The Indian School of Business (ISB), with campuses at Hyderabad and Mohali, today announced the start of its new state-of-the-art trading laboratory in association with the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Chitra Ramkrishna, Managing Director & CEO of NSE and Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB inaugurated the NSE – ISB Trading Laboratory today at the ISB’s Hyderabad campus. To commemorate the opening, a high-powered panel comprising Chitra Ramkrishna, Sunder Rajan Raman, Whole time Director, SEBI and N R Prabhala, Research Director of CAFRAL, RBI’s research arm, and Professors Krishnamurthy Subramanian and Rajesh Chakrabarti of the ISB, discussed how to “Deepen India’s Capital Markets”.

Making the announcement, Chitra Ramkrishna, MD & CEO, NSE said, “We are very proud to be associated with the Indian School of Business. I am confident that this partnership will help us to leverage our strengths to create an investment lab, which will help investors, intermediaries and students understand the importance of asset allocation, financial planning and risk management, through meaningful research, working papers and case studies on the markets.'' NSE will offer its expertise on the markets and investor education as well as infrastructure support.  It will also provide information on new products and investor education.

The NSE-ISB Trading Laboratory aims to offer users a professional real time live trading experience. Currently, the Lab has 34 terminals and four large professional display monitors for live broadcast of news. Each terminal is a fourth generation machine with a dual screen monitor backed by high speed processors to enable users to engage in real time, high speed trading activities.  The Lab also offers access to premium financial databases such as Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, Morningstar, S&P Capital IQ, CRSP and Wharton Research Data Services.  All these will go a long way in helping ISB students get hands on trading experience and equip them with skills and knowledge required to understand the nuances of the financial markets and handle the challenges of the fast changing economy.

Speaking about the ISB’s objective in setting up the Lab, Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB said, “Academia and industry have operated in two independent and almost mutually exclusive spheres in India, especially in the sphere of finance and capital markets. This has deprived students of opportunities to learn in an environment that combines real world applications with conceptual rigor. Industry on the other hand, has not benefited from the cutting edge research that can potentially emanate from academia. The association between the NSE and ISB is an ambitious attempt to fill this gap. I am thankful to the NSE for their support in this endeavor.”

The NSE-ISB Trading Laboratory with Professor Vikram Kuriyan as its Executive Director aims to influence learning, research, investment practice and policy making in emerging markets, especially India:

• In education, the Lab will enable ISB to use performance-based learning to add a new dimension to business pedagogy.
• It will draw together academic experts from Accounting, Psychology, Asset Management, Value Investing, Behavioural Finance, Trading Strategies and Private Equity and collaborate to build a ‘one world’ view of investment.
• In research and practice, it aspires to build a community of thought leaders capable of shaping the future of finance - its theory, its practice and its regulation.
• On the investment front, it will focus on helping developed markets understand emerging markets and helping emerging markets build global investment portfolios.
• The Lab’s Risk and Governance Initiative will equip investors and executives, bankers and fund managers with the skills and knowledge they need to navigate a fast-changing economy.
• Regulators and policy makers too will find the Lab a forum where issues can be addressed—and emergencies avoided—with peers who possess pertinent experience at the appropriate level, local, regional or global.
• In recognition of the importance of financial inclusion, the laboratory will also address the needs of individuals. In this area, the focus will be on expanding the range and quality of options available at different stages in an individual’s life

Over the years, the ISB has been attracting several professionals from the finance sector and also those who aspire for a career in this area. The school’s resident and international visiting faculty brings in latest management thinking, case studies and experiential projects into the classroom giving students, an insight into business practices followed by companies across the globe. In addition, the student led Finance Club comprising around 300 students every year, works on several initiatives to help students enhance their understanding of the finance sector. Over 1000 ISB alumni are in important roles in global and domestic financial institutions.