1992, 2008, and 2020. I have watched investors disappear after crashes. What happened next surprised me more.
The 1992 Harshad Mehta scam exposed deep gaps in India’s trading and settlement system. When it unraveled, the market lost about ₹4,025 crore. NSE’s screen-based trading began in 1994, and Ventura was incorporated that same year.
The NSE India began electronic, screen-based trading, and Sajid Malik and I started Ventura.
Some lodgepole pine forests regenerate after fire. Their cones stay sealed with resin until heat opens them, releasing seeds onto a cleared forest floor.
Indian brokerage has often worked the same way.
In 2008, the Sensex fell 52.4%, but crashes also change what people value. Size matters less; trust, systems, and the ability to remain present matter more.
Then came another reset.
India’s demat-account tally rose from 4.09 crore in March 2020 to 10.05 crore in August 2022. Nearly six crore accounts were added in under two and a half years. The crash did not create that growth alone, but easier onboarding, lower brokerage costs, and mobile access mattered too.
The pattern remained: fear removed participation first, then the market returned with more investors and different expectations. A crash clears the canopy, and it does not ask who was biggest before the fire. It reveals who was built to grow after it.
If a correction hit tomorrow, would your business need the old canopy back, or is it built for what grows next?
(Views shared here are for educational and informational purposes only, not investment advice.)
