The developments in the Indian commodity market in the past decade has led the Indian  commodity exchanges to be at par with the world markets with setting up of national exchanges and institutions in term of warehousing facilities and clearing have led to reduction in price distortions. The present study is an investigation into the commodity markets in agricultural commodities in India. Indian markets have recently thrown open a new avenue for retail investors and traders to participate commodity derivatives. For those who want to diversify their portfolios beyond shares, bonds and real estate, commodities are the best option. Till some months ago, this wouldn’t have made sense. For retail investors could have done very little to actually invest in commodities such as gold and silver or oilseeds in the futures market. This was nearly impossible in commodities except for gold and silver as there was practically no retail avenue for pumping in commodities. Though the agricultural sector contributes significantly to the Indian economy, it faces several bottlenecks, one of those being the antiquated laws governing agricultural marketing and price discovery, leading to low price realization by Indian farmers.  In India, six national level exchanges offer commodity derivatives contracts on commodities, with some having electronic spot exchanges to facilitate spot trading of commodities. However, farmers'
 participation in these exchanges has been poor. ITC-ABD, one of the largest aggregators and exporters of Indian agri-commodities, has started using these exchange platforms to hedge price risk. The present study makes an overview of the Indian commodity derivatives market. The study discusses the evolution and performance of the market, its present status and the future prospect.