CBSE – NSE joint certification in Financial Markets Management for Std. XI and XII

Financial education for investors is a key area of focus for the NSE, since NSE believes that informed investors are the backbone of a healthy market. Keeping this objective in mind, the NSE has been conducting a number of investor awareness seminars over the years in different parts of the country to educate investors. But there is a widely felt need today to raise the financial literacy standards among a larger section of our country. Our young people need to learn the importance of responsible decision making and develop good habits in financial matters from an early age. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been fulfilling the educational needs of young people for over 75 years now. It has an extensive reach and jurisdiction over schools in India and abroad. CBSE and NSE have joined hands to extend financial education to schools.

To fulfill the need for taking financial literacy to the schools, CBSE and NSE have introduced a joint certification in Financial Markets Management for std. XI and XII. An MOU in this regard was signed by the two institutions in Delhi on the 19th March, 2008. This is perhaps the first such exercise to introduce financial literacy in schools in a structured manner and would provide an early exposure to young adults to the world of finance. The course, titled “Financial Markets Management” has been introduced by CBSE as a vocational stream from the academic year 2007 – 2008. The new course includes two subjects in financial markets, “Introduction to Financial Markets – I” and “Introduction to Financial Markets – II”, besides courses in Languages, Economics, Business Studies, Accounting for Business etc. Students would be required to take the NSE’s on-line certifications, i.e. the NCFM tests in “Financial Markets : A Beginners Module” in Std. XI and “Capital Markets (Dealers) Module and Derivatives Markets (Dealers) Module”, in Std. XII. 58 schools were selected to offer this course in 2007-08 and over 120 more schools are expected to offer the course from academic year 2008-09. Over 1350 students are currently enrolled for this course.


About CBSE

The Central Board of Secondary Education traces back it’s history to over 75 years. The jurisdiction of the Board is extensive and stretches beyond the national geographical boundaries. From 309 schools in 1962 the Board today has over 9000 including 141 schools in 21 foreign countries. There are over 900 Kendriya Vidyalayas, 1761 Government Schools, 5827 Independent Schools, 480 Jawahar Novodaya Vidyalayas and 14 Central Tibetean School.


About the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd.

National Stock Exchange (NSE), established in the mid 1990s as a demutualised electronic exchange by leading Indian financial institutions, offers trading, clearing and settlement services in a range of products covering equity, debt and equity derivatives. It is India's largest exchange and ranks fourth globally by number of trades in the equities market. NSE provides a modern, fully automated screen-based trading system with over 100,000 trading terminals giving it extensive reach across the country. NSE has played an important role in helping reform the Indian securities market and in bringing about transparency, efficiency and market integrity. In 1998, NSE launched an on-line education and certification programme called as NSE’s Certification in Financial Markets or NCFM which is now actively pursued by students, broker dealers, investors etc.

NSE introduced trading in equity derivative products in 2000-01 and in this short span of time has become the largest exchange in single stock futures and ranks fourth in index futures globally. Its flagship index, the NIFTY 50, is used extensively by investors in India and around the world to take exposure to the Indian equities market.