Not many people are aware of the story of the man who created international exchanges for stocks and commodity derivatives. At the outset, it’s a typical rags to riches story--a middle class boy who makes it big. More than a few years on, that’s now been turned into an eye-opener on suppression of entrepreneurial excellence.
Jignesh Shah—the man who would later go on to be among the nation’s who’s who—was known for traversing the road less travelled ever since childhood. Instead of taking the conventional route of joining a top notch tech company or going abroad for his MS after college, he opted to join BOLT which was an ambitious project of BSE.
It was while he was working at BSE that he learnt the ropes of operating exchanges and had an opportunity of travelling to 12 countries to gain expertise on the subject. The project was later handed to CMC but not before leaving its mark on Shah and Narella. He rejected an offer from Merill Lynch New York Foreign Exchange, a bold step in itself, and then went on to promote FTIL, the company that promoted MCX.
In 2002, when he applied for the commodity exchange license, the media rejected him. That was his first challenge where he not only got the license but also made operational the company in a record breaking time of nine months. Today, it is the third largest in the world and its trade volumes in silver and gold is second and third highest in the world. It is the force behind the setting up of the first national spot exchange of India that connected the APMC markets with each other electronically.
In 1988, in order to fund FTIL, Shah had to mortgage his home and in 2009, he figured in Forbes top 100 India’s richest.
Recent developments around the FTIL-NSEL issue seem perpetrated at the hands of a certain brand of ideology that seeks the suppression of entrepreneurial excellence to favour political and executive overreach. However, there are good reasons as to why Jignesh Shah is considered to be a go-getter by friends and colleagues and as someone who can look 10 years ahead in time—and that’s the game he needs to bring on now.
Jignesh is also a winner of US-India Businessman Award for outstanding contribution as an entrepreneur to integrate rural India with global markets.
Jignesh Shah—the man who would later go on to be among the nation’s who’s who—was known for traversing the road less travelled ever since childhood. Instead of taking the conventional route of joining a top notch tech company or going abroad for his MS after college, he opted to join BOLT which was an ambitious project of BSE.
It was while he was working at BSE that he learnt the ropes of operating exchanges and had an opportunity of travelling to 12 countries to gain expertise on the subject. The project was later handed to CMC but not before leaving its mark on Shah and Narella. He rejected an offer from Merill Lynch New York Foreign Exchange, a bold step in itself, and then went on to promote FTIL, the company that promoted MCX.
In 2002, when he applied for the commodity exchange license, the media rejected him. That was his first challenge where he not only got the license but also made operational the company in a record breaking time of nine months. Today, it is the third largest in the world and its trade volumes in silver and gold is second and third highest in the world. It is the force behind the setting up of the first national spot exchange of India that connected the APMC markets with each other electronically.
In 1988, in order to fund FTIL, Shah had to mortgage his home and in 2009, he figured in Forbes top 100 India’s richest.
Recent developments around the FTIL-NSEL issue seem perpetrated at the hands of a certain brand of ideology that seeks the suppression of entrepreneurial excellence to favour political and executive overreach. However, there are good reasons as to why Jignesh Shah is considered to be a go-getter by friends and colleagues and as someone who can look 10 years ahead in time—and that’s the game he needs to bring on now.
Jignesh is also a winner of US-India Businessman Award for outstanding contribution as an entrepreneur to integrate rural India with global markets.