Data from Google

The Google data request url goes like
http://finance.google.com/finance/info?client=ig&q=NSE:INFY,NSE:BHEL
where
q = [Exchange]:[Symbol],[Exchange]:[Symbol]...[Exchange]:[Symbol] format.

make as many frequent requests as you want. This request does not have a number of request limit in contrast to yahoo finance. I checked, and found it to be realtime as verified against brokers like indiabulls and sharekhan trading terminals.

The response is in format, where "l" gives last traded price, and ltt gives last traded time, c gives change and sp gives change percentage to last closing price.

[ { "id": "675530" ,"t" : "INFY" ,"e" : "NSE" ,"l" : "2,437.60" ,"l_cur" : "Rs.2,437.60" ,"s": "0" ,"ltt":"3:59PM GMT+05:30" ,"lt" : "May 7, 3:59PM GMT+05:30" ,"c" : "-4.35" ,"cp" : "-0.18" ,"ccol" : "chr" } ]

For developers: The data string can be easily cast to JSON objects using Newtonsoft.JSON library [ courtesy http://james.newtonking.com/pages/json-net.aspx ]

All Economic Numbers in one place

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/
This contains almost all useful economic numbers(like GDP, Interest Rate, Inflation Rate and some useful ratios) for many countries(includes India).

Useful info on Gold

http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-where-gold-comes-from-and-where-is-goes-2012-1

this contains clear info on gold production and consumption.

Algorithmic Trading In Indian Markets

The first time I thought of trying Algorithmic Trading in Indian markets, I felt how difficult and expensive can that be for an individual. Think of some strategies, code them, test them on back data and go live with some Algorithmic Trading framework compatible with any broker. If your first thought to this simplistic view is amusing, I am with you now.

Well, my problem was that I had always worked on applications targeting American/European markets, where there is many vendors for any of these steps. Contrary to that, when I tried to find them for Indian markets, they are very few and the ones that are available are very expensive.

Talking to a number of data providers, trading platforms and brokers, I could not find a single product which was capable of handling all my needs. 

So finally I have decided to build pieces of software and advance step by step. 

I will keep it updated by the advancements and upload all the free stuff I come up with. 

The first would be a data recorder.