Mr. Ajay Thakur has an enrich experience of 29 years in Capital Market spanning India’s biggest Custodian to India’s biggest and largest Stock Exchange. The key roles have been setting up the first ever SME & Startup Platform in the country developing derivatives and equity market of BSE and setting up arbitration & conciliation framework of BSE. In his career of 29 years, he has worked in various capacity with organizations viz. Stock Holding Corporation of India, Vadodara Stock Exchange, and BSE.

He Joined BSE in the year 1996 and headed various department viz. Arbitration, Membership Services Department, Business Development and SME & Startup Platform. He has been instrumental in setting up regional centres of BSE across the country before taking the responsibility of SME & Startup Platform. In 2011 he was given the responsibility of setting up the SME & Startup Platform.

He is credited for launching the first ever SME and Startup Platforms in India on 13th March 2012 and 22 December 2018 respectively. BSE today is the largest and most successful SME Platform in India with 462companies listed and another 160 companies are in pipeline. These 462 companies have raised an amount of Rs 5,672 Croresandhave market capitalizationof approximatelyRs 92,000 crores. These 462 companiesrepresent 17 sectors and come from 19states. TheStartup Platform of BSE has seen listing of14Startups who have raised Rs 61 croresand the market capitalization is Rs899.55crores. BSE under his leadership has conducted 2500 physical seminars and 500 webinars across the country to create awareness among SMEs & Start-ups about the benefits of equity funding and listing on the SME and Startup Platforms of BSE. Hehas Individually met approximately 38000 SMEsand 250 Startupsacross the country.

Under his leadership, BSEhas signed MOU with various State Governments viz Government of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Haryana,Telangana, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, TamilNadu and Goato create awareness about BSE SME & Startup Platform. BSE has also signed MOU with various Professional and Financial Institutions,viz. D & B Information Services India Pvt. Ltd,Onsurity Technologies Pvt.Ltd,HDFC Bank, Yes Bank, Federal Bank, Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council, IIT Alumni Council,AIMA MSME, Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture (MACCIA) and Gujarat Student Startup & innovation hub (i- Hub).
The success of SME platform has been recognized and appreciated by national and international organizations. In one of the annual issues of 2013, Asian Development Bank (ADB) has appreciated the effort of BSE for promoting SME listing in India. IOSCO also in its research report of July 2015 mentioned that BSE SME platform is the most cost-effective platform for SME listing in the World. BSE SME Exchange has received SKOCH achiever award and the bestSME Exchangeaward in the years 2015& 2016respectively. S.P Jain Institute of Management & Research has conferred upon BSE as the CHANGE AGENT in the year 2018.Shri Ajay Thakur has been awarded with INDIA ECONOMIC FORUM Award for MSME ENABLEMENT on 26th March,2022 by SKOCH DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION, received DADASAHEB PHALKE EXCELLENCE Award on 9th July,2022 and Pillar of Hindustani Society Award on 24th February,2023 from Trans Asian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for contributing to the growth of MSME.
He is the Executive Committee Member of Indian Merchant Chamber, Jury Member of India SME Forum, Member of Advisory Committee of BILLENNIUM DIVAS, Member of Advisory Committee of GLA University, Advisory Board Member of AIMA MSME. He is also Member of Investment Committees of Start-up India Seed Fund Science & Technology Park Pune,Atal Incubation Centre-Rambhau Mhalgi Proudhon’s(AIC-RMP)and FICCI.