Mumbai: The State Trading Corporation of India (STC), set up by the Government of India in 1956, has become a member of National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), the pan-India electronic spot market of commodities, promoted by Financial Technologies group, for conducting e-auction of imported pulses through NSEL's electronic platform. STC joins the league of many prominent agencies in India which are members of NSEL and have been successfully using this platform for procurement or auction of various commodities. NSEL membership will allow STC to conduct regular auction of imported pulses connecting with large number of actual users, Dal millers and processors spread across the country. On one hand, this will provide a transparent price discovery mechanism, as all the buyers will be able to see the price quoted by top five bidders and they can compete with each other on line, leading to a fair and transparent price discovery. Since NSEL provides counter party guarantee in respect of all trades, this also implies STC will be able to sell any quantity without any hassle of checking the counter parties or worrying about credit risks. For the buyers, NSEL e-auction mechanism allows them to buy small quantities directly from STC, without going through any intermediary. This in turn results into lower cost of procurement for the mills, as they are able to save good amount of intermediation cost.