Stock exchange, CU tie up for PG course on capital & money market

KOLKATA: Post-graduate students can now learn the tricks of capital and money markets from experts in the field at the iconic trading floor of Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE), where personalities such as former Prime Minister Morarjee Desai had once addressed brokers of the country or late chief minister Jyoti Basu had attended a meeting.

The stock exchange has tied up with CU to form a Centre of Excellence, which is set to introduce a one-year post-graduate diploma course in portfolio management services from this week. So far, 32 students have enrolled for the course, the classes for which will be held in the evening at the trading floor of CSE, lying idle for almost a decade in the absence of trading activity at the exchange. Some faculty members of the commerce department of CU and some veteran executives of the stock exchange will teach the course.CU vice-chancellor Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee said the course would offer better job opportunity.


Calcutta Stock Exchange chairman Bhaskar Banerjee pointed out they were utilizing the investor protection fund of the exchange for the course. “As far as I know, this will be first of its kind in the city as well as in eastern India,” he said. Banerjee, who was on the board of CSE in 1998, during the hey days of the century-old exchange, pointed out that the diploma course included almost every aspect of financial markets. “It is in line with CFA course but there are more things to be taught,” he added. The course includes corporate financial analysis, portfolio management and asset valuation. “Besides, there will be subjects, such as depository, stock exchange functioning, bank functioning and mutual funds,” he said, adding that apart from the ones who had already taken admission, they hoped more students would join in.

Former president of Calcutta Stock Exchange and investment expert Ajit Kumar Roy felt it was indeed a good move but it would not help reverse the fortune of CSE. “We tried such courses in the early 90s, but at that time, university authorities were not quite aware of the importance of such courses,” he said.