In a first for India’s management institutions, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) set up a Centre for Behavioral Science in Finance, Economics and Marketing, with support from the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The opening ceremony was inaugurated by Dr. Arvind Subramanian, Economist, and former Chief Economic Adviser to Government of India along with Vikram Limaye, Managing Director and CEO of the NSE and Prof. Errol D’Souza, former Director at IIM, Ahmedabad.

According to Limaye, “Capital markets penetration continues to be low in India compared to advanced markets. Societal and behavioral aspects tend to play a pivotal role in shaping savings and investment habits of the population. Behavioral science tools have been advancing over the years and could unearth deep rooted behavioral patterns and biases. Insights gleamed from such research could throw new light on our understanding and help shape policies that could spread the benefits of capital markets to a wider section of the population. It is in this context that we are working with a premier academic institution like IIMA to advance the frontiers of behavioral science research in India.”

At the inauguration, Prof. Errol D’Souza said, “The Centre for Behavioral Science in Finance, Economics and Marketing is a promising initiative with NSE. The Centre shall focus on multi-disciplinary, thematic, and applied research in several key areas related to the behavioral applications of finance, economics, organisational behavior and marketing. We believe that both the constituencies will benefit from this shared engagement.”