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He highlighted two key issues during the
address – “For whom is the Futures market?” and “Issues facing
Agri-Commodity trade in India”. He spoke of the three main players
in the futures market for agri-commodities: hedgers, speculators,
and arbitragers. He emphasized that all three types of players are
equally important for the effective functioning of the Commodities
Exchange market in India. He was optimistic when speaking of the
vast improvements in the agri-commodity futures market, such as
increased liquidity, opening up of greater number of clearing
centers (such as banks), and better ability to deliver physicals.
But he also added that much more need to be done to bring the
standard of Indian commodity exchanges to the standards of foreign
exchanges such as Tokyo Commodity Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade
etc. He suggested that a more robust and liquid system could be
created by ensuring a close price linkage with the underlying
physical commodities and opening up the options market. He also
spoke about deliverable futures at length. The lecture was
followed by a highly interactive session where students put up
questions, on various issues related to the Indian agriculture,
farming community, future contract market, trading of agri
commodities etc. |
