National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has launched electronic gold receipts (EGRs) as a new segment, in a move aimed at bringing greater transparency, efficiency, and formalisation to India’s gold market.

“A transformative initiative designed to bring transparency, efficiency, and formalization to India’s massive, deeply tradition-rooted gold market,” NSE said in a release on May 4.

The exchange said the initiative is designed to bridge the gap between physical gold and financial markets by offering a regulated, secure, and technology-driven platform for trading the precious metal.

EGRs are dematerialised securities that represent ownership of physical gold, which is stored in Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)-accredited vaults and held electronically through depositories. Each EGR is fully backed by physical gold and can be traded on the exchange, enabling seamless integration of gold into the formal financial system, as per the release.

With the launch, NSE aims to create a transparent ecosystem for gold trading, facilitating efficient price discovery, broader market participation, and enhanced trust among stakeholders such as jewellers, refiners, traders, and institutional investors.

The exchange also reported the successful dematerialisation of a 1,000-gram gold bar into an EGR, marking the conversion of physical gold into a tradable electronic instrument within the regulated framework. NSE said this milestone demonstrates the operational readiness of the EGR ecosystem and its ability to support transparent, delivery-backed trading.

“The introduction of Electronic Gold Receipts at NSE marks a pivotal evolution in how India interacts with its most cherished asset. By leveraging NSE’s robust technology and liquidity framework, we are democratizing access to gold, enabling investors across the nation to trade with unprecedented transparency and confidence,” said Sriram Krishnan, Chief Business Development Officer at NSE.

He added, “We believe that by creating a seamless, secure, and digital pathway for gold investment, we are positioning gold as a modern, integrated asset class within our capital markets, ultimately reducing dependence on fragmented benchmarks and fostering deeper financial inclusion.”

By enabling electronic holding, assured quality, and seamless convertibility between physical and digital formats, EGRs allow investors to participate in the gold market in smaller denominations, offering improved liquidity and flexibility comparable to other dematerialised financial instruments, the release noted.