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COVER TORYS Financial Technologies

The Serial Entrepreneur Driving the India 2.0 Growth Story - by Aritro Ganguly

“

Jignesh

Exchange is to Financial Technologies, whatSearch is to Google–Platform for MassDisruptive Innovation,” says Jignesh Shah,

Chairman of the $2.5 billion FinancialTechnologies Group in a press conference inMumbai, his company’s headquarters. He is talkingabout how his company will leverage its leadershipposition in global technology markets to re-define‘Brand India’ from a cost arbitrage value proposi-tion to an Intellectual Property centric businessmodel. He continues, “India 1.0 IT companies wereabout creating their global IP, India 2.0 companiesare children of liberalization and are about creatingand owning global IP themselves. FinancialTechnologies is first of the many to come out ofIndia that will choose to become a Nike rather thana Nike sweat shop and Coke, than a Coke bottlingplant in their respective industries. China did it inlast decade; India will do it in this one.”

Meet the face of Brand India 2.0Sounds too bold? You would not think that if youknew the man saying it. Meet Jignesh Shah, theyoungest, first generation Indian billionaire whowears various epithets like the Exchange King,Transaction Czar and the Socialist Capitalist withease and operates on 1000 day cycles to createwealth and billion dollar enterprises. The companyhe built a decade back has placed him on India’s bil-

Chairman, Financial Technologies Group.

lionaire pedestal in almost less thanhalf the time his peers in the sameindustry took. Standing tall with $1 bil-lion, Shah has risen to the likes ofNarayana Murthys, Azim Premjis andShiv Nadars in monies, but only that hisis the first company to offer branded

productized services targeted for finan-cial markets and transactions. A list ofhis employees who joined the million-aires’ club recently made it seem as if ithad no significance. Over hundreds ofthem today own houses in plushcolonies of Mumbai—the most expen-sive real estate city in world. In otherwords Shah is a wealth creator for themasses; a vision he’s had since his col-lege days.

Recently, Dr. Manmohan Singh,the Indian Prime Minister, said: “Noforce in world can stop an ideawhose time has come.” True indeed,India’s tryst with destiny and oppor-tunity to take its rightful globalplace is here and now. And compa-

nies such as Financial Technologiesand MCX are surely the ones lead-ing India 2.0 by unlocking value atthe middle and bottom of pyramidand bridging the urban-rural divide.This has in fact sowed the seeds ofchange in India’s brand perceptionfrom cost and labor arbitrage toIntellectual Property centric busi-ness model.

FT Labs - The engine forInnovation and Growth“Financial Technologies has createdIP centric business enterprises arounddigital transactions through our coretechnology platform and industrydomain knowledge for financial mar-

kets across all asset class. Given thatmost of the digital transactions flowthrough financial markets, we areputting a tap on these market flows.We have positioned ourselves for per-petual growth with a model that islinked to the equity and the transac-tion value,” he avers.

Over the years, he has waylaid

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ShahThe Man

The wealth creator's personalnet worth stands at $1billionwith 40 percent stake in hisgroup. He is the youngest among theunder 40 first generation bil-lionaires and has created hiswealth in less than 10 years.Other investors have $1.5 bil-lion stake in the FT group. Ithas created several million-aires in the past 10 years andhas attracted top talent fromacross the world. Many employees of the FTgroup has managed to buyreal estate in the highly pricedmarket in Mumbai, thanks tothe wealth generated byShah's company.

Financial Technologies will leverage its leadership position in globaltechnology markets to redefine ‘Brand India’ from a cost arbitragevalue proposition to an Intellectual Property centric business model.[ ]

Shah

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COVER TORYS Financial Technologies

competition from IBM, TIBCOSoftware, TCS and others to establishhis grip on the market. FT’s domina-tion in the online trading softwaresphere is such that in due process, inlittle over four years, share priceshave risen from a measly $.45 centsto $35. Financial Technology Grouphas garnered 80 percent of onlinetrading in the Indian market withmany exchanges.

It is Shah’s unwavering faith inhis beliefs that has contributed to hismeteoric rise. His FinancialTechnologies today stands at a net

worth of $1.7 billion. He is theyoungest first generation billionaireIndian entrepreneur with a 47 percentstake in his group, and has createdthree different billion-dollar compa-nies in a span of just 10 years. Hisgroup has other investors who havepooled in $1.5 billion in the business,and has in the process created severalmillionaires in past 10 years and hasattracted top talent from across theworld!

Sahasa Laxmi Varam(Fortune Favors the Brave)Shah was an Electronic Engineer hail-ing from a traditional Gujarati family,trading in iron, steel and chemical.Having specialized in digital designsof logic, he was looking to go to theU.S. for higher studies in 1990. At thattime, the Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) was looking for talented, youngengineers for its $25 million pan-Indiatrade automation project BOLT. Shahjumped the gun, quit plans of going tothe US, applied for the job, and was

among the 14 selected.Early on in the precincts of BSE,

Shah was hit by the tidal wave ofhyperactivity in the stock market.Transactions intoxicated him, and heplunged into the library in the BSE, attimes losing track of day and night,reading about the history of theIndian commodity trading andexchanges. His inquisitive mindbegan understanding macro andmicro mechanics and fine threadingof markets.

In 1993, BSE sent him abroad tolearn about the global markets. Over

in the London, Hong Kong, NewYork, Tokyo, Singapore and otherExchanges, Shah studied every bit ofthe sophisticated execution of theknowledge that he had internalizedduring his learning curve in BSE.Online trading in these exchangesconvinced Shah that stock trading inIndia would come of age once BSE’sautomation project was implemented.

Shah returned to India to a shock-er: BSE had decided to award theautomation project to CMC, and assuch, the engineers working in theproject would be moved elsewhere.The maverick in him sprang up.Defying logic, Shah quit BSE, cough-ing up $22000 as a penalty for havingviolated the three-year employmentcontract.

Jobless, he did not flinch. Heinstead devised his motto in life:‘Courage of Conviction and Power ofPerseverance’, which he often uses inhis speech. And incredibly so, hewent ahead and bet whatever wealthhis family had including mortgaging

FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGIES

GROUP

A bird's eye view

Financial Technologies (India)Ltd. is a $2.5 billion (group mar-ket cap) global leader in creatingIP centric business enterprisesaround digital transactionsthrough technology platform andindustry domain knowledge forfinancial markets across allasset class—Equities, Com-modities, Forex and Bond.

Business World ranked FinancialTechnologies No. 1 in their 2006annual BW 500 ranking for deliv-ering highest shareholder returnsover the past three years.

Financial Technologies is the 8thmost valued software companyin India, among the list of top1000 software companies, pub-lished by NASSCOM (NationalAssociation of Software andService Companies) in 2006.

Financial Technologies wasawarded "ISV Partner of theYear" by Microsoft India in theinnovation category at theMicrosoft Partner Summit.

Financial Technologies’ consoli-dated revenues have grown221% in FY2006 with the tech-nology business being the coregrowth engine.

Jignesh’s ability to execute with unmatchedspeed and focus, coupled with his innova-tive IP (Intellectual Property) centric busi-ness model gives FT Group, an unfair advan-tage to deliver exceptional shareholderreturns in today's knowledge economy.

][

the house—to raise $11000 capitalfor institutionalizing what manycalled his ‘madness’. He spent a partof the money paying the penalty forhis four other colleagues, who fol-lowed his vision. On New Year’sDay, 1995 Shah’s FinancialTechnologies India Limited (FT) wasborn in a humble 250 sq. ft. mezza-nine floor office in Mumbai’s Fortarea in the hands of Shah andDewang Neralla.

Interestingly Fort area in Mumbaihappens to be the hub of financialmarkets of India, very unlikely placefor a technology company to have itsoffice. But Mr. Shah strongly believedthat he and his team should breathe thesame air that his customers werebreathing for the first 1000 days of thecompany! No great results were visi-ble initially. The team plunged intoresearch for the next three years.Patience is an important virtue for anyentrepreneur and Shah has that inplenty. It was a time span long enough

for Shah and his associates, with noimmediate prospect of earning profit,to get disillusioned and move on. Forsomebody as qualified and experi-enced as Shah, there would have beenno dearth of job opportunities either.He was holding offer to work in MerillLynch NY office in currency trading.But patience combined with self-con-fidence and gut feeling, made himhold on to his dream; the rationalebeing that once a technology is creat-ed, it would allow them to charge in adifferent way.

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An over view

Financial Technologies GroupCompanies Brief Overview

Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. (MCX)India's No. 1 commodity futures exchange, live since November 10, 2003, has a high-est peak daily turnover of $1.7 billion with 500,000 daily traded contracts in 10major commodities. MCX is among the top 10-commodity future exchanges in the world.Globally, MCX is No. 2 in Silver and Natural Gas and No. 3 in terms of Gold exchangesand is at the fourth position in energy volumes.

Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) DGCX is a 50:50 JV of Financial Technologies, Multi Commodities Exchange (MCX)and Dubai Multi Commodity Center (DMCC), a venture of Dubai Government. It is the only international exchange in a Free Trade Zone with a 50-year tax holiday andcurrently trades in Gold, Silver and Currency derivatives. The exchange was set up in a record time of 1 year, 12 days and 45 minutes by FT andHis Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubaipersonally came to inaugurate the exchange in November 2005.

IBS ForexIBS Forex is the number 2 player in providing currency-trading solution sphere with amarket share of 30 percent. Over 30 banks have subscribed to FXDirectTM, which is a digital currency trading plat-form that caters primarily to USD:INR inter-bank transactions.On average, a daily volume of about $100 million is transacted on this platform, andhas achieved a cumulative turnover of about $ 40 billion until July 2000.

National Spot Exchange Ltd. (NSEL) NSEL is a pan-India electronic spot market for commodities. While futures tradingconducted by MCX provides price discovery and price risk management functions,NSEL will provide a marketplace for price realization. NSEL will create a bridge between physical market traders and MCX by providing a soundsystem for physical deliveries, enhancing the depth of futures markets and create a betterbalance between speculative, hedged and spot trades.

National Bulk Handling Corporation (NBHC)NBHC is an end-to-end provider of warehousing and bulk handling of agri-commodi-ties supporting the agri-spot and futures marketplaces with requisite infrastructurefor settlement and delivery. NBHC offers solutions for collateral management, quality inspection, testing and con-trol for commodities.

TickerPlant Infovending Global content provider for financial data offering customized real-time data feedsolutions on equity, commodity and forex markets.

ATOM technologies Solutions in the electronic payment space starting with mobile payments.

Riskraft Consulting Focused consulting services for financial risk management and data warehousing tothe BFSI sector.

Safal National Exchage (SNX)Joint initiative with NDDB (National Dairy Development Board) provides a nationwideplatform for trading in horticulture, floriculture and allied products.

Our goal at MCX is tocreate globally com-petitive market infra-structure and ecosys-tem that will bridgeeconomic divide byintegrating rural Indiawith global markets.

[

Between 1995 and 1998, Shah and Neralla built thebase technology DNA from scratch that powers most ofFT’s technology centric markets and ecosystem innova-tions. While Shah would develop the business algorithms,the latter would write the codes. ODIN, FT’s first productwas born in 1998, but it was hardly the end of tribulations.

Against All OddsShah tried to achieve this in an age, when services com-panies were taking off and posting profits unheard of. Buthe refused to be sucked in by the vicious cycle and adopt-ed the previous generation software services businessmodel of skilled labor arbitrage. He was determined tobuild a global productized service around financial mar-kets out of India, he pledged, and a tad more dauntingly,enter into an IP centric business model with all his cus-

tomers. Shah decided to take a novel high-risk, high-gainapproach. He drew up the unique model of linking thepotential income from a product with the transaction ofthe exchanges it was designed to process. Behind this washis belief that he could garner more revenue by followingthis model. This effectively meant, the greater the volume,more would be the revenue generation. Like Revi Seth,Board Member of GE Shipping, puts it: “Jignesh’s abilityto execute with unmatched speed and focus, coupled withhis innovative IP (Intellectual Property) centric businessmodel gives the FT Group, an unfair advantage to deliverexceptional shareholder returns in today’s knowledgeeconomy.”

In conjunction, Shah also decided to take a parallelroute—to pick up to 50 percent of equity from exchangesusing his technology. Shah wanted his company to bene-fit from both the short term gains produced by the regu-lar transactions as well as to capture the value unlockedby the implementation of his technology in order to gen-erate liquidity in the long term. He reasons in retrospect:“Financial Technologies has consistently realized thehighest value for its technology with its intellectualproperty centric business model that has scaled beyondconventional dollar per hour, quarter on quarter and sumof parts models adopted by traditional IT software andservice companies.” Shah refused to provide other com-panies with skilled labor, to make them more successful

and competitive. He wanted to develop indigenous tech-nology, which is compatible with the trading platformsof new generation markets across the globe.

The past ten years has proven beyond doubt that hisunconventional model has helped him capture the high-est value for the company for its technology IP as reflect-ed by the shareholders’ returns in the past three years toits investors. For which, Business World magazine inIndia ranked his company as the No.1 in their 2006annual ranking. Nasscom (National Association ofSoftware and Service Companies), India’s premier ITbody, awarded FT as the 8th most valuable softwarecompany in India among 1000 software companies of2006. The company was also awarded “ISV Partner ofthe Year” by Microsoft India in the innovation categoryat the Microsoft Partner Summit.

Unlocking value at the middle of the pyramid Be successful by making your customers successfulFT was in the online trading software market that wasdominated by IBM, TCS and TIBCO Software. Shah fig-ured out that he needed a compelling proposition to over-come the high-end competitors, and in that he segmentedthe market, micro targeting the middle and bottom of theclient pyramid. FT’s products’ unique selling propositionwas that they were compatible and affordable for thelargest chunk of the users in the particular verticaldomain. While companies like TIBCO were selling theirsoftware for $1 million, FT offered it’s own branded prod-uct as service to a Gujarat based company GrowthAvenues at one-tenth the price in the pay per use model,helping the company to set up a retail chain in Surat. FTrevenues soon soared as its customer volume grew andhelped in creating several Charles Schwab and E-trade inIndia way back in 1998 /99.

Next, Shah cashed in on the competition betweenICICI bank and Investmart to be the first to launch anInternet Trading facility. He took on IBM and beat thecompany to obtain the order for ICICI Direct, India’s firstonline share and mutual funds trading facility. Soon com-panies like Sharekhan, the online share-trading portal in

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COVER TORYS Financial Technologies

Through MCX, DGCX, NSEL and SNX among others has establishedhow the next generation Exchanges are becoming 'eBay' platformfor all 'non-eBay things' and unlocking value at the bottom of thesocial and economic pyramid.[ ]

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India followed as clients. In the nextthree years, FT became the numerouno player in the institution market,virtually becoming the primary sup-plier to all the big names with 90 per-cent of the market share.

MCX: Opportunity to change lifeof a billion peopleBut Shah’s thirst was not quenched.All the while building FTIL, he hadhis sights set on an online transactionexchange. He was clear in his mindabout the eventual goal: He alwayswanted to build a globally brandedproductized services company out ofIndia. Thus he made his next bigstride in 2002, when the commoditiestrading market in India was takingshape. He applied for a license to setup an online trading exchange withForwards Markets Commission. Thispitted him against heavyweights likeBSE and NCDEX, who were alsovying for the same. The media quick-ly wrote him off since he was neithera trader nor a banker. Besides whatdid a technology company have tooffer, they questioned.

The doubting thomases wereagain left rubbing their eyes in disbe-lief when Shah won the license. Multi

Commodity Exchange (MCX) wasborn and it was up running in a recordnine months. Like FT, MCX’s successtoo was achieved on the basis of seg-menting the market and micro target-ing the maximum extent of the mar-ket.

Shah is an astute player and tostrengthen MCX, he strategically tiedup with nine International StrategicAlliances across the world—the

Tokyo Commodity Exchange(TOCOM), The Baltic Exchange, theChicago Climate Exchange (CCX),the London Metal Exchange (LME),the Dubai Multi Commodities Center(DMCC), the New York MercantileExchange (NYMEX), the New YorkBoard of Trade (NYBOT) and theBursa Malaysia Derivatives, Berhad(BMD) Euronext-Life and ZengzhouExchange (China). It also had tie upswith 14 public sector institutions andinstitutions like State Bank of Indiagroup including all subsidiaries andSBI Life, National Stock Exchange ofIndia (NSE), National Bank forAgriculture & Rural Development(NABARD), HDFC Bank, Bank ofIndia, Union Bank of India, Bank ofBaroda, Canara Bank andCorporation Bank as its shareholdersin a very unique and successfulPublic-Private Partnership (PPP).P.G.Kakodkar, former Chairman ofSBI, considers Shah’s success withthe FT group as a role model for thenext generation budding Indian entre-preneurs. “It has shown the way tocreate the next Google, Microsoft andGE in our own backyard,” he says.

Shah’s farsightedness assured thatMCX beat the behemoth National

Commodities Exchange (NCDEX) inno time to become the biggest playerin the Indian market. With 55 percentof the commodities market share inthe country—while the balance 45percent comes from 22 otherexchanges in the country, including 2national exchanges, NCDEX andNMCE—MCX is among the top 10-commodity future exchange in theworld. Globally, MCX is No. 2 in

The Accolades CLSA, a leading Asia-Pacificresearch institution recognized himas among the top 20 Indian entre-preneurs and inducted him in theirHall of Fame in 2006 along with LateDhirubhai Ambani of Reliance andNarayana Murthy of Infosys amongother Indian business leaders.Vilasrao Deshmukh, Chief Ministerof Maharashtra, India recently hon-ored Jignesh Shah with MEDC'Entrepreneur of the Year' award for2005-06.Shah also was recently awarded'Priyadarshni Global Award 2006'for outstanding contribution toInnovative Entrepreneurship at thehands of Kamal Nath, Union Ministerof Commerce and Industry.Shah has also been invited to receiveUSA India Business Leader of theyear award for 2006 by USINPAC inWashington DC at the hands ofSenator Hillary Clinton for linkingrural India to global markets.

Financial Technologies is first of the manyto come out of India that will choose tobecome a Nike rather than a Nike sweatshop and Coke, than a Coke bottling plantin their respective industries. ][

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Silver and natural gas and No. 3 in terms of Goldexchanges and is at the fourth position in Energy vol-umes. It has more than 1500 brokers operating in 1000cities in India with 30,000 commodity-trading terminals.With the highest peak daily turnover of around $4 billionand 500,000 daily traded contracts, the establishment hasgiven Shah the required boost to go in for an IPO to raisearound $100 million for infrastructure development.

The MCX leadership and growth has attractedFidelity International to pick up a nine percent stake inMCX at a valuation of $540 million. Shah also has abroader vision for the exchange: “MCX’s vision is totruly enable India’s 70 percent of agri based population(700 million people) to participate in its economicgrowth through an exchange platform that injects newlevel of efficiencies by eliminating intermediaries, bene-fiting both consumers and producers by providing thema level playing field and an industry ecosystem thatrewards value creation.” The goal at MCX is to createglobally competitive market infrastructure and ecosys-tem that will bridge economic divide by integrating ruralIndia with global markets.

DGCX–Making India ProudShah’s first Global expedition started off from Dubai mar-kets in August of 2004. Dubai Gold and CommodityExchange (DGCX) a 50:50 Joint Venture of FinancialTechnologies, MCX and Dubai Multi Commodity Center(DMCC), a venture of Dubai Government, gave him greatconfidence in taking his technologies overseas anddeploying it.

It is the only International Exchange in a Free TradeZone with 50-year tax holiday and currently trades inGold, Silver, and Currency derivatives.

The Exchange was set up in a record time of one year,twelve days and forty five minutes by FT and HisHighness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid AlMaktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai personally came toinaugurate the exchange in November 2005.

MOG-ModelTM (Market Oriented Growth) Model forSocial EntrepreneurshipAfter setting up MCX, India’s No.1 commodity futureexchange, in order to bridge this economic divide, Shahdecided to set up the National Spot Exchange Limited(NSEL), which he says will create a parallel market forspot trading in agricultural commodities, thus enabling thedoubling of farmers’ income in five years. He always hadhis eyes set on improving the lot of the poor farmers, whotoil away in the fields under the uncompromising sun,only to be denied the deserved price on his produce. It isan effort to bridge this gap and provide the farmers with alevel playing field. Apart from making the process ofpeasants selling their produce more transparent and effi-cient, it will offer them the opportunity to trade at par withinternational prices.

On the growth radar are warehouses in several districtsacross the country to facilitate the reception of goods fromthe cultivators. While MCX is geared at price realization,NSEL will be focused on price discovery in a spot market,attracting many players to the exchange. Agencies likeFood Corporation of India (FCI) and NationalAgricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of IndiaLtd (NAFED) will be able to buy and sell agri-productshere. It will create a bridge between physical market tradersand MCX by providing a sound system for physical deliv-eries, enhancing the depths of the futures market and createa better balance between speculative, hedged and spottraders. The farmers will be able to quote their asking price,thus giving them some leverage in getting the deservingprice. It will reduce pressure on the farmer to sell directlyafter harvest by facilitating institutionalized credits againstwarehouse receipts.

Shah has also set up National Bulk HandlingCorporation Limited (NBHC), an end-to-end provider inwarehousing and bulk handling of agri-commodities. It willsupport the agri-spot and futures marketplaces with requi-site infrastructure for settlement and delivery. Apart fromimproving the supply chain efficiency, the company willalso provide single-window access to information, finance,trade and logistics facilities. As a reflection of Shah’s suc-cess, NBHC was recently appointed by the FoodCorporation of India (FCI) as a consultant in the matters ofprocurement, hedging and disposal of agro commodities.Some of the leading national level banks have also official-ly recognized NBHC as their collateral manager.

And we can’t forget about Safal National exchange(SNX), which is a joint initiative with National DairyDevelopment Board (NDDB), providing a nation-wideplatform for trading in horticulture, floriculture, dairy andallied products. All these exchanges together are changing

COVER TORYS Financial Technologies

Stock Performance of FT

$35

$8 May 05 - Sep06

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the dynamics of the Indian market. Asserts Shah:“Financial Technologies, through MCX, DGCX, NSELand SNX among others has established how the next gen-eration Exchanges are becoming ‘eBay’ platform for all‘non-eBay things’ and unlocking value at the bottom ofthe social and economic pyramid.”

Currency Markets – Putting India on Global MapIt is impossible to map Shah’s ambitions. At about the sametime when Shah was making his foray into the commoditiesexchange market, Shah also spread his tentacles into thecurrency markets. The outcome of this shrewd move wasIBS-Forex, a digital currency-trading platform, providingcurrency-trading solution sphere. Success kissed Shah onceagain. With a market share of 30 percent, a daily volume ofabout $100 million is transacted on this platform, on aver-age. It has achieved a cumulative turnover of about $40 bil-lion until July 2006.

The strategy to micro segment the market and enablethe Davids to compete with the Goliaths with monthly feeat $500 for IBS Forex, Shah has opened up a brand newmarket for the product across a wide spectrum and hastaken Reuters by surprise, forcing them to downgrade theirown fee from a staggering $2,400 to $600. Over 30 banks

have subscribed to ‘FXDirect’, which is a digital currency-trading platform that caters primarily to USD:INR inter-bank transactions. The market now being even, this contestshould also be worth watching.

Leadership – Winning the global war for talent But is it possible to achieve this unprecedented successwithout the support of an excellent team? Understandably,Shah is very proud of his management team. He namesthem in rapid succession, rattling off their credentials; heseems to know them like the back of his hand.

The volume of business on his exchanges seems to beever growing, but he dismisses benchmarking successagainst it as hyperbole; his focus is innovation.

“Every step we have taken has been copied by a com-petitor within a few months. There should be a regulatedcooling period, which protects someone investing in inno-vation. Otherwise there is no incentive to be innovativebecause the second player always has the advantage,” hesays with a touch of bitterness.

Unlike most other business tycoons, Shah does not lista more ‘lavish living’ as his aspiration. Instead, he says, “I

always had dreams of hiring the best, and being able toafford pay scales that outmatched all others. Today I canafford to not compromise on salaries when it comes to hir-ing and retaining the best.”

A benevolent visionary, Shah not only takes care of hisemployees, but also acts on his dream of transforming therural economy of India with his enterprises. He is drivenby a desire to create wealth for others. Jignesh ShahFoundation has also sponsored two fellowships in thename of two of his Gurus—Dr. Madhu Pavaskar for cot-ton and Madhusudan Dagga for gold, from whom helearned the respective domains. And to meet the demandof about 1 million trained professionals over the next threeyears, Financial Technologies has sponsored ‘ResearchChairs’ at the four IIM’s–IIM C (Currency), IIM B (Debt),IIM A (Commodities) and IIM I (Equities). It has also tiedup with Welingkar Institute of Management and MumbaiUniversity to offer a variety of courses ranging from a 3month Diploma to a 2-year full time degree courses alongwith short-term executive management programs.

He has not lost his zeal to project India’s tech talent pooland has now set his sight on wireless telephony technologysector with Atom Technologies, specializing on providingtransaction automation for wireless telephony services in the

field of mobile-commerce. But he has not removed his focusfrom the equity, commodity and forex markets. His TickerPlant Infovending has ambitions to become a global contentprovider for financial data offering customized real-timedata feed solutions on equity, commodity and forex markets.

“When media turns completely digital, we will be theretoo,” he says. A voracious reader, he has a library with 5000books on various complex market opportunities that FT canget into when the time is right. If his reading in the BSElibrary could spring such miracles in 10 years, then imaginethe possibilities that his library conceals now. Surely, theExchange King still has many tricks up his sleeve, which hewould unleash at the right moment to better his ownachievements till date. And the most important of allachievement is clear: “India’s financial markets are proxy toIndia 2.0 growth and Financial Technologies is proxy to thegrowth of India’s financial markets, as we have 90 percentof market share in India. Hence Financial Technologies isproxy of India 2.0 growth story.”—He signs off as we enterthe hallway of his hotel, he looks at the elevator andreflects: A true entrepreneur is the one who sends the eleva-tor down for others, once he is successful. si

I always had dreams of hiring the best, and being able to afford payscales that outmatched all others. Today I can afford to not com-promise on salaries when it comes to hiring and retaining the best. ][