As our country celebrates its Platinum Independence anniversary, here’s a throwback on the many events that brought financial markets to where they are today.
Even before India got independence in 1947, it had at least one stock exchange up and running in BSE in 1857.
The other prominent exchange, the NSE, was incorporated in 1992, and was recognised as a stock exchange by market regulator Sebi in 1993.
BSE, meanwhile, remains one of the world’s oldest stock exchanges and the 8th largest exchange in terms of market capitalisation.
One of the first few steps taken by the government post-independence was enactment of The Capital Issues (Control) Act that set the ball rolling for the Indian capital markets.
And as investors equated investing in stock markets with wealth creation, the pool of investors kept growing over time.
At the end of fiscal year 2021-22, the total demat account holders in India stood at 89.7 million compared to 35.9 million at the end of FY19 – up almost 150% in three years.
In all these years, veterans have innumerable stories of booms and busts spread across decades.
Within a decade of independence, India saw its first market scandal, involving Life Insurance Corporation of India and Haridas Mundhra group. The scam led to the resignation of the then finance minister.
After the markets stablised, Reliance Industries launched its initial…
