India needs $100 billion in equity capital a year: BSE CEO

Says equity fund raising needs to pick up to fund country's growth

The head of Asia'a oldest stock exchange, Ashish Chauhan said that India would need to raise as much as a $100 billion in equity capital a year to meet capital requirements for the country's growth. 

He was speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry 's (CII's) 6th Capital Markets Summit in Mumbai.

Chauhan added that this would be a challenging task as fund raising has fallen far short of this figure in the last five years.

JM Financial Group Chairman Nimesh Kampani too agreed on the large capital requirements for the country. He spoke about the need for development of markets involving  BCD-Bonds, currency and derivatives.

Among the changes that regulators are working on for development of capital markets in the country are the International Finance Centre (IFC) where a zone will be created as India's answer to global financial centers like Singapore. 

Manoj Joshi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance referred to the same. He said that the Reserve Bank of India is working on guidelines for banks who wish to set up in the IFC. A similar regime is being worked on for the insurance sector, he said.