Markets regulator Sebi on Thursday allowed resident Indians, other than individuals, to become constituents of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) that are registered as alternative investment funds (AIFs) in IFSCs.

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This will facilitate investment in Indian securities markets through the FPI route by AIFs set up in International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs).

Such resident Indians will be sponsor or managers of the FPI and their contribution to the FPI will be subject to certain conditions.

In a notification, Sebi said, "resident Indians, other than individuals, may also be constituents of the applicant."

This is subject to the conditions that the applicant should be an AIF set up in the IFSCs and regulated by the International Financial Services Centres Authority.

The contribution of such resident Indian in the FPI will be up to 2.5 per cent of the corpus of the applicant or USD 7,50,000 (whichever is lower), in case the applicant is a Category I or Category II AIF, while for Category III AIF it will be 5 per cent of the corpus or USD 1.5 million (whichever is lower).

To give effect to this, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has amended the FPI rules.

In a separate notification, the regulator said it has amended depositories and participants rules that allow authorising practising cost accountants to carry out share capital reconciliation audits of issuer companies.

This would be in addition to qualified chartered accountants or practising company secretaries.

The notification comes after the board of Sebi approved proposals in this regard