Scrapping EDIFAR

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has finally accepted that EDIFAR (Electronic Data Information Filing And Retrieval), its e-filing system kicked off in 2002 in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre is a flop. Modelled on the lines of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering and Retrieval) system, it was to perform “automated collection, validation, indexing, acceptance, and forwarding of submissions by companies” that file financial information with the regulator. But, for years, it has remained turgid, ill-maintained and user-unfriendly. While EDIFAR is to be junked by January 2007, Sebi is working to enable a modern e-system for filing and dissemination of information that is being built by the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Sebi wants the BSE and National Stock Exchange to work on a common e-platform to avoid duplication of effort and ensure that information is quickly available to a large body of investors. Sources working on the project say that the process involves strict standardisation of reporting requirements, which will help investors by making it easier to compare corporate performance within a peer group or across time periods.