Launches e-learning portal

All stakeholders of commodities trade have been striving hard to overcome the shortage of skilled manpower, which, according to experts, have restrained the sector regulator, Forward Market Commission (FMC), to permit banks and financials institutions enter the booming commodities trade.

The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) has already introduced 3-month part-time courses in association with the Mumbai-based Welingkar Institute.

The FMC has already written letters to renowned educational institutes of the country to begin full-fledged courses on commodities to take care of the problem of ignorance about the sector.

The National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) has come out with a solution for traders unable to dedicate enough time to learn about the intricacies of the sector.

The leading exchange for agri commodities trade has introduced a web-based e-learning platform for the benefit of farmers and other commodity market participants.

The e-learning system would educate stakeholders about the fundamentals of various commodities, benefits of trading in futures, procedures involved in becoming a member of the exchange, training on the exchange trading platform, physical delivery processes etc, via the portal.

The content of the portal, currently available in English, will be later offered in Hindi and other regional languages including Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. Work on Hindi and Gujarati content has already started and will be ready in the next two months. Content in vernacular languages, to be ready in four months, is meant to enable grassroot participants to benefit from the booming commodity futures market.

At present, available for all, the portal can be accessed from Ncdex web site by clicking on the banner named "e-Learning". "The course with no fixed timeframe will be updated every fortnight," an Ncdex official said.

The exchange is charging no fee for the course and there will be no test and certification offered for now.

"Once awareness is created, we would start conducting test and certifying members in line with NSE's Certification in Financial Markets (NCFM)," the official added. The course is available for all commodities.

"The e-learning platform is one more step in the direction of providing training and information about commodity markets. We are extremely positive about the scale to which Ncdex will be able to provide commodity training and spread awareness to people across the nation," said PH Ravikumar, MD and CEO.

Stepping forward, Ncdex in association with Intel is setting up kiosks across the length and breadth of the country in order to provide financial services-insurance, e-banking, facilitate online trading in commodities and equities-and related information at the doorstep of farmers.

Community PCs, which have been customised to suit the rough conditions in the hinterland, in the kiosks will help farmers access the e-learning portal.