve inversions and Fed rate cycles, the LIBOR transition, the Credit Suisse AT1 write-off, the US GENIUS Act and EU MiCA, G20/FSB crypto frameworks, catastrophe-bond issues after major disasters.