The NSE will not, however, guarantee the trades for the OTCEI and these will be covered under the Trade Guarantee Fund set up by the exchange.The listed stocks are set to be converted into physical shares after the decision of the exchange to get them out of their immobilised state.

The Over The Counter Exchange of India was holding the shares of the listed companies in the form of counter receipts (CRs), but this practice is set to be revoked. The shares will first be shifted to the paper form and then dematerialised.

The issue for granting approval to revert to the paper mode is currently with the department of company affairs and is expected to get the ministry nod shortly. The exchange will be linking up with the National Securities Depository Ltd through theNational Stock Exchange's clearing corporation, which is already a depository participant with NSDL in its capacity of a clearing house.

The only change will be ensuring that the trades of the NSE and the Over The Counter Exchange of India are segregated before they reach the National Securities Depository Ltd for settlement.

This is expected to be done shortly and the OTCEI should be on the demat map by the end of the month, depository sources said.

"Once the stocks are moved back to the paper form, we will start conducting the clearing for these securities in a phased manner. We are currently only providing the clearing facility for the permitted to trade category at the OTCEI," NSE deputy managing director Ravi Narain said. Narain, who is also on the OTCEI board, said that with the OTCEI getting to the depository through the NSE's clearing corporation, the process should be concluded much faster.

In another interesting move, the OTCEI plans to provide a unique opportunity for trading in debtinstruments. The quotes for the debt instruments will be logged on to the equity screen itself. About 110 debt instruments which are currently listed on the equity segment of the NSE are expected to be listed on the debt segment of the Over The Counter Exchange of India.

The unique feature of the OTCEI's debt segment would be that the debt screen would be a negotiated screen in the sense that the mode of payment, place of payment and the identity of the broker would be known through the screen."On the screen, the broker can choose to do business with a broker or make a global offer for a deal," OTCEI managing director Joseph Bosco said.

The icon for the debt market will be present on the same screen and the market participant will be able to access the equity as well as the debt market during the same trading hours. "The debt segment will be available on the same connectivity although developed on different platforms," Bosco said.

He said that a large number of financial institutions like its promoterUnit Trust of India (UTI) are empanneling the OTCEI brokers in a bid to conduct trades on the OTCEI.

The exchange, which has struggled for the past four years and has been pushed to the brink of extinction, is making a renewed attempt with the assistance of the NSE to revive its operations.