The exchange is geared to offer trading in over 200-plus commodities including an expansive list across bullion, agro commodities, non-ferrous metals, oil, weather, energy, petro, soft commodities and milk products. The notification to this effect is issued by the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution (department of consumer affairs), Government of India.

Says MCX managing director Jignesh Shah: "MCX is among the first two exchanges in the country to have received permanent recognition to commence live trading operations, and is first among all 'in-principal' approved nationwide multi-commodity exchanges which were given mandate in last October-February 2003. The exchange was given 10 months' time to complete all formalities to go live and we are happy that we have met all the prerequisite deadlines, ahead of time (within seven months), this is a reinforcement of our commitment and promise of deliverables to exceed customer expectations. Further, this underscores our consistency in introducing several pioneering initiatives for the market."

This approval reinforces the value drivers of MCX that include its management team expertise, cost of operations, state-of-the-art technology infrastructure, 'best-in-class' business practices combined with market friendly trading framework. With its infrastructure in place, combined with participation from initial set of members, MCX is well on course to commence live operations.

Adds Shah: We are committed to building and enhancing our offerings, aimed at sustaining the strategic advantage and benefits that our stakeholders derive by associating with us. Indian commodities market can now derive benefits of accessing at optimal cost, a nationwide multi-commodity exchange that delivers transparent operating environment."

MCX has recently concluded a highly successful nationwide road show covering 23 cities across the country. The road show, which was the first of its kind ever conducted in the Indian commodities market, resulted in over 300 participants indicating strong interest in seeking membership on MCX. Of these, the exchange has finalised around 100-plus members in the first stage representing some of the leading names from the world of commodities and institutional securities trading market.

Traders will benefit in more than one ways by becoming members of MCX. It has sound technology infrastructure through its association with market leaders such as Stratus for Fault Tolerant Servers, Financial Technologies (India) Ltd (FTIL) for exchange automation technologies and HCL Comnet for VSAT communication link.

Based on the exchange technologies framework from FTIL, a specialist in providing mission-critical exchange technologies, MCX gets the unique advantage of accessing high-performing, proven class of exchange technologies at the most optimal cost, resulting in increased efficiencies for the entire commodities ecosystem.