New NSE Index To Track India’s Creative Economy

While inaugurating the ongoing World Audio Visual Entertainment Summit WAVES 2025 in Mumbai, prime minister Narendra Modi had said that the creative economy is going to be a sizeable share of India’s GDP. On May 2, an initiative to make this economy fulfil its potential was born when the National Stock Exchange launched an index for the creative economy called Nifty WAVES, which will track the performance of stocks of the leading companies in this space. Altogether, it will comprise 43 listed companies in the media, entertainment and gaming fields that make up for this economy. Among them are Nazara Technologies, Saregama India, Zee Entertainment, Balaji Telefilms, PVR Inox, Network 18 and others. No stock will have a weight of more than five percent in the index, which allows for diversification and risk mitigation.

As per the NSE, the index will have ‘a base date of April 01, 2005, with a base value of 1000’. Which means depending on how the prices of the constituent stocks move this value will go up or down. The index will also be ‘reconstituted semi-annually and rebalanced quarterly’. That translates into weaker companies being pulled out and stronger companies entering the index.

The move is significant for the sector because such an index strives to give financial definition to what can be an amorphous term when it comes to investing. Say, an investor wanted to participate in the creative economy boom, he or she had to research and put funds into individual companies. Now he has a ready reckoner. Also, with the index available, mutual fund houses will create Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that mirror it. By purchasing units in these ETFs, investors will be able to have fractional shares of all the 43 companies. Even small investors can through this mechanism participate in this sector. As Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, speaking at the launch, noted, “It will create an ecosystem of investment in this sector.

43 top media companiesgaming companiesIndia’s Creative EconomyMumbaiNarendra ModiNews BriefNSE IndexWAVES 2025Web Exclusive