The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked the commodity market advisory committee headed by Ramesh Chand, agriculture expert and full-time member of Niti Aayog, to recommend measures to increase hedgers' participation in commodity derivatives. Hedging is the core function of the commodity derivatives market and trading and speculation are permitted with regulations only to provide liquidity. When the Forward Markets Commission was regulating commodity derivatives, it allowed margin relaxations for hedging. Sebi, with more powers and resources at its disposal, has asked the committee to take a holistic view on rules to make hedging easy. Hedging is low in commodity derivatives, especially in farm commodities, because the market lacks depth. When banks and other financial players are permitted in commodities and new instruments are allowed, hedging is expected to increase. Sebi has given priority to hedging without waiting for new products and participants