Despite spending significantly less on IT infrastructure compared to their international counterparts, India’s major stock exchanges, the BSE and NSE, remained unaffected by the global cybersecurity update that caused widespread system shutdowns for devices equipped with Microsoft Windows.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) allocates only ₹570 crore for IT expenses, significantly lower than the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) at ₹6,556 crore, NASDAQ at ₹1,949 crore, and the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX) at ₹6,807 crore. Similarly, the total costs for the NSE were reported at ₹3,036 crore, in contrast to NASDAQ’s ₹23,734 crore and HKEX’s ₹69,313 crore.
India’s market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), also spends significantly less on IT, with an annual expenditure of ₹93 crore, which is notably lower than the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) at ₹205 crore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) outlay of ₹420 crore. The resilience of Indian exchanges amid the outage highlights the importance of system diversity, as noted by Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).
Sanyal emphasized the complex nature of AI systems, stating that they function like Consolidated Account Statement (CAS), with components that interact and evolve in unpredictable ways. He suggested the establishment of a specialized AI regulator with a broad mandate and the creation of a national registry of algorithms to address the challenges posed by the increasing complexity of technology.
