Investothon creates awareness

CHENNAI: The over 3,000 participants at the Marina Beach on a breezy Sunday morning drew curious onlookers. National Stock Exchange (NSE) and CNBC TV18 Group kicked off the first Investothon, 2012, in the city, a symbolic run to create an awareness on safe investing and stock market.The run attracted not just thousands of investors, brokers, dealers and corporate associations, but also school and college students. Investothon had three races that were differentiated based on the distance, name and colour. The one kilometre run was represented by the colour red, denoting ‘power’. The second run for three kilometres was represented by the colour yellow, denoting health and the colour green that denotes wealth represented the four-kilometre run. Investothon was flagged off by Chennai Corporation Mayor Saidai Duraisamy. Joint Managing Director of NSC, Chitra Ramakrishna, was also present.NSC officials said that the run was aimed at creating an awareness on the dos and don’ts of investing. “Big investors would obviously be aware of the market conditions, but it is the small investors who need to know about the precautions. Because Chennai has a strong auto industry, entrepreneurs need to know that they can raise capital through the exchange,” an NSC official said.The symbolic run was modelled on the lines of the famous marathons in Singapore, Hong Kong and Nairobi. The NSE Investothon was started in March, 2011 with the first run at Mumbai, followed by Ahmedabad and Delhi. The next phase of the campaign would be in the tier two and three cities, NSC officials said. NSE has also initiated courses in nearly 200 schools in Tamil Nadu for students of class eight and 11. The courses will be on business fundamentals, money management and financial markets. In the year 2010-11, 32,000 students completed these courses.“It is a good initiative and the location they had chosen was also good. The best part was that not just investors were targeted, but also young people. I participated in the four kilometre run,” said Narayanan, President, Tamil Nadu Investors’ Association.