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Washington: Officials from India and the United States have charted next steps in space collaboration, including human spaceflight, joint space exploration and a commitment to facilitating commercial partnerships between space companies to advance the shared interests in the growing space economy, the White House said on Wednesday. A meeting in this regard was held in Houston on December 17. The participants in the meeting were US Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Indian Ambassador to the United States Vinay Kwatra. "Following President (Joe) Biden and Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi's June 2023 commitment to work together to 'reach new frontiers across all sectors of space cooperation' and India's signing of the Artemis Accords, our two nations reached an inflection point on collaboration across civil, security and commercial space sectors," the White House said in a fact-sheet. "This includes human spaceflight, joint space exploration and a commitment to facilitating commercial partnerships between US and Indian space companies to advance our shared interests in the growing space economy," it said. As part of their visit to Houston, Finer and Campbell met with representatives from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and space industry leaders to identify new opportunities to further strengthen the two countries' burgeoning space partnership. They also reflected on the accomplishments of the past few months and charted next steps to take the India-US partnership to the next level, including selecting two ISRO astronauts to train at the NASA's Johnson Space Centre for the first-ever joint effort between American and Indian astronauts at the International Space Station, with Axiom Space serving as the provider of the mission. The launch of the Axiom-4 mission as soon as spring 2025 will mark a significant milestone in the US-India space partnership and space exploration. They agreed to exploring the creation of a new space innovation bridge to promote partnerships between US and Indian startups focused on advancing space situational awareness, satellite technology and space launch and exploration. The two sides agreed to promote defence space cooperation through the US-India Advanced Domains Defence Dialogue, India's participation in US Space Command's annual Global Sentinel exercise and a recently-launched space situational awareness joint challenge under the India-US Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X). The officials agreed to advance reviews of missile technology exports to generate new opportunities for bilateral industry partnerships on space-launch technology, including for commercial satellite launches. They also celebrated the completion of a Strategic Framework for Human Spaceflight Cooperation to deepen interoperability in space and working toward the conclusion of a new arrangement on advanced astronaut training. The officials also met with two ISRO astronauts who are training at the NASA's Johnson Space Centre in preparation to join a proposed mission -- the International Space Station -- in 2025. They also discussed plans to launch a jointly developed NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar Earth Science (NISAR) satellite in 2025. The officials met with representatives from the space industry private sector to explore innovative ways for the US and Indian commercial space sectors to strengthen collaboration, a key priority under the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET), the State Department said in a separate media release.

Mumbai: The unofficial grey market for initial public offerings (IPOs) is buzzing with activity once again as a flurry of public issuances and improvement in investor sentiment have revived speculators' interest in soon-to-be-listed shares.Grey market premiums (GMPs) - the additional price investors are willing to pay over the IPO price in the grey market before the stock lists on the exchanges - of five IPOs are trading at 8-44% above the issue prices, according to sources. A higher premium indicates the market sentiment for the IPO in question. GMPs of IPOs with robust demand tend to be high, which implies a potential upside in the stock on listing."The sharp rebound in grey market premiums is driven by strong listings of recent IPOs and a new wave of investors focused solely on IPOs to capitalise on quick gains," said Narottam Dharawat of Mumbai-based Dharawat Securities.The ₹840-crore IPO of investment bank DAM Capital Advisors is currently commanding a grey market premium of ₹120, or 42% more than its upper price band of ₹283 per share. The ₹839 crore IPO of Transrail Lighting has a grey market premium of 30% over its issue price of ₹432 per share. Mamata Machinery, a smaller public issue, is trading at a 45% premium in the grey market over its issue price of ₹243 per share.The grey market activity in the primary market had subsided following the sell-off in the market starting late September. Money managers said the BJP-led coalition's victory in the Maharashtra elections has stabilized the market.116453664"The win of the Mahayuti government in the Maharashtra is seen as a reinforcement of the central government's economic policies, instilling renewed confidence among market participants which has led to heightened interest in the capital market and increased activity in the IPO market," said Manish Bhandari, CEO, Vallum Capital.In the recent past, IPOs with higher premiums in the grey market have tended to do well. One Mobikwik Systems, which was trading at a grey market premium of 60%, debuted with a 90% premium over its issue price on Wednesday. Vishal Mega Mart, which had a grey market premium of 26%, listed at a 44% premium, while Sai Life Sciences, despite a grey market premium of 13%, listed 40% above its issue price.Brokers said the subdued grey market activity in November contributed to a tepid investor appetite for some IPOs. Ten IPOs launched between October 25 and December 3 saw single-digit subscriptions, while five IPOs launched after the Maharashtra state election results were subscribed by an average of 50 times. To buy shares of an IPO in the grey market, buyers approach grey market brokers and offer to buy at a premium. Brokers then approach potential sellers, who had applied in the IPO. No physical transfer of shares takes place in the grey market. Once the shares are allocated to the seller, he would transfer the shares to the buyers through the brokers. These transactions are settled through cash. All transactions are settled at the listing price and if there is a difference in the listing price and the previous quoted price, then the difference is settled on listing day.

Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India Wednesday tightened rules for initial public offerings (IPO) of small and medium enterprises, and tweaked the framework for merchant bankers and custodians by raising their minimum net-worth requirements.The board of the capital-markets regulator approved a proposal to limit the offer for sale (OFS) by promoters in small and medium enterprises (SME) IPOs to 20% of an issue size. It also said they cannot sell more than 50% of their holding in an IPO."In order to strengthen the framework for public issues by small and medium enterprises and to facilitate that SMEs with a sound track record have an opportunity to raise funds from the public and get listed on stock exchanges, and to protect the interests of investors in the SMEs, the board approved amendments to the SEBI (ICDR) Regulations," the regulator said in a statement issued late Wednesday. It said that smaller firms would be eligible for an IPO only if they have operating profits of ₹1 crore from operations for any two out of three financial years immediately preceding the filing of the application.SME issues would also not be allowed where objects of the issue consist of repayment of loan from promoter or promoter group from the issue proceeds, Sebi said, aligning the issue objective with deployment of the funds garnered in the IPO.The regulator has also proposed to cap the amount for general corporate purposes in SME public offerings at 15% of the amount being raised, or ₹10 crore, whichever is lower.The change of rules comes in the wake of instances of diversion of issue proceeds to shell companies controlled by promoters and inflation of revenue by circular transactions through related parties.In the current financial year until October 15, 159 SMEs have raised more than ₹5,700 crore through IPOs. However, FY24 witnessed the highest number of SME public issues, with 196 firms tapping the market to mobilise more than ₹6,000 crore collectively.116453633Merchant BankersThe board of the regulatory body also approved a proposal to revamp rules for merchant bankers handling public issues. It increased the net worth requirement ten times to ₹50 crore, from ₹5 crore. Sebi proposed to introduce two categories of merchant bankers based on net worth and activities. Underwriting Limit Category-1 would maintain a net worth of Rs 50 crore and would be allowed to undertake all permitted activities, while category-2, would be required to maintain a net worth of Rs 10 crore and could undertake all permitted activities except main board issues.Further, it said merchant bankers must maintain 25% in liquid net-worth of their minimum net-worth requirement.Sebi said the underwriting limit for merchant bankers would be 20 times the liquid net worth.To curb conflict of interest and to ensure adequate due diligence, a merchant banker should not lead manage any public issue, if its directors and key managerial personnel or their relatives, individually or in aggregate holds more than 0.1% of the issuer's paid up share capital, or shares whose nominal value is Rs 10 lakh, whichever is lower, Sebi said.As on July 31, there are 224 merchant bankers registered with Sebi.The Sebi board has also approved a proposal to revise rules for custodians that offer services such as safekeeping of assets and maintenance of securities accounts for clients such as foreign portfolio investors and mutual funds.The regulator said a net worth of Rs 75 crore be maintained by custodians. It has given existing custodians three years to achieve the target.Sebi said a custodian may undertake activities incidental to regulated activities, such as fund accounting, provided there are effective controls in place to address potential conflicts of interest. They would also have to hive off activities that are not under the purview of any financial sector regulator to a separate legal entity within two years.Currently, there are 17 custodians registered with Sebi. Assets under the custody of custodians have increased more than hundred-fold to ₹278.50 lakh crore in September 2024, from ₹2.70 lakh crore in March 2002.NFO CorpusesSebi has also stipulated that Asset Management Companies (AMCs) limit their new fund offer (NFO) collections to amounts that can be reasonably deployed within 30 days. This is because open-ended funds allow investors to join at any time at current NAV.Revised guidelines give investors the flexibility to withdraw from a scheme without an exit load if the fund manager fails to deploy the funds within the specified time frame. Additionally, to prevent potential mis-selling in NFOs, distributors handling switch transactions will receive a lower commission rate between the two schemes involved in the switch.