The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
MUMBAI, MAY 7, 2022
India’s largest depository, National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) celebrated 25 glorious years of service to the Indian capital markets. This momentous occasion was graced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and Chief Postmaster General Veena Ramakrishna Srinivas besides other dignitaries.
The event kickstarted here with the unveiling of a corporate video that manifested NSDL’s magnificent journey over the last 25 years.
Finance Minister Sitharaman today launched ‘Market ka Eklavya,’ an online investor awareness program for students in Hindi and other regional languages. The program aims to introduce the basics of the securities market to students. Of the total 1.36 billion population in India, only about 7% have demat accounts/invest in equities and this awareness program is aimed at educating tomorrow’s investorson risk-rewards matrix of investing.
Speaking on the occasion, Sitharaman said, “NSDL’s great work especially in the last 2 years has brought a lot of dynamism to the institution. It has been acquiring global best practices and has been ahead of the curve. Through ‘Market ka Eklavya’, you will be able to reach out to many who are in need of financial literacy. It is the right time when people have an inclination to know about the market and also the right approach, medium taken by NSDL.Youth across the world will be benefited from these kinds of initiatives if is made available in several languages.”
From an average of 4 lakh new demat accounts opened every month in 2019-20, it tripled to 12 lakh per month in 2020-21 and has further increased to around 26 lakh per month in 2021-22.
While launching the industry first platform, Madhabi Puri Buch said, “NSDL is working to adopt new technologies and building critical market infrastructure for the security and covenant monitoring of Bond issuances. Going forward, today will also be remembered as an important day as we are taking the first step in terms of use of distributed ledger technology in the market”.
The Finance Minister also released the My Stamp and special cover, honouring NSDL’s contribution to the development of Indian capital markets.
Veena Ramakrishna Srinivas said that the stamp was issued in commemoration of NSDL’s silver jubilee celebration.
Speaking on the occasion, NSDL Managing Director& CEO Padmaja Chundru said, “Technology, Trust, and Reach form the backbone for our organisation. NSDL always believes in high standards of service, and we would continue to keep innovating and adapting to newer technology to provide ease to our customers.”
