Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman applauded the trust shown by the country’s retail investors in the market. She was addressing the Silver Jubilee Celebration of National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) in Mumbai on Saturday. NSDL is India’s largest depository.
Hon’ble Union Finance Minister @nsitharaman; Chairperson of SEBI Smt. Madhabi Puri Buch;
CPMG, Maharashtra Circle Smt. Veena Ramakrishna Srinivas; MD & CEO of NSDL Smt. Padmaja Chunduru lights the lamp at NSDL’s silver jubilee celebration today #NSDLcelebratessilverjubilee pic.twitter.com/eMLZUehx1H— NSDL – National Securities Depository Limited (@NSDL_Depository) May 7, 2022
Speaking on the occasion she said, “Indian retail investors have played a key role especially during the last two years; they have shown the world what they can do by standing up and becoming shock absorbers unlike Foreign Portfolio Investments.”
The Minister added “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.”
NSDL completed 25 years of its service to the Indian capital markets on Saturday. Chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Madhabi Puri Buch and Chief Postmaster General, Maharashtra Circle, Veena Ramakrishna Srinivas were present in the celebration.
As part of the celebration the Finance Minister also launched ‘Market ka Eklavya,’ an online investor awareness program for students in Hindi and other regional languages. “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 taken by NSDL by educating the students,” she said about the launch.
‘Market ka Eklavya’ aims to introduce the basics of the securities market and also impart training on financial markets for students, in online mode.
Smt. @nsitharaman, Finance Minister launches NSDL’s new initiative 'Market Ka Eklavya' that will impart online training on financial markets for students in several Indian languages.#NSDLcelebratessilverjubilee#Technology #Trust #Reach
— NSDL – National Securities Depository Limited (@NSDL_Depository) May 7, 2022
The minister spoke about the progress being made by FinTech companies in the country and how India has been playing a leading role in this sector. “Startups in fintech today are doing extraordinary work,” she lauded. She also mentioned how investors across the globe are paying attention to the success of our fintech companies.
The Finance Minister also released the ‘My Stamp’ and special cover, honouring NSDL’s contribution to the development of Indian capital markets. The Chief Postmaster General, Veena Ramakrishna Srinivas anchored the release.
Chairperson, SEBI, Madhabi Puri Buch unveiled NSDL’s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) blockchain platform for Debenture Covenant Monitoring. “’Demat’ revolution was the very first step by which the entire market adopted technology. This day will also be remembered as an important day as we are taking the first step in terms of the use of DLT in the markets,” the Chairperson said.
Smt. Madhabi Puri Buch, Chairperson SEBI launched NSDL’s blockchain platform for Security and Covenant Monitoring at NSDL’s Silver Jubilee Celebration.#NSDLcelebratessilverjubilee#Technology #Trust #Reach
— NSDL – National Securities Depository Limited (@NSDL_Depository) May 7, 2022
The information stored in the system will be cryptographically signed, time stamped and sequentially added to the ledger. It would provide a verifiable audit trail of transactions, thus strengthening the confidence in the market as these assets will be continuously monitored with a strong and unalterable transaction audit trail. NSDL recognizes the potential of blockchain solution which is a new emerging technology for decentralized distributed ledger to record real-time transactions across partner networks.
NSDL Managing Director & CEO, Padmaja Chundru said, “NSDL opened the 1st demat in India in 1996. NSDL has a pan-India presence through 57,000 service centres. There are more than 27 Million demat accounts and the value of securities is more than $4 Trillion; this will reach $5 trillion very soon.”