India's Market Infrastructure: A New Phase of Growth
India's market infrastructure is poised for significant growth, driven by rising investor participation and trading volumes. Exchange leaders at the Global Fintech Fest 2026 emphasized the need for greater collaboration, stronger risk management, and deeper global integration.
Key Takeaways from the Panel Discussion
The panel discussion, moderated by SEBI's K V R Murty, featured NSE MD and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan, MCX MD and CEO Praveena Rai, Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India MD and CEO Latika S Kundu, and BSE MD and CEO Sundararaman Ramamurthy.
Praveena Rai highlighted India's opportunity to become a stronger global price-discovery centre, particularly in commodities. She emphasized the need for more sophisticated products to attract greater global participation and for exchanges to focus on taking Indian market products and services to a wider global audience.
Latika S Kundu stressed the importance of collaboration between market infrastructure institutions, citing the need for a common objective and an 'ecosystem mandate' rather than individual institutional mandates. She also emphasized the need for exchanges to remain flexible and customer‑centric as capital becomes increasingly global.
Sundararaman Ramamurthy highlighted risk management as a key prerequisite for product innovation, emphasizing the need for appropriate guardrails before new products are launched. He also pointed to the challenge of maintaining scalability, performance, and resilience simultaneously as trading volumes grow.
Ashishkumar Chauhan flagged data and software engineering as strategic concerns for exchanges, arguing that technological dependence and the ability to control critical infrastructure would become increasingly important as financial markets become more digitally dependent.
Why This Matters
The panel discussion underscores the evolving nature of India's market infrastructure, with exchange leaders recognizing the need for collaboration, risk management, and global integration. As investor participation and trading volumes rise, exchanges must adapt to meet the changing needs of investors and the broader market.
What to Watch
The next phase of market development will focus on making investing more accessible while improving investor understanding. Technology and AI could help simplify complex disclosures and tailor information to individual investors, potentially making risk factors easier for retail investors to understand. Exchanges will need to build infrastructure that is globally integrated, technologically resilient, and capable of supporting a broader range of products and investors.