India doing well on protecting small investors, corporate governance improved significantly: NSE CEO

India is doing well in protecting small investors while corporate governance has improved significantly amid rapid technological changes, National Stock Exchange (NSE) MD and CEO, Ashishkumar Chauhan, said on Tuesday.

The NSE’s market cap was Rs 4 lakh crore in 1994 and now, it is over Rs 400 lakh crore.

“When evolution happens, it starts slowly and then, it suddenly gathers pace. Corporate governance cleanup has improved. We have moved from annual reports after two years to have quarterly results. India is doing well on protecting small investors,” Chauhan said during the NDTV Profit’s ‘Blueprint for Viksit Bharat @2047’ conclave here.

“I usually have no view on whether the market goes up or down but technology is the only change that creates wealth. Technology brings change and that change brings wealth,” he told the gathering.

Reflecting on the last 30-40 years, Chauhan highlighted the remarkable journey from the absence of computers to their ubiquitous presence.

“Rapid technological changes today are set to create even more wealth than the advancements of the past century in a young and tech-oriented youth,” he said.

“Effectively, India is in a great position to take advantage of the technological wave and the wealth that comes with that,” the NSE CEO emphasised.

He credited NSE for automating processes and cleaning up corporate governance, ensuring that it always serves the interests of minority shareholders.

“The main job of the stock market is to ensure corporate governance that benefits minority shareholders. In that regard, India is faring better than the best,” he noted.

During a panel discussion, Morgan Stanley MD and Chief Equity Strategist India Ridham Desai highlighted that the emerging market cohort is no longer the story people in the mid-90s dreamt of.

He further said that a lot of assets in that cohort are shrinking and India is facing some of that brunt as well.

“India needs to diversify its sources of capital. We need to allow other pools of capital to walk into the Indian stock markets. That would ensure more secular flows,” he advised.

Meanwhile, the total unique investors’ base (unique PANs) on the NSE has crossed the 11-crore mark for the first time, and the total client accounts registered with the exchange now stand at more than 21 crore.

(With inputs from IANS)