Ashish Chauhan

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ashish Chauhan

• Ashish Chauhan is an Indian business executive who is known for being elected as the Managing Director and CEO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after receiving a clearance from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

• He is the Chancellor of University of Allahabad, managing director and chief executive officer of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), and member of Governing council of IIM Raipur.

• He is considered as the father of modern financial derivatives in India. He is also known for his expertise in financial market policies, Information technology, organized retail, telecommunications, and Indian social issues.

  

• While studying at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, he was recruited as the officer by the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) in 1991.

  

• In 1993, he started working as the Vice President of the National Stock Exchange (NSE). He contributed in making the trading infrastructure at NSE and NSE-50 (Nifty). He also helped in setting up Information Technology infrastructure where he made the first commercial satellite telecom network in India for NSE. He also gave the concept of National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCCL) and National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

• In 2001, he began working in a company exchangenext.com, financed by Reliance group. In 2004, he became the chief information officer (CIO) of Reliance Infocomm, and in 2015, he became the Reliance Group CIO. In 2001, he also became the CEO of the cricket team Mumbai Indians.

• In 2009, he left the Reliance Industries and joined Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) as Deputy CEO. In 2012, he became the CEO of BSE. He made contribution to make BSE the fastest Exchange in the World and introduced Mobile Trading. He further brought equity, currency, interest rate derivatives and commodities to BSE. In 2012, due to Ashish’s contribution, BSE became the first Exchange in the country to launch a SME platform for listing of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In 2013, he developed BSE StAR MF, a Mutual Fund Distribution Platform. In 2018, it became the India’s largest digital platform to distribute Mutual Funds.

  

• In 2017, he set up India’s First International Exchange ‘India International Exchange’ inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

  

• In January 2017, he completed the IPO of BSE which was pending for ten years.

• In 2013, when the growth of the stock exchange was noted, there was a lot of improvement since 1875. In an interview, Ashish talked about the growth and said,
  

  You look at the BSE as a stock exchange that is 137 years old. I look at it as a new company that got demutualised only in 2007. We have a new management that is driving this business professionally. And the results are showing.”

• In June 2021, he was appointed as the Chancellor of University of Allahabad.

  

• In an interview, he said that when he was eleven, his family members thought that he would become a monk because he was very quite.
  

• He studied in a Gujarati medium school because of which he faced a language barrier while studying at IIT Mumbai. He used a dictionary as a teacher and learnt English.

  

• In an interview, he said that he worked for more than sixteen hours a day. Talking about this, he said,
  

  I start my day doing puja and end the day with puja and meditation. It is a very personal puja, which is a part of my family tradition. My work begins as early as 7 am and I retire for the day at around 11 pm.”