NSE to launch trading of electronic gold receipts, says CEO 

Sun Jan 11 2026

The National Stock Exchange(NSE) is working on introducing gold dematerialisation through Electronic Gold Receipts (EGR), according to Ashish Chauhan, Managing Director and CEO, NSE.

EGRs are receipts issued by SEBI-regulated vault managers based on the deposit of physical gold. The receipts are credited to the investor’s demat account who can then use it if trading gold on the exchanges.

Speaking at a media roundtable on Saturday, Chauhan said that EGRs can be a stand-in for physical gold, which can then be deposited into repositories, bringing in a lot more efficiency into the holding of gold.

NSE had earlier initiated plans to introduce EGRs in 2022, following the Bombay Stock Exchange which had introduced it in 2022.

Chauhan mentioned that the challenge in implementing EGRs arises from the complexities of the Goods and Services Tax. He added that there were discussions on ironing out some of these tax issues in last month’s Commodity Participants Association, where SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey suggested collaborating with the Central Board of Direct Taxes to expedite the implementation.

Other measures

In terms of electricity futures, Chauhan said that electricity futures have seen good results and now do almost similar numbers as the spot market. “The recent CERC circular on coupling, against which the spot exchange IEX had gone to Court, has brought up faster implementation,” he said.

Sharing updates on the Social Stock Exchange that was introduced in 2019 to connect social enterprises with donors/investors to raise capital for social impact, Chauhan said that NSE in the last calendar year did 14-18 raising ₹43 crore and “we already have prospects for new projects for ₹73 crore”.

On SME IPOs, NSE, he noted, has tightened its regulations and are now gauging companies on free cash flow rather than profits. “We have made it much tighter than other exchanges for listing on NSE, so now we have less flow of companies coming in, but more quality,” he said. “Overall, 20 per cent of these companies [on NSE Emerge] have gone to the main board. So in some ways, it has served the purpose of providing capital to small companies which don’t get capital from banks,” he added.

With regard to the T+0 settlement, Chauhan said that though the Exchange has implemented it, the initiative has not seen much traction.

Chauhan added that NSE is also working on developing corporate and government bond index futures to improve liquidity, making bond markets more attractive for hedgers like insurers, pension funds, and provident funds.

Source: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/