BSE, Asia’s oldest stock exchange today, celebrated it 130th foundation day in presence of two luminaries from the Corporate world Shri N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman & Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies and Shri Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra.

Shri Vallabh Bhansali, Chairman Enam Group and Trustee BSE, Ms. Amanda Greene, Head, Corporate Philanthropy Services, Give Foundation, Shri S. Jambunathan, Chairman BSE & Dr. Manoj Vaish, Executive Director & C.E.O., BSE was also present on the occasion.

Participating in a Seminar on Indian Corporates : ‘Winning the World’ organized on the occasion Shri Narayana Murthy while delivering the key note address said that for Indian companies to compete successfully, is required to benchmark with the best. “Corporate India’s leadership will have to walk the talk and stand up to its belief to lead the way.”

Corporate Governance, which also encompasses the value system of the company, is the best instrument in today’s competitive world. The five attributes he emphasised for any corporate to be world class are: Meritocracy; Environment to excel; Speed; Creative innovation and Excellence in execution.

Shri Anand Mahindra spoke of the need in India for model leadership, world class infrastructure and enabling environment of growth to attain world standards.

Shri Vallabh Bhanshali spoke on the Corporate Governance norms that are critical for corporates.

Shri Jambunathan laid emphasis on the integrity and transparency of the capital market and its ability to withstand all risks.

Delving into the history of the capital markets in the mid 19th century and the subsequent formation of The Native Share and Stock Brokers Association the precursor to BSE, Dr. Manoj Vaish also spoke of the present strengths of the Exchange with its 400 cities network, state of the art technological system and the training institute that imparts training on capital market subjects.

History of BSE :

India has a long history of securities markets, which is largely driven by BSE, The Stock Exchange, Mumbai. An indigenous enterprise set up about 130 years ago amidst the backdrop of British supremacy in international finance; BSE has been the hallmark of India’s initiative into high street finance more than a century ago.

As chequered and exciting its more than a century of existence has been, equally swift and smooth was the transformation of BSE into one of the most modern stock exchanges in the Asian region. It has several firsts to its credit even in the intensely competitive environment.

BSE was first to introduce concepts such as free float indexing, obtain ISO certification for Surveillance, establish huge infrastructure to enhance knowledge and know-how, put in place a trading platform that works on a sub second response time and capacity of 4 million trades a day, export of trading platform technology to other stock exchange in Middle East, report highest delivery ratio among the major exchanges, lowest transaction costs, a record of lowest defaults, offer highest compensation for investor in cases of valid and approved claims.

The most important change of BSE has been on the governance side, which now consists of a rich and balanced mix of professionals and industry experts, and the entire administration steered by professionals. Once demutualised, it would become the first exchange in India to become truly demutualised by offering stake to a wide range of institutional and individual investors. The corporatisation plans, which are on the cards would enable it to further professionalise and expand the scope of business and pursue further innovations on products and processes.

Drawing from its rich past and its equally robust performance in the recent past, BSE will continue to remain an icon and an indicator of the Indian securities markets.

Kalyan S. Bose
Corporate Communications
BSE - The Stock Exchange, Mumbai
25th floor, P.J. Towers
Dalal Street
Mumbai - 400 001
Ph # Dir. : (91 22) 2272 2938 / Board : 2272 1233 - 4 X : 8740 / Cell : +91 98 203 21121
Fax : 91 22 2272 3040
Visit us at : www.bseindia.com

July 09 ^th, 2004.