Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed a uniform 30-day lag for both sharing and usage of price data for educational and awareness activities. In a consultation paper released on Tuesday, the regulator noted that the 30-day lag would suffice to protect against misuse of exchange data while keeping the education content relevant.
Currently, stock exchanges share live data only for the purpose of trading and its related activities. The regulator prescribed a one-day time lag for educational and awareness activities through a circular issued on May 24, 2024. Subsequently, Sebi’s circular dated January 29, 2025 further tightened the framework by specifying that entities engaged solely in education may use market data only with a three-month lag.
While both circulars address data usage, their objectives differ. The May 2024 circular permits limited data sharing for education with a one-day delay, whereas the January 2025 circular governs how old such data must be when used exclusively for educational purposes, prescribing a three-month delay.
Sebi received stakeholder comments that the one-day time lag was too short, and that there were possible cases of misuse of one-day time lag data, making out a case for increasing the time lag to a larger period.
Meanwhile, Sebi's internal deliberations took the regulator to a conclusion that three-month lag was too long and that the educational input could be more efficient if the period is reduced.
"In this regard, it is felt that a time lag of 30 days for both sharing and usage of price data would suffice the purpose of protecting against misuse of exchange data as well as keeping the education content relevant," the consultation paper said.
The paper also proposed that persons engaged solely in education will continue to abide by the prohibited activities provisions mentioned in the January 2025 circular and that all the other provisions will remain unchanged.
Sebi has sought public feedback by January 27, 2026 on whether a 30-day lag was appropriate for pure educational purposes and if any other additional safeguards is necessary while sharing the data.
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Curated by Ahmed Ibrahim
