📌 At a Glance
When MCX tried breaking up with its clingy old tech partner 63 Moons, the result wasn’t a clean farewell — it was a ₹222 crore quarterly alimony. SEBI’s latest 32-page report reads less like a regulatory order and more like a tragic love story between a stock exchange and the ex it couldn’t get rid of. Bonus? The source code was locked in escrow like a Bollywood dowry.
🧩 TL;DR: What Just Happened?
- MCX paid ₹222 crore in just 3 quarters to 63 Moons for “support services” — more than their annual profit.
- The software was 20 years old. They had already paid for a 99-year license.
- SEBI slapped MCX with a ₹25 lakh penalty — for late disclosures, not for the bizarre marriage of desperation and vendor lock-in.
- MCX said they couldn’t go legal — because the tech vendor might pull the plug mid-trading. Yes, India’s commodity markets were held hostage like your neighbor’s Netflix account.
🛕 63 Moons: The God of Vendor Lock-ins
Let’s get this straight.
MCX had paid for a 99-year license for the software — yes, that’s longer than the life expectancy of most Indian infrastructure projects. But thanks to clause-heavy side agreements, they still had to pay ₹15 crore per quarter for basic support — and later, that got “enhanced” to ₹81 crore per quarter when negotiations broke down.
This is not SaaS.
This is Stockholm Syndrome-as-a-Service.
📦 ₹750 Crore for Source Code — Plus Taxes, Please
At one point, 63 Moons actually quoted ₹750 crore (plus GST) to MCX just to hand over the source code. That’s not a sale — that’s digital extortion with billing compliance.
Also, the code was locked in escrow — but could only be released if:
- 63 Moons went bankrupt
- There was a force majeure event
- Or MCX’s trading halted due to a bug
So unless a tsunami hit Bandra Kurla Complex, MCX was stuck.
💰 TCS to the Rescue… Almost
In 2021, MCX did bring in TCS to build a new trading platform (CDP). But delays, unrealistic timelines, and a project plan more fragile than Paytm’s market cap meant:
