MF money needs to move towards commodities for economic growth: Vijay Kumar, NCDEX

NEW DELHI: A lot of fundraising needs to move to commodities, especially via mutual funds which in turn will support the economy, farmers and the industry, said Vijay Kumar, MD and CEO, NCDEX.

Speaking at a convention organised by Association of National Exchanges Members of India (Anmi) on Saturday Kumar said the exchange is working closely with the government and other participants to ensure such an ecosystem is built.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) last year allowed mutual funds to participate in exchange-traded commodity derivatives (ETCD) through hybrid schemes.


Kumar further said the assumption that gold derivatives are safe as there is gold backing those derivatives in a vault but the same is not the case with commodity derivatives is not true. He added that under the warehousing regulation, the stocks of commodities is supervised in a similar fashion to gold.

“There is an assumption that somehow gold is safe but I don’t think that is true. It may be easier to steal 10 tonnes of gold than 10 tonnes of wheat. To improve the confidence in warehousing receipts, a number of steps have been taken,” Kumar said.

Earlier, Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance, who was also present at the convention, said we need to ensure public faith is not eroded in the capital market due to frauds and scams.