Chronology of stock settlements in India

Article published on Tuesday, 30th December, at 10:00 p.m.

Let’s start from 1991;
Where regional stock exchanges dominated the stock market. Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Ahmedabad, etc
By 1992 SEBI gains statutory and regulatory powers under SEBI Act 1992.
It was formed in 1988.

NSE was incorporated in 1992, recognized as a stock exchange in 1993 and started operations in 1994 with electronic trading launched the same year.
(NEAT; National Exchange for Automated Trading)
By 1995 BSE launched BOLT; BSE On-Line Trading.

Stock trade settlement in India;

Fixed settlement cycle;

(Operated for 125 years)
Single day was chosen to settle trades done on multiple days

Rolling settlement; T+5 days

Then rolling settlement was introduced, popularly known as T+ Days
Ending an era of 125-year old fixed settlement cycle, rolling settlement was introduced,
Where trades are settled at T+5 days

Several securities were moved to rolling settlement starting year 2000.
By Jan 2nd 2001, several thousands of listed companies were moved to t+5 but the deadline was extended to 31st December 2001 for all securities.

Rolling settlement; T +3 days

Then in April of 2002 we moved from T+5 to T+3 on 1st April 2002.
(Updated date; 1st April 2002, thanks to this article; Link)

Rolling settlement; T +2 days

It was decided to further shorten the settlement cycle from the existing T+3 rolling settlement to T+2 w.e.f. April 01, 2003.
Circular No. 6 dated February 06, 2003 (link)
T+2 settlement is what continued for 20 years and was the de-facto settlement cycle in the majority of countries.

Rolling settlement; T +1 days

Then we transitioned from T+2 to T+1 in a phrased manner
Starting from 25th February, 2022 and by 27th January, 2023 all listed stocks moved to T+1 settlement.
Monday 30th Jan, 2023 was double settlement for trades done on
25th Jan, Wednesday (26th being holiday) and trades done on 27th Jan, Friday
(NSDL press release link; Zerodha link)

Rolling settlement; T +0 days

On BSE and NSE website I found the following
“SEBI via Circular no. SEBI/HO/MRD/MRD-PoD-3/P/CIR/2024/20 dated March 21,2024 provided guidelines on Introduction of Beta version of T+0 rolling settlement cycle on optional basis in addition to the existing T+1 settlement cycle in Equity Cash Markets. In view of the same Exchange via notice no 20240322-48 introduced trading in securities under T+0 settlement mechanism with effect from Thursday March 28,2024. The following are trading parameters for the same”
(Link to circular)

By the end of 2025 Majority All of the stocks trade of T+1 settlement basis, with optionality for t+0 settlement given for few companies, that too dependent on willingness of brokers.

The content of this article was important for my upcoming ‘research on rights issue article’
Content and data of this article may be updated to add more details about creation of these institutions.
Also, I couldn’t find the exact date for some of the events; however, I'll update them in future if I find them accurately.

Thank you!