MUMBAI, Jan. 29 -- The Securities Markets Code (SMC), 2025, could become a template for regulatory governance well beyond India's capital markets, offering a model that may be replicated across the country's wider financial and administrative ecosystem, according to the government's Economic Survey for fiscal year 2025-26 (FY26), tabled in Parliament on Thursday.

Introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2025, the SMC delivers on a promise first made in the Union Budget for 2022 by consolidating the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, the Sebi Act, 1992, and the Depositories Act, 1996 into a single, unified framework. Through the Code, the government aims to overhaul the regulatory architecture, strengthen investor protection, and...