New Delhi [India], May 4 : Ashish Kumar Chauhan, Chairman of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), on Monday highlighted the resilience of India's capital markets amid global uncertainties, noting that equity market capitalisation has risen to nearly 1.5 times the size of banking assets.
Addressing the IMC Capital Market Conference 2026, Chauhan said the shift reflects growing reliance of domestic firms on public markets, backed by a strong macroeconomic foundation despite global trade and geopolitical challenges.
"India's capital markets have navigated an exceptional sequence of shocks over the past two decades, from the global financial crisis of 2008, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, to the geopolitical uncertainty in the Middle East in recent months. In each instance, markets demonstrated resilience and composure, affecting the quality of the regulatory and institutional architecture that has already been built," Chauhan said.
He added that recent US trade policy changes and supply chain disruptions have created headwinds, but India has remained relatively stable due to stronger institutions and a self-sustaining domestic growth engine.
"Tariff-related uncertainty following shifts in US trade policy and the ongoing fragmentation of global supply chains due to the conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine have introduced headwinds that no measured economy can be entirely insulated from. Yet, India has navigated this turbulence with relative stability, a reflection of improving institutional credibility, growing policy management, and a domestic growth engine that is increasingly self-reinforcing," he said.
Chauhan also announced the launch of the Past Risk and Return Verification Agency (PaRRVA), a joint initiative by CARE and NSE under a SEBI-designed framework, aimed at improving transparency.
"I am also proud to announce another SEBI initiative launched today, PaRRVA....It is the first of its kind initiative by any regulator in the world which allows you to understand and assess all the claims made by your portfolio managers and your algo traders against their past returns. This is purely a SEBI thought-through framework which CARE and NSE have launched," he said.
Additionally, NSE has commenced live operations of the Electronic Gold Receipt (EGR) segment, enabling gold to be held and traded in dematerialised form.
"The EGR segment has gone live today and we have already seen one EGR being created already... By enabling gold to be held in a dematerialized form as EGR and traded seamlessly on a regulated platform, many of the challenges associated with physical handling, storage, and priority assurance can be addressed," Chauhan added.
Highlighting investor growth, Chauhan said the NSE's registered investor base has crossed 13 crore, growing over four-fold since March 2020, with a younger demographic profile.
He added that operational strength remains key, with the exchange processing around 2,200 crore orders in six hours and handling nearly 30 crore trades in a single day.
Chauhan said depth, efficiency and stability of markets will continue to support conversion of household savings into productive investments for long-term growth.
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