 "Ambarish Datta")
The BSE Institute, a subsidiary of the country's largest stock exchange, BSE, has been pioneering in providing short-term courses on the capital market. It also offers postgraduate management courses and is now setting up campuses in West Asia. Ambarish Datta, managing director, tells Manu Balachandran about the expansion plans and setting up of incubators at the institutes, aimed to grow into companies that can list on the bourses. Edited excerpts:
How is the BSE Institute different from the other B-Schools we have in India?
We train about 10,000 students every year and we have the world's largest face-to-face capital market training programme. Currently, we offer about 110 short-term courses, in subjects such as econometrics, technical analysis, reading of balance sheets, economic offences and Islamic banking. These range from a day to three months. We have about five postgraduate programmes and one focused only on capital markets. These are autonomous courses and priced comparatively cheaper than in many of the other institutes.
More From This Section
Certainly. Our students learn how to market a mutual fund and list a bond, unlike learning how to sell toothpaste. But, any market will have a threshold limit. If you look at the capital market, it has complexity such as insider trading or rules and regulations. Products are innovative and exchanges are becoming digital. So, you need specialists. Earlier, these were filled by people who learnt on the job, such as lawyers. Now, there is a fair amount of market; we want to keep it niche.
Are you looking to take the institute abroad?
The fact that BSE is known is an advantage. Where else will the students be able to listen to Joe Biden or the Hungarian Prime Minister or watch the listing ceremony or even talk to SME) small & medium enterprise) guys in a learning environment? So, unlike the academic institutions, we are extremely market-driven. Our students attend at least 50 listing ceremonies in a year. As a student, being able to meet with merchant bankers or talking to Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, is great exposure. We are now looking to set up institutes in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. We have signed up with our partner in the Middle East and there are lot of non-resident Indians who want to learn about the stock market.
At home, are you looking at expansion?
Physical learning institutes are going to change. I am not going to open 1,000 institutes but we now have programmes that are completely online and students can watch lectures; we also have face-to-face classes. We are doing workshops and one-day programmes. Then, there is the higher education programme and the one-year programme in banking and business journalism. We have a training programme with Frankfurt Institute of Finance and run a graduate programme in financial markets. It is the only skill development programme concurrent with college education in the country today and we offer it across seven cities.
Given regulatory changes, how do you see your business model changing?
I don't see anything different from what we are doing now, except that it might need some regulatory nods; I'm not too sure if it's a great trend. We don't do generic programmes and if I have to do a course approved by the All India Council for Technical Education, it doesn't allow me to run a curriculum that is market driven. They will make me use a curriculum which is outdated and that doesn't help the industry. We train capital market professionals from various countries for their certification.
Entrepreneurship is big at other schools. Does BSE Institute have any such plans?
Yes. We are setting up an incubator. We ran a big idea contest and we have the Ontario (in Canada) government supporting us. If you look at India's skill challenge of 500 million, we can't create (enough of) new jobs even if we grow at nine per cent yearly. So, we need entrepreneurs. Our goal is to give them the exposure and then expose them to the investing community. We hope after they do their funding, they will come back and list on our exchange. It's a pipeline to our business and we have taken out 4,000 sq ft for the incubator.
