The Fourth Annual International Capital Markets Conference 2023 on “Securities Market: Governance, Instruments and Regulation for Sustainable Development”, was held on 14^th, 15^th December 2023 at the NISM Campus, Patalganga. The conference was organized by National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) in collaboration with the Systemic Risk Centre (SRC) at the London School of Economics (LSE). The State Bank of India sponsored this conference.

Mr. Ashish Kumar Chauhan, MD & CEO of NSE, Honourable Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan of Bombay High Court, and Dr CKG Nair, Director of NISM, inaugurated the conference. Honourable Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan spoke about the regulations. Dr. Chari welcomed all the participants and provided an overview of the conference. Dr Nair addressed the participants on the significance of regulation and sustainable development. Mr. Chauhan described the Intricacy and Complexity of Indian Securities Markets. The inaugural session concluded with a vote of thanks presented by Mr. Kunj Bansal, GM of NISM.

Plenary Session on Investor Participation in Securities Markets was taken by Dr. Kevin James, Principal Co-ordinator, SRC-LSE. Special Talk – Meet the Editor was addressed by Prof. Arman Eshraghi – Professor of Finance, Cardiff Business School, UK, Editor IREF, FRL, GFJ, Prof. Cheng Few Lee, Distinguished Professor of Finance & Economics, Rutgers University, USA, Editor RQFA and RPBFMP, Prof. Balasubramanian G – Professor of Finance, IFMR, India, Managing Editor, JEMF.

Panel Discussion on the topic Emergence of Domestic Funds & Retail Investors Role of Enabling Regulation and Technology was conducted with Mr. Balasubramanian, MD & CEO, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Limited, Mr. Jeevan Sonparote, CGM, SEBI, Mr. Sriram Krishnan, CBDO, NSE, Dr. Kevin James, Principal Co-ordinator, SRC- LSE.

The Sub-themes of this conference are – Impact and Market Reactions to recent Regulatory Interventions; Financial Instruments; Corporate Governance Disclosure and Reporting; Retail Investor Participation in Investments/Asset Classes; Sustainability and Green Finance – Evolution and Challenges; Fintech in Securities Markets; Commodity Derivatives Markets.

The conference received 176 research papers on these themes, 24 research papers were selected for presentation at this conference using a double-blind peer review process. These papers were presented in 7 different technical sessions. Papers were from IIMs (Raipur, Udaipur, Kozhikode, and Ranchi etc.), IITs (Kharagpur, Roorkee and Dhanbad etc,), Vidyasagar University, K J Somaiya Institute of Management, Madras School of Economics with other eminent institutes from India. There were several papers from foreign countries like Otago Business School, University of Otago, New Zealand, University of Memphis, United States, California State University, Fresno, United States, NHH Norwegian School of Economics, Norway, Peking University, China, Central University of Finance and Economics, China, Orfalea College of Business, United States, Clark University, United States, Florida International University, United States, Central Michigan University, United States, University of Texas Permian Basin, University of Muenster, Germany, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain etc.

More than 100 participants attended this conference. Selected and Presented papers will be considered for publication in 7 ABDC and Scopus-listed journals the conference has tied up, subject to the Journal’s review process.

Dr. Partha Ray, Dr. Kevin R. James, Mr Ajit Balakrishnan, Dr. CKG Nair, Dr. Sethu Gururajan, Dr. Malabika Deo and Dr. N. R. Bhanumurthy, delivered the valedictory address.

The conference has awarded three best prizes to the following authors:
1.First Best Paper Award – Trading suspensions and food price inflation (Tirtha Chatterjee, Nidhi Aggarwal & Karan Sehgal)
2.Second Best Paper Award – CBDC and the Shadow of Bank Disintermediation: US Stock Market Insights on Threats and Remedies (Paul Friedrich Hark, Lars Beckmann, Joern Debener & Andreas)
3.Third Best Paper Award – Trading Volume Shares and Market Quality: Pre- and Post- Zero Commissions (Pankaj K. Jain, Suchismita Mishra, Shawn M. & Le Zhao)

The conference concluded with a vote of thanks to team NISM, team SRC, authors, reviewers, discussants and other invited guests.