NSE IPO: Ashishkumar Chauhan set to add another feather to his cap with 5th listing

With the much-awaited initial public offering (IPO) of India’s largest stock exchange, National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), likely to hit the market next week, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ashishkumar Chauhan would add another feather to his cap. He would become the only MD & CEO in India under whom two of the country’s biggest stock exchanges have been listed. In all, Chauhan has been instrumental in five listings in India’s market infrastructure space.

Chauhan’s NSE is seen launching its roughly Rs 25,000 crore IPO on September 18, making it one of the largest public issues in India. The price band is likely to be set at Rs 1,700-1,785 per share, with the offer size accounting for 5.5 per cent of the company’s outstanding shares, according to Bloomberg.

Part of the five-member team that set up the NSE in the early 1990s, Chauhan is known for setting up modern exchange-traded financial derivatives in Indian markets at the NSE from 1995 onwards. He is often referred to as the ‘father of derivatives’ in India..

Chauhan joined backed NSE as MD and CEO in July 2022.

Before that, he was MD and CEO of BSE, the country’s second-largest stock exchange, which went public in February 2017 during his tenure. He had been part of BSE’s board since 2012.

CDSL, in which BSE was the promoter and held a 50.05 per cent stake at the time of its IPO, was also listed in 2017. Although Chauhan subsequently moved to head NSE, BSE continued to hold a stake in CDSL, at 15 per cent as of June 30.

The trend continued at NSE. Protean eGov Technologies was listed during Chauhan’s tenure. While the company was professionally-managed and did not have an identifiable promoter under the SEBI ICDR Regulations and the Companies Act, the Chauhan-led NSE, through NSE Investments Ltd, held a 24.77 per cent stake and was a selling shareholder in the IPO.

In the case of NSDL, NSE directly held 24 per cent stake, as per pre-offer shareholding data, compiled from he 2023 DRHP. It eventually got listed in August 2025.

A mechanical Engineer by training, Chauhan was among the founding team of Mumbai-based NSE when it was set up by the government in 1993. He created a fully computerised platform where screen-based orders were matched anonymously via a nationwide satellite network in a country where a basic landline phone was a luxury.

Chauhan, who hails from a small village near Ahmedabad, noted in his autobiography that it took the NSE just 11 months to equal its larger rival BSE’s daily turnover. And by 18 months the NSE was 1.5 times the size of the older exchange that was set up in 1875.

He also served on several committees constituted by Department of Posts, Direct Taxes, SEBI and Forward Market Commission in his illustrious career.