SEBI Mandates New IT Resilience Index for Market Infrastructure Institutions

Gist The Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI has mandated a new Information Technology Resilience Index ITRI to evaluate and fortify the digital infrastructure of stock exchanges and depositories. Under this framework, these critical institutions must continuously track their technical health and deploy an early warning mechanism to preempt system failures. For a UPSC aspirant, this highlights a significant regulatory shift from reactive troubleshooting to proactive operational resilience in India's financial markets. Background Market Infrastructure Institutions MIIs —which the text identifies as including stock exchanges and depositories—function as the vital nervous system of the capital markets. Because a technical glitch in an MII can halt nationwide trading and cause severe market disruption, the Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI heavily regulates their operational continuity. Prior to this mandate, while standard IT and cybersecurity protocols existed, the introduction of a dedicated index forces a standardized, quantifiable approach to measuring how well these systems can withstand sudden shocks, surges, or failures. Key Pointers The creation of the ITRI shifts regulatory oversight from periodic IT audits to a continuous, metric-driven assessment…