On February 15, India’s leading stock exchange, the National Stock Exchange, organized a one day conference on emerging issues in the Indian financial markets in Delhi. The conference was organized in association with the University School of Management Studies (USMS), the department which runs management courses at the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIU) at Dwarka in Delhi. The event saw participation from colleges and universities from across the country.

Besides underscoring NSE’s role as a thought leader in the financial markets arena, the conference also helped in bringing the industry and academia closer to each other, thereby playing a symbiotic role in the markets.

NSE has partnered with nine universities and institutions for conducting post graduate and MBA courses on financial markets. These include the Pune based Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economy, Punjabi University, Faridabad based NIFM and IIM Shillong, among others.

Comments Ravi Varanasi, Head of business development at NSE, “Conferences like these help the industry to understand how they can make post graduate courses on the markets more effective for students and also help academia to understand how these courses can be taught through practical understanding and simulated environments’’.

Rana Usman, AVP and Head, National Stock Exchange, was the guest of honour along with Professor Reena Aggarwal, director, Georgetown Centre for Financial Markets and Policy, Georgetown University, Washington.

Prof. D.K.Bandopadyay, vice chancellor of G.G.S Indraprastha University, presided over the programme.

54 research papers by faculty members from different universities, were presented at the conference; some of the topics being strategies to understand investor behavior, the impact of FDI and FII inflows in the markets and the corporate bond market.

The speakers were eminent leaders from the mutual fund and banking industry, capital markets and the industry watchdog, SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India).

One of the main focus areas of the conference was the financial education initiatives of NSE and precautions that investors should take while investing.

National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSEL), India’s largest exchange in equity and equity derivatives segments, was founded in the mid 1990’s as a demutualised electronic exchange by leading Indian financial institutions. It presently offers trading, clearing and settlement services in a range of products covering various asset classes namely equity, debt, and derivatives.