What is good for India is good for NSE, says MD Ashish Kumar Chauhan

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) is making its long-awaited market debut as an almost ₹5 lakh crore market capitalisation company, marking the second-largest initial public offering in history. Speaking with CNBC-TV18 ahead of the listing ceremony at the BSE, NSE Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ashish Kumar Chauhan highlighted the exchange’s massive growth potential alongside the country’s expanding financial participation.

“What is good for India is good for NSE,” Chauhan said, noting that the country now boasts 13 crore unique investors and 27 crore accounts. The listing marks a personal milestone for Chauhan, who previously led the BSE’s own market debut and has now been involved in ringing the listing bell for five companies, including the Central Depository Services Ltd and National Securities Depository Ltd. “For me, this is part of the journey, 35-36 years in the industry. A lot of things happen, you change places, you do things. And sometimes you get to ring the bells,” he added.

The NSE’s public listing has been in the making since 2006, when a substantial portion of equity changed hands with an IPO as the anticipated trigger. The process faced years of delays due to a multitude of reasons, including legal challenges, before finally clearing regulatory hurdles.

The debut arrives on a day of weak macroeconomic indicators, characterised by surging United States bond yields and lower equities. However, the exchange enters the public market with a widely held shareholding structure, already boasting more than 2,00,000 retail shareholders, alongside significant high-net-worth individual and corporate ownership. Foreign investor and mutual fund ownership remains minimal. With mutual fund holdings currently “next to nothing,” buying interest could emerge from the ₹30 lakh crore capital pool managed by large-cap and flexi-cap funds.