Sebi to set up training institute

Hub The Sebi and the RBI have been entrusted with the responsibility of drawing up a blueprint.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has been mandated to set up a training institute for the capital markets, which will provide comprehensive inputs to investors on securities.

In his Budget speech today, Union finance minister P Chidambaram said that his aim was to strengthen the capital market and to take the reforms one step further from his July 2004 announcements.

The finance minister authorised Sebi to set up a National Securities Training Institute for teaching and training people in securities. Former Sebi chief G N Bajpai had mooted the idea of setting up an institute for providing training to people in the securities market.

Though nothing concrete was done about it then, he had said that the UTI Institute of Capital Markets would also be roped into this exercise.

While details were not available, the institute is expected to set up either in Mumbai or Pune, which is seen as a more friendly city in terms of infrastructure and better placed to house an institute.

Mumbai is also to be developed into a major global financial hub. Chidambaram said that Mumbai was situated between the two key financial centres of London and Tokyo - both economic powerhouses in their own right.

Sebi and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been entrusted with the responsibility of drawing up a blue-print whereby Mumbai can emerge as a finance hub in this part of the world.

The National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange are ranked third and fifth among the international securities exchanges in terms of daily trading", the FM pointed out.

Incidentally, the finance minister has made Budget allocations for major infrastructure projects in Mumbai such as the Mumbai Metro Rail, Trans-Harbour Link, and Western Express Highway Development.