The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is set to ease the fund-raising process in initial public offers (IPOs).

It is planning to bring out an IPO template that will be a fill-in-the-blanks application form. There will be a separate column for articulating any complexities and explaining the variations on a particular aspect.

"The document will be precise, meaningful and any variation will be explained separately," Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch said at a Ficci event here on Friday.

Apart from this, the regulator is working on a new process of fundraising for listed companies, which will be a combination of rights issue and a preferential allotment.

The overall duration for end-to-end process for getting the go-aheads will nearly halve to 23 days from the present 42 days for preferential issues, which is the fastest route of fundraise, she said.

Under the innovation, the watchdog is eliminating the need for getting approval from Sebi and will also do away with the requirement for merchant bankers as the fundraising document will be a simple two-page one listing out the necessary details for investors precisely.

Buch said this innovation, which will potentially deprive merchant bankers of the fees, is a homegrown solution and the idea has not come from the industry.

Sebi will be bringing a consultation paper on this idea before moving ahead with the proposal, she said, adding that the process will be cost-effective, faster and an exercise in "demystifying" the fund-raising exercise.

She said Sebi is developing an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to check IPO documents being filed by companies for faster approvals. This tool is likely to be in place by December. It has already implemented AI for processing public documents, such as the REIT or InvIT annual report.

Buch disclosed that Sebi has adopted an approach wherein it prefers to return documents after finding matters such as conflict of interest at the merchant bankers' end, directors being accused of fraud, objects of issue not being clear or it being simply incomplete.

"We return the documents to unclutter the path so that the genuine applications are not delayed," she said.