NSE has remained in the forefront of modernization of India's capital and financial markets, and its pioneering efforts include:
- Being the first national, anonymous, electronic limit order book (LOB) exchange to trade securities in India. Since the success of the NSE, existent market and new market structures have followed the "NSE" model.
- Setting up the first clearing corporation "National Securities Clearing Corporation Ltd." in India. NSCCL was a landmark in providing innovation on all spot equity market (and later, derivatives market) trades in India.
- Co-promoting and setting up of National Securities Depository Limited, first depository in India.
- Setting up of S&P CNX Nifty.
- NSE pioneered commencement of Internet Trading in February 2000, which led to the wide popularization of the NSE in the broker community.
- Being the first exchange that, in 1996, proposed exchange traded derivatives, particularly on an equity index, in India. After four years of policy and regulatory debate and formulation, the NSE was permitted to start trading equity derivatives
- Being the first and the only exchange to trade GOLD ETFs (exchange traded funds) in India.
- NSE has also launched the NSE-CNBC-TV18 media centre in association with CNBC-TV18
