From building NSE to taking it public: Ashishkumar Chauhan comes full circle

On Thursday morning, Ashishkumar Chauhan returned to familiar ground in an unfamiliar role.

Key points

• During his decade there, BSE upgraded its technology, built new distribution platforms, introduced India International Exchange at GIFT City and, in 2017, became India's first listed stock exchange.
• IIM Calcutta's profile describes him as the "father of modern financial derivatives in India".
• That distinction has acquired an awkward edge as regulators seek to curb excessive retail speculation in options.
• And there was a final flourish: NSE listed on BSE.

On Thursday morning, Ashishkumar Chauhan returned to familiar ground in an unfamiliar role. The man who spent a decade leading BSE was at its listing ceremony to take its fiercest rival, the National Stock Exchange, into the public market.

Meanwhile, the symbolism was hard to miss. Chauhan had supported build NSE in the 1990s, left to pursue a career that took him to the top job at BSE, and returned to NSE in 2022 as managing director and chief executive. And there was a final flourish: NSE listed on BSE.

Chauhan presented the exchange as more than a commercial enterprise. "There is nothing else that represents the aspirations of India's future more than NSE, " he remarked. Calling it "a proxy for India's growth", he tied the exchange's fortunes to the country's economic progress. "What is good for India is good for NSE."

After business school and a stint at IDBI, Chauhan joined NSE's founding team in 1993, working on everything from its equities and derivatives markets to its technology architecture, satellite communications network and clearing infrastructure. IIM Calcutta's profile describes him as the "father of modern financial derivatives in India".

That distinction has acquired an awkward edge as regulators seek to curb excessive retail speculation in options. It captures Chauhan's unusual position: he is both an architect of the market's expansion and the executive responsible for steering its dominant institution through tighter oversight.

After leaving NSE in 2000, he worked with the Reliance group and was associated with the Mumbai Indians in the cricket franchise's early years, before joining BSE as deputy CEO in 2009 and becoming chief executive in 2012. During his decade there, BSE upgraded its technology, built new distribution platforms, introduced India International Exchange at GIFT City and, in 2017, became India's first listed stock exchange.

Taken together, the developments around from building NSE to taking it public: Ashishkumar Chauhan comes full circle point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.