Saarthi App – Education is something that forms the building block in one’s life. Education helps people to start their life in a more meaningful manner. Whenever we enter a new domain in our lives, some prior education is one of the prerequisites to have, especially if the domain we are thinking to enter involves varied classes of risks in its working. Similarly, one must have some kind of prior knowledge before entering the stock market and becoming an investor.
Investors’ protection has always been a fact of concern for the administration in our country and hence Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was established.
Since the establishment of SEBI, in the year 1992, the activities of the stock market have been regulated to a great extent without any discrepancies. But still, the problem of investors’ education had not been addressed till now. But on the 13th of January 2022, SEBI came up with a solution to this.
SEBI has launched an Investor Awareness App named the “Saarthi App”. Saarthi is a complete Investor Education and Protection App that allows an investor to gain knowledge about the stock markets and their workings along with a feature to raise complaints and queries to SEBI.
About Saarthi App
Saarthi app is available on Android as well as iOS platforms. The app provides an investor with a facility to get knowledge from the resources available on its database and also allows to file complaints and grievances to SEBI regarding any malpractice that has come to notice of the user.
Setting Up Saarthi App
The application starts with the opening page shown in the picture attached. The page has the options to either Register as a new user or Login if you have existing credentials or you can even Continue as a Guest. If the user wishes to register on the app, the following page appears on the screen requiring the investor to fill in some details relating to his name, phone number, password, and PAN (optional).
Getting to know the Saarthi App
Once the user has registered or continued as a guest, the application shows various options relating to knowledge about Securities Market, a guide on ‘How to Invest’, an option to register complaints, a ‘SEBI Resources’ tab, an option giving all information about ‘SEBI’ and an option to contact SEBI.
Know About Securities Market Tab
The ‘Know About Securities Market’ tab brings you all about the securities market. Ranging from the most popular shares market to Debt related securities, Mutual Funds and ETFs, REITs, and all other derivates.
As soon as one clicks on any of the subtabs, the information relating to that tab is presented with an option of going back to the home section and moving to the next page on the bottom of the page.
‘How to Invest’ Tab
The ‘How to Invest’ tab brings up information that an early investor would look for. Starting with the basics like “What is an investment?”, this section puts all the information and knowledge in a very easy-to-learn way by following an easy-to-complex hierarchy.
In addition to this, this section also educates investors regarding the “know Your Client (KYC)” process and its importance. The “Educational Material” tab includes two booklets within it, which when clicked upon takes you to the SEBI official website wherein the booklet in, various regional languages, is present in a readable pdf form that can be downloaded to be read offline. The “informative videos & webinars” tab includes various recorded educational videos that add up to the learning experience of the user.
Complaints Tab
The use of the complaint tab is to help the user/investor to file complaints against any kind of issue or malpractice that has been noticed.
The tab includes a shortcut to the SEBI SCORES app that is an app developed by SEBI and is dedicated to all the complaints concerning the SEBI. The tab also includes an option to contact the SEBI helpline with which one can contact SEBI on a toll-free phone number.
Apart from this, the Ask SEBI option allows the user to file a complaint or query via e-mail. The last option allows the users to contact the two major stock exchanges namely, the BE and the NSE, and the listed depositories of these exchanges like NSDL, CDSL, etc.
SEBI Resources tab
The next tab is the SEBI Resources tab. This tab brings in all the news and recent happenings in the securities market, some contests or quizzes, and options to contact the SEBI.
The What’s New tab includes the news reading the latest happenings in the market. The SEBI Investor Charter tab takes the user to the SEBI Official website where the Investor charter is published containing all the do’s and don’ts of investors also mentioning the goals and objectives of SEBI.
The last two tabs give the option of contacting SEBI either by going to its website or directly contacting by call or reaching a SEBI office through the address given.
Know About SEBI tab
The Know About SEBI tab gives the user all the information regarding the SEBI. The information ranges from the establishment of SEBI in 1992 and the SEBI Act,1992 to the role of SEBI in the securities market; from the various circulars issued by SEBI to all the SEBI registered intermediaries and Listed companies with SEBI. In short, this tab gives a good trip to all the information available in context to SEBI including all the happenings till the current date.
Contact SEBI tab
The last tab on the application is the Contact SEBI tab. This tab doesn’t include any subtab but directly shows the address of the SEBI head office with some contact numbers to connect with SEBI over a call.
Scrolling down the user can also get the address of all the regional SEBI offices located in various states all over India.
Final Words
The introduction of the Saarthi App can be considered to be a good move by SEBI towards the practice of Investors’ Education to protect the investor by imparting education to the existing and new investors. We would recommend all the readers to go through the application once and support this new move by SEBI. Until then, Happy Investing!
