Start-Up Ecosystem Has More Potential Says Jignesh Shah

After setting up 10 exchanges across six continents in a span of ten years, engineer-turned-financial market wizard Jignesh Shah now sees 100-times bigger business potential in a 'startup ecosystem' and which he feels can create up to 10 crore jobs over the next decade.

While one of his flagship exchanges, MCX (Multi-Commodity Exchange), had become the world’s second-largest commodity bourse under his leadership and all other group exchanges were also doing well before his exit, Shah said he does not want to bask in his past glory and the time is no longer right for a business model focused on exchanges.

“I am rather thinking about ecosystems as they make much more sense in today’s digitally-connected borderless world and I see myself creating and innovating products and businesses for the masses as a coach and as a mentor,” he said.

In her Budget speech in July, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said it was time to take capital markets closer to the masses and meet various social welfare objectives related to inclusive growth and financial inclusion.

She proposed to initiate steps towards creating an electronic fund-raising platform, a social stock exchange for listing social enterprises and voluntary organizations working on social welfare objectives so that they can raise capital as equity, debt or as units like a mutual fund.

Asked whether he can set up such an exchange, Jignesh Shah said the Modi government has created an enabling environment for new ventures, which was not the case during the earlier regimes, and still he went on to successfully set up 10 exchanges including in places like Singapore.

Asked about water conservation, which is another focus area of the government, and whether he can look at some financial marketplace products in this area, Shah said something similar was done during his first innings for carbon credits and it was followed up with an electricity exchange that no one had thought could be viable at that time.

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