January 12, 2013

Press Release No. 1

NSE launches financial literacy initiative 'Jagruti' in Barrackpore, in partnership with India Post

India’s leading stock exchange, the National Stock exchange (NSE) has partnered with India Post of the Government of India, to start a financial literacy initiative at fifty post offices in the country. After starting the first initiative in West Bengal at Midnapore earlier this month, today, NSE launched this campaign in the prominent town of Barrackpore.

At Barrackpore, the alliance between the two behemoths, NSE and India Post, involves the setting up of a large sized screen at the head post office on the 21 River side road. The screen will keep flashing data on NSE’s benchmark index, Nifty 50, data on stocks and other indices, advice on investing wisely as well as information on products of India Post. The screen was inaugurated by senior officials from NSE and India post on Saturday, the 12^th of January.

The head post office is situated in a unique place, because it’s a stone’s throw away from the army cantonment as well the renowned and historical air force base. As the post office forms a critical link between the Army and air force men and their families, it has high footfalls, of more than 500 people every day.

Barrackpore is also a hub of jute mills and textiles, as well as a base for making railway wagons and there is a recent thrust on industries like Information technology, making it an ideal place to start a financial literacy drive.

Joint MD of NSE, Ms. Chitra Ramkrishna said, “India Post has a very large reach, through which we aim to increase financial literacy in the tier two and tier three cities of India. We want to focus on different cities in West Bengal, because people here have the savings which need to be channelized into productive assets. This educational drive will help the people of Barrackpore and Midnapore to grow their savings and expand their enterprises. ‘’

The screen at the Barrackpore post office will carry information on the do’s and don’ts of trading, for instance ‘don’t share your trading password with anyone’, it is not mandatory to give a power of attorney to your broker and so on. The screen will also convey information on products for retail investors like Gold exchange traded funds and Nifty exchange traded funds, cost effective and transparent options to invest in gold and NSE’s benchmark index, Nifty 50.

In fact first time investors, who have an annual income of 10 lakhs, can invest 50,000 and get tax benefits, by investing in permitted securities like Nifty exchange traded funds, under the new government scheme called the Rajiv Gandhi equity savings scheme.

The screen will also carry information on products of India Post, like Online money transfers, Electronic money orders, Speed post, Savings certificates, Postal life insurance and Logistics solutions for Corporates.

The alliance with India Post comes after a series of steps by NSE to increase financial literacy. NSE has a tie up with more than 90 colleges in different parts of the country, to conduct short duration courses on the capital markets called the NSE Certified Capital Market Professional or the NCCMP. In West Bengal, this course is being run at the St Xaviers College, Kolkata.

The exchange has also tied up with prominent universities for MBA and BBA (Bachelors in Business Administration) courses, including Punjabi university in Patiala, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University at Delhi and the Maharishi Dayanand University in Rohtak. In another recent partnership, NSE has joined hands with IIM Shillong, to start a two year post graduate course in financial markets, the first to be started by an IIM.

National Stock Exchange of India Limited

National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSEIL), India’s largest exchange in equity and equity derivatives segments was established in the mid 1990s as a demutualised electronic exchange by leading Indian Financial Institutions. It offers trading, clearing and settlement services in a range of products covering various asset classes namely equity, debt, and derivatives on equity, currencies and interest rates. NSE provides a modern, fully automated screen-based trading system, and its trading platform is connected to 200,000 trading terminals, spread across more than 2000 towns and cities giving it an extensive reach. NSE has played an important role in helping develop the Indian securities market and in bringing about transparency, efficiency and market integrity.

NSE’s flagship index, the Nifty 50, is used extensively by investors and market participants in India and around the world to take exposure to the Indian equities market. The stock market capitalization of NSE reached USD1.25 trillion dollars on the 4th of January this year. .

For further information about NSE, please visit NSE’s website at: http://www.nseindia.com