New Delhi: Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which turned out to be the largest stock exchange in India, is on a mission — to rebuild the exchange’s reputation after scandals, driving innovation and record trades.
His leadership led NSE to global prominence, with a closely-watched IPO ahead and a $5 trillion market cap milestone in 2024, according to Forbes.
The total market capitalisation of NSE-listed companies reached Rs 464 lakh crore ($5.1 trillion) in February, making India the world’s fourth-largest equity market, a 128-fold increase from Rs 3.6 lakh crore in 1994-95.
Chauhan, considered as the “father of derivatives” in Indian finance, has helped build the institution from scratch.
“My methodology is slow work without noise. It should look like life as usual, but you are changing things continuously,” he was quoted as saying in the report.
Today, the stock exchange’s response time stands at around 100 microseconds, enabling it to process roughly 50 to 60 lakh transactions per second.
“The success of NSE was the first major achievement in the history of stock exchanges in the world and the harbinger of taking IT to the next level. The NYSE, Nasdaq and other exchanges followed suit,” said Chauhan.
In 2024, NSE-listed companies collectively crossed the $5 trillion market capitalisation mark for the first time. Operationally, NSE set global records too. On June 5, 2024, it executed 29 crore trades in one day. On July 23, the same year, the exchange processed over 2,000 crore orders in a single day.
NSE, under Chauhan, is now making heady progress towards its initial public offering (IPO) plans. It is one of the most closely-watched IPOs in the country’s capital markets.
