Jignesh Shah: He Came, He Saw, He Conquered!

An engineering graduate from Mumbai University, joined the BSE, where he worked on designing and implementing the exchange’s online trading system-BOLT. What pained him the most was that the Indian stock markets were not keen on modernizing or trade on sleek, imported terminals? He was none other but the one who is being popularly known as ‘India’s Exchange Man’- Jignesh Shah.

However, the system was resistant to change and hence, Jignesh Shah quit BSE and set up his own company FTIL, now known as 63 moons technologies limited, to provide technology solutions and domain expertise to financial markets across all asset classes.

Shah went on to set up 10 world-class exchange companies under his flagship company FTIL, in various asset classes, in just 10 years across India and abroad. The Group established electronic silk and spice routes right from Africa, to the Middle-East and South-East Asia. The growth story of FTIL has been about empowering people. Its Exchanges and ecosystem ventures were job-oriented and employment.

As FTIL began to succeed, Jignesh Shah started wondering how government agencies and other regulators were unfairly targeting him. Like most indigenous growth stories, FTIL' s meteoric growth soon became a cause of worry for the rival players, who had monopolised the Indian financial markets with the blessings of the powerful politicians. Subsequently, this nexus hatched a sinister plot to throw out the Group from Exchange business by killing competition. To achieve this motive, a subsidiary of FTIL, the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) which was set up as per the vision of the then Prime Minister, was made a scapegoat to hatch a conspiracy against the FTIL Group.

Despite several challenges created for Jignesh Shah & FTIL, Shah continued to stand tall and faced all slanderous allegations with a brave heart, keeping full faith in the judiciary. Most of the charges pressed  against his companies are being quashed by top courts in the country. In his new innings, Shah now desires to be a mentor for millions of Indian entrepreneurs to develop a startup ecosystem for the masses that could create up to 10 crore jobs over the next 10 years.