With reference to India, consider the following statements: ​ 1. Retail investors through demat account can invest in ‘Treasury Bills’ and ‘Government of India Debt Bonds’ in primary market. ​ 2. The ‘Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching’ is a government securities trading platform of the Reserve Bank of India. ​ 3. The ‘Central Depository Services Ltd.’ Is jointly promoted by the Reserve Bank of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange. ​ Which of the statements given above is/are correct? ​

The correct answer is B (1 and 2 only). Statement 1 is correct: retail investors can bid for Treasury Bills and Government of India dated securities in the primary market through the auction window, which RBI opened to them through banks, brokers and the RBI Retail Direct platform (launched in late 2021, after this exam). Statement 2 is correct: the Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching (NDS-OM) is RBI's electronic screen-based platform for trading government securities in the secondary market.

Statement 3 is wrong. Central Depository Services (India) Ltd (CDSL) was promoted by BSE along with a group of banks, not by RBI. Its rival, NSDL, was set up by institutions including IDBI, UTI and NSE. Depositories are regulated by SEBI under the Depositories Act, 1996, not RBI.

Core concept: the division of roles among RBI (government securities market and its trading infrastructure), SEBI (capital market intermediaries and depositories) and the exchanges. This links to Mains GS-III on financial market reforms and retail participation in government debt.

Trap: candidates tend to mark statement 3 as correct because the promoter names sound plausible. Remember that CDSL is an exchange-promoted depository regulated by SEBI, and RBI has no stake in it.