Abdul G. Sait (30) is the founder-chief executive of Basket Option Pvt. Ltd (estb. 2005). This Bangalore-based financial services company recently launched the Stockmarket Institute of India (SMI) to teach financial literacy to students, professionals, and housewives through the company’s one-day workshops and part-time six-month and one-year programmes.

Newspeg. On April 14 SMI launched its one-year e-cap (expert in capital market applied practices) programme. Completion of this full-time programme (tuition fee: Rs.2 lakh) guarantees students employment in a financial services company. Currently SMI offers six-month (Rs.24,200) and one-year (Rs.37,000) part-time programmes to over 250 students, mentored by seven full-time and six visiting faculty.

Direct talk. “The objective of SMI is to demystify the stock and capital markets for the public through learning programmes which are practical, experiential and joyful. We teach book, pit, phone and online trading. In our lecture halls, we offer simulated online trading experiences with live screens displaying information on stock markets worldwide, and live demat accounts enabling students to learn by doing. By managing their own notional trading accounts, they learn and understand not just how stock exchanges work but also about saving, business management and evaluation, entrepreneurship, and the importance of emotional management,” says Sait, a commerce graduate of Jain College, Bangalore with an MBA from Mats School of Business (now MIME Institute, Bangalore).

Genesis. A business and finance student and an active investor since his undergraduate days during which he participated in several entrepreneurship workshops, Sait founded Basket Option in 2005 while still an MBA student. The company was incubated and supported by JGI India Ventures Pvt. Ltd, promoted by Dr. Chenraj Jain, founder-chairman of the Jain Group of Institutions. Building on this foundation, in the span of eight years, Sait has developed Basket Option into a profitable and well-respected financial services company (annual revenue: Rs.15.5 crore). Currently the company has two offices in Bangalore and one each in Mysore and Hassan with a total headcount of 75, and boasts 180 corporate and 10,000 retail clients.

SMI has got off to a good start in helping lay people learn and understand finance and stocks. “An increasing number of people entering the stock markets is good for the economy, as it makes more capital available to industry for growth and expansion and reduces investment in non-productive assets such as gold and jewellery. It’s also good for lay citizens as financial literacy enables them to better manage their savings and make informed financial decisions,” says Sait.

Future plans. With Basket Option having proved its business model, Sait has chalked out plans to take financial literacy to schools and colleges. “We are preparing a financial literacy curriculum for higher secondary and college students to be delivered in partnership with their schools and colleges. We are also working on psychometric and aptitude testing models which will help students make appropriate career choices,” he says.

Fair winds!

Summiya Yasmeen (Bangalore)