*Adjunct Professor,
**Principal,
Though organized commodity derivatives in India started as early as 1875, about a decade after they started in Chicago, many feared that they had fuelled unnecessary speculation and were detrimental to the healthy functioning of the commodity markets. As a result, after independence, commodity derivatives’ trading was banned in 1952. A further blow came in 1960s when due to severe drought, many farmers defaulted on forward contracts and forward trading was banned on many essential commodities. However, due to complete change in the economic policy in the new millennium, the Government of India started encouraging the commodity derivatives markets. Since 2002, the commodity futures trading markets in India experienced an unprecedented boom. This paper focuses on the working mechanism of commodity derivatives trading in India, a comparison of Indian and International Commodity Exchanges and a special study and analysis of one of the consumption commodities viz. Guar Seeds (or Cluster Beans) and Guar Gum with reference to their general characteristics/properties, supply and demand scenarios (including export potential), market influencing factors, their Spot and Futures prices, days to expiry and valuation besides making some suggestions.
