National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) celebrates silver jubilee this year
India’s multi-asset exchange and largest stock exchange National Stock Exchange of India limited (NSE) is celebrating its silver jubilee this year, writes the NSE's Corporate Communications team.
The celebrations have included a series of events. Honourable President of India Mr Ram Nath Kovind congratulated NSE in a message and said: “The NSE is one of the largest and most important financial institutions in India. NSE has been playing a pivotal role in providing a stable, transparent and globally trusted market platform that has encouraged Indian and global investors to trust the Indian capital markets. I hope NSE will continue to highlight the Indian growth story, improve investor awareness and, in the process, give a further fillip to the culture of household savings in India.”
NSE was envisaged by the Government of India as an exchange that would help democratise, deepen and nurture a strong capital market ecosystem in the country.
Amongst the policy makers, former and present, who addressed the launch event of the silver jubilee celebrations were the Honourable former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Mr Nitin Gadkari, Honourable Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, and Mr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog.
In his address, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said: “The reforms of 1991 and the subsequent reforms have laid the foundation for India emerging as the fastest growing economies in the world. National Stock Exchange has been an institution of great national importance and has played a critical role in the transformation of India’s capital markets and also in building trust in our markets.”
NSE was started in 1994 to provide Indian investors an electronic, nationwide, and transparent stock exchange. The move laid the foundation of a robust capital market in the country where stock trade was opaque with a lot of middlemen using archaic methods.
The exchange’s success can be attributed to its innovative technology-driven approach. NSE was the first exchange in the world to use VSAT technology for connectivity and communication. Satellite connectivity helped the exchange have a nationwide presence and transparent trade.
In the first five years of its operation, NSE developed infrastructure to ensure transparency, risk management and assured settlement. In this direction, National Securities Clearing Corporation Limited (NSCCL) and National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) were established by NSE.
NSE has excelled in Risk Management, which has always been one of the key priorities of the exchange. It uses online real time margin computation and collection which checks the availability of collateral before accepting a new order, and takes into consideration the market volatility.
The exchange has also contributed in building financial literacy in the country. Every year, it actively conducts more than 2500 investor awareness programmes. These include financial literacy right from schools and skill building at college and university levels. NSE’s initiatives have helped more than one million participants in the last decade.
As a part of its silver jubilee celebrations, NSE also launched an annual lecture in the memory of its founding managing director Dr R H Patil. Under the leadership of Dr R H Patil, NSE excelled and established best in class practices for Indian capital markets.
Nobel Laureate economist Professor Robert C. Merton was the key note speaker for the first memorial lecture on 15 October 2018 at Mumbai. Professor Merton received the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1997 for a new method to determine the value of derivatives.
Over the years, NSE has achieved the status of a transparent and globally trusted market platform amongst both Indian and overseas investors.
As per the World Federation of Exchanges, NSE ranks first on index options contracts (volume), second on currency derivatives contracts (volume), and the third largest exchange in the world in terms of equity trade volume. These achievements are significant for an exchange which is only 25 years old.
The exchange has always been pioneer in the research and development of future technologies. Currently, it is exploring the use of technologies such as blockchain, machine learning and advanced analytics. NSE will certainly play a major leadership role globally in the next 25 years.