Vol. 2, Issue 9, Part J (2016)

Abstract
Futures market of India is very complicated market because of its structure, historical evolution, regulation and constraints. Different prices, markets, participants, exchanges and commodities make futures market very different and unique. Commodity futures market performs two significant economic functions of price discovery and price risk management. One of the most important consequences of the futures market is that it enables an efficient redistribution of risks. Commodity exchanges in Indian are still at a nascent stage. In many of the discussions on development of derivatives market, regulatory reforms and in designing other institutional structures, references to commodity futures trading is hardly even mentioned. Keeping this in mind, overview of spices market of India are given in context of definition and importance, structure, types of markets and prices, participants, list of exchanges, turnover in terms of volume and value, list of commodities, historical evolution, regulation, constraints and bottlenecks.