Stock Exchanges in India

There are two major stock exchanges in India namely Mumbai stock exchange (BSE) and National stock exchange (NSE).
Mumbai stock exchange is the India's oldest and first stock exchange. It is established in the year 1875, located at Mumbai. More than 6,000 stocks are listed in this exchange.
National stock exchange is (NSE)  is the largest stock exchange in India and the third largest in the world in terms of volume of transactions. It is established in the year 1992 and  is located in Mumbai.
There is also an Over The Counter Exchange of India (OTCEI) which allows listing of small and medium sized companies.
The regulatory agency which oversees the functioning of stock markets is the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which is also located in Bombay.
Mumbai (Bombay) stock exchange
Bombay Stock Exchange Limited (the Exchange) is the oldest stock exchange in Asia with a rich heritage. Popularly known as "BSE", it was established as "The Native Share & Stock Brokers Association" in 1875. It is the first stock exchange in the country to obtain permanent recognition in 1956 from the Government of India under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956.The Exchange's pivotal and pre-eminent role in the development of the Indian capital market is widely recognized and its index, SENSEX, is tracked worldwide. Earlier an Association of Persons (AOP), the Exchange is now a demutualised and corporatised entity incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, pursuant to the BSE(Corporatisation and Demutualisation) Scheme, 2005 notified by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).Bombay Stock Exchange Limited received its Certificate of Incorporation on 8th August, 2005 and Certificate of Commencement of Business on 12th August, 2005. The 'Due Date' for taking over the business and operations of the BSE, by the Exchange was fixed for 19th August, 2005, under the Scheme. The Exchange has succeeded the business and operations of BSE on going concern basis and its recognition as an Exchange has been continued by SEBI.
With demutualisation, the trading rights and ownership rights have been de-linked effectively addressing concerns regarding perceived and real conflicts of interest. The Exchange is professionally managed under the overall direction of the Board of Directors.The Board comprises eminent professionals, representatives of Trading Members and the Managing Director of the Exchange. The Board is inclusive and is designed to benefit from theparticipation of market intermediaries.
In terms of organisation structure, the Board formulates larger policy issues and exercises over-all control. The committees constituted by the Board are broad-based.The day-to-dayoperations of the Exchange are managed by the Managing Director & CEO and a management team of professionals.
The Exchange has a nation-wide reach with a presence in 417 cities and towns of India. The systems and processes of the Exchange are designed to safeguard market integrity and enhance transparency in operations. During the year 2004-2005, the trading volumes on the Exchange showed robust growth.
The Exchange provides an efficient and transparent market for trading in equity, debt instruments and derivatives. The BSE's On Line Trading System (BOLT) is a proprietory system of the Exchange and is BS 7799-2-2002 certified. The surveillance and clearing & settlement functions of the Exchange are ISO 9001:2000 certified

National stock exchange
NSE is mutually-owned by a set of leading financial institutions, banks, insurance companies and other financial intermediaries in India but its ownership and management operate as separate entities. As on April 2006 the NSE  VSAT terminals, 2799 in total, cover more than 1500 cities across India. In March 2006, the NSE had a total market captilisation of 4,380,774  CroresINR(US$10180 Billions) making it the second-largest stock market in Soth Asia in terms of market-capitalization.

NSE was promoted by leading Financial Institutions at the behest of the Government of India and was incorporated in November 1992 as a tax-paying company unlike other stock exchanges in the country.

On its recognition as a stock exchange under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 in April 1993, NSE commenced operations in the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) segment in June 1994. The Capital Market (Equities) segment commenced operations in November 1994 and operations in Derivatives segment commenced in June 2000.

NSE is one of the largest interactive VSAT based stock exchanges in the world. Today it supports more than 3000 VSATs. The NSE- network is the largest private wide area network in the country and the first extended C- Band VSAT network in the world. Currently more than 9000 users are trading on the real time-online NSE application. There are over 15 large computer systems which include non-stop fault-tolerant computers and high end UNIX servers, operational under one roof to support the NSE applications. This coupled with the nation wide VSAT network makes NSE the country's largest Information Technology user.

In an ongoing effort to improve NSE's infrastructure, a corporate network has been implemented, connecting all the offices at Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and Chennai. This corporate network enables speedy inter-office communications and data and voice connectivity between offices.

In keeping with the current trend, NSE has gone online on the Internet. Apart from having a 2mbps link to VSNL and our own domain for internal browsing and e-mail purposes, we have also set up our own Web site. Currently, NSE is displaying its live stock quotes on the web site http://www.nseindia.com which are updated online.
Source:web sites of NSE&BSE