India’s economic story has been shaped by many forces over the decades. But few transformations have been as structural, or as quietly consequential, as the reengineering of its financial markets, and at the centre of that reengineering was one man with an unusually clear sense of what markets could be.

A founding father who refused the existing blueprint

Jignesh Shah is regarded, with good reason, as one of the founding fathers of India’s modern financial markets. But the description understates what made him distinctive. He considered markets not only as places of trading but as systems that needed to be reengineered with technology and vision to become more efficient and democratised. Where others accepted the existing framework as the way things were, Jignesh Shah looked at it and decided it needed to be replaced. Through Financial Technologies India Ltd, now 63 moons technologies, he spearheaded a change that replaced archaic manual procedures with innovative methods and democratised access to markets that, up to that point, had only been accessible to a handful of participants. His initiatives opened new routes for traders, investors, and businesses across the country. What ensued was not merely a new piece of technology but a fundamental change that led to greater opportunity and participation across the entire financial sector in India.

The beginning of change: ODIN

When Jignesh Shah FTIL established in 1995, India’s financial markets were mainly confined to a few metro areas. Availability of trading infrastructure was uneven across the country, and brokers outside the major centres had very little access to technological tools. Shah understood that technology, used correctly, could become the connecting link that allowed market participants from all over the country to access the same markets on equal footing. FTIL’s first offering to the markets, ODIN, emerged as the answer. It was no mere broking software system but a portal that enabled brokers from across India to trade efficiently in the financial markets, offering sophisticated trading tools at a time when technology of that calibre was a rarity in the Indian financial environment. Soon after its launch, ODIN had captured almost 80 percent of the broking technology market and became a key part of the operations of all major stock exchanges in the country.

Building institutions that redefined markets

Having shown how technology could transform market access through ODIN, Jignesh Shah shifted his focus to an even bigger goal: creating entire marketplace ecosystems. The idea was revolutionary in its ambition, aiming to achieve four defining characteristics of markets: transparency, efficiency, inclusiveness, and easy access for participants. This conviction drove him to establish a series of pioneering exchanges that completely transformed India’s financial landscape. The premier among them was the Multi Commodity Exchange, which became the world’s second-largest commodity exchange, leading international trade in precious metals, particularly gold and silver. What made Jignesh Shah MCX more exemplary still was that it brought farmers, traders, and investors together on one digital platform, creating a market that connected different layers of the economy. The consequences were substantial. MCX accounted for nearly 1 percent of India’s GDP and created more than a million jobs. After MCX, Shah, through FTIL, established the Indian Energy Exchange, a market leader that introduced efficiency and transparency to India’s power trading sector. The MCX Stock Exchange followed, extending India’s financial infrastructure further by providing depth to market segments including currency derivatives, debt markets, and futures and options. Beyond the trading platforms themselves, these institutions created an entire ecosystem that fortified India’s financial structure while attracting a far wider range of participants across asset classes.

The ecosystem advantage

The exchanges themselves represented a significant change, but Jignesh Shah’s strategic genius extended further still, into the ecosystem that surrounded them. He recognised that exchanges alone were not sufficient for a well-functioning market. Their productivity depended heavily on the supporting infrastructure at every stage of the value chain. To fill these gaps, FTIL built institutions designed to complement each other and strengthen the whole system. NBHC began as a modest initiative and grew into the largest private-sector facility in India for warehousing and collateral management. At the heart of the ecosystem was atom, a digital payments platform offering integrated transaction services well before UPI-based digital payments entered the national conversation, anticipating the rising demand for smooth digital transactions throughout the financial system. Market transparency was reinforced by Ticker, a real-time provider of global market data. Together, these institutions formed an interdependent network that robustly supported the full spectrum of activity, from commodity storage to payment processing to market literacy.

A lasting influence

Jignesh Shah’s contributions to financial markets have been recognised internationally over the years. Among his most prestigious accolades was being named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, an acknowledgement of the global significance of his work. Yet his truest imprint lies in the system he established for market development through innovation. Today, Jignesh Shah 63 moons technologies continues to implement Shah’s philosophy, and Jignesh Shah, as Chairman Emeritus, serves as a coach and mentor who continues to inspire the organisation’s newer generations of innovative minds. The ideas he championed, technology-driven markets, greater financial inclusion, and institution-building as a vehicle for economic participation, continue to inspire the current generation of entrepreneurs and innovators who are carrying that philosophy forward.