SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey on November 14 advised investors to understand products and weigh risks before investing. "Verify its authenticity and consider the risks associated with it," Pandey said. He also launched the 'MUST' program to boost financial literacy, noting that many families still lack deep market knowledge.

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Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey on November 14 advised investors to take time to understand the nature of an investment before making any investment decision.

"Verify its (investments) authenticity and consider the risks associated with it," Pandey said, while speaking at the India International Trade Fair 2026.

Pandey highlighted a new program launched by SEBI, called 'MUST', an acronym for "Mentoring of University College Students through Trainers."

"Through this program, faculty members and senior students of colleges and universities will become investor educators. We are also working with Panchayati Raj institutions, state governments, and local partners for rural communities," Pandey said.

Market-related institutions have an important role in taking this effort forward: for stock exchanges, depositories, brokers, and other intermediaries, investor awareness should not remain limited only to this campaign; it should be expanded, the Chairman said.

Pandey highlighted that in India's securities market, there are more than 15 crore unique investors. The market capitalization of listed companies is more than Rs 470 lakh crore, and mutual funds are managing assets of approximately Rs 83 lakh crore, the SEBI Chairman said.

"The outstanding value of corporate bonds is approximately 61 lakh crore. Whereas REITs and InvITs together manage assets of more than 10 lakh crore. But the question is, how much do people understand this market?" Pandey noted.

From the SEBI Investor Survey 2025, it was found that 63 percent of Indian families had knowledge of securities market products. But only 9.5 percent of Indian families invested in them, he said.

"Around 36 percent had moderate or high-level knowledge about the market. Two things come to light from this survey: helping people who are thinking of investing for the first time, and increasing the understanding of people who are already investing," Pandey said.