The SMC signifies a progressive initiative to update India’s securities market by consolidating different acts into a single statute. If successfully adopted, the code will rewrite the securities market in India, redefining legislation, enforcement, and the investor experience.

The main thesis of this article is not as broad as that, which is that the increase of the powers of SEBI under the SMC has not been offset by a corresponding increase in the supply of institutional checks to those powers.

The SMC is a forward-looking move in the modernisation of the capital market regulation India. It goes beyond codifying the various disparate statutes in one instrument and instead attempts to effect a structural redefined securities laws.