mumbai a little more than two decades ago the national stock exchange nse currently the largest bourse in india in terms of turnover was created by the government to compete with and break the monopoly of the bombay stock exchange bse then was a cosy brokers club with a complete dominance over the stock trading in the country to counter trading by a limited number of brokers the government created an exchange that was the countrys first computerdriven online stock exchange promoted by some of the leading institutions of that time in its initial days nse enjoyed the monopoly of setting up trading terminals across the country while its main rival bse was not allowed to do so it was only after nse captured a large chunk of share trading across the country and also dominated regional stock exchanges that bse got the permission to go panindia that too after a huge struggle by bse brokers what helped nse to outwit bse and grow rapidly was the savvy use of technology the launch and spread of online trading which also created several jobs among the youth was a big differentiator according to one institutional dealer in mid1990s he got his first job with a familyrun broking firm simply because he had very basic knowledge of computers my employer would treat me with a lot of respect and would often brag to fellow brokers that he had someone who knew computers the dealer said along with computerized trading nse also led the automation and paperless trading in the indian market nsdl the first depository in the country is a subsidiary of nse that led the demat revolution in india also it was the first exchange to have a clearing corporation an independent third party that facilitated settlement and helped lower trading and settlement risks in the market despite the dramatic rise and rise of nse at least on one count it still falls behind bse the brand sensex as a brand that punches way above its weight compared with nses nifty although most of the brokers look at nifty to gauge investor sentiment outside of this community among the general mass sensex still remains the primary gauge for the robustness of the market and the economy said a former exchange official