What in your view would be the biggest challenge for Ashish Chauhan as he takes charge of the National Stock Exchange (NSE)?

In a sense, you can say that Ashish Chauhan may be up against his biggest career challenge. However, let me give a small clarification here. The candidature of Ashish Chauhan for the top job of MD & CEO of NSE has been cleared by SEBI at a regulatory level. However, the shareholder approval for the same is still pending, but that is normally more of a formality. For Chauhan, the NSE stint could present a big challenge as the realy job ahead is not of enhancing the business but about bringing back the sheen of the exchange.

But, first the good news. Ashish Chauhan is not stranger to the NSE. In fact, he was part of the core team that moved from IDBI to set up the NSE under the stewardship of Dr. RH Patil. He was part of the crack team that launched real time trading on the NSE and also later in setting up the F&O business in 2001. Later, Ashish Chauhan branched out on his own to set up his software company and then was the MD & CEO of the Bombay Stock Exchange for 10 years. The gist is that NSE is an ecosystem that he is perfectly familiar with.

But the big challenge for Chauhan will be getting the sheen back despite the fact that the NSE continues to dominate stock exchanges in India in terms of volumes. I am talking about sheen in terms of being the most transparent stock exchange and that is something Vikram Limaye had triggered in the last five years. The challenge is about exorcising the ghost of the algo scam, especially since the core team of Ravi Narain and Chitra are part of it. Ashish will have to ensure that it is taken to their logical conclusion and the past is left behind.