In this image tweeted by the official handle of the officer of the Maharashtra CM, @CMOMaharashtra, Union Minister Jayant Sinha chairs IFSC Task Force meeting in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, MP Poonam Mahajan and actor Amitabh Bachchan, among others.
In this image tweeted by the official handle of the officer of the Maharashtra CM, @CMOMaharashtra, Union Minister Jayant Sinha chairs IFSC Task Force meeting in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, MP Poonam Mahajan and actor Amitabh Bachchan, among others.
In a step towards building an International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) in the city, the state will launch India’s first arbitration centre in south Mumbai in August this year.
The decision was taken at a meeting on Thursday in Mantralaya under the chairmanship of Union minister of state for finance, Jayant Sinha, who is leading the team for IFSC. Despite the opposition’s demand to remove actor Amitabh Bachchan from the team after his name cropped up in the Panama paper leak, he participated in the meeting and also gave suggestions on reviving art and culture in the city.
An official from the state government said, “The first arbitration centre will come up in Mumbai in August. At present, a venue in south Mumbai has been finalised. Later, it will be part of IFSC in BKC.”
He added that this would make contracts with foreign companies easier and could generate revenue for resolving overseas arbitration disputes. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, MP Poonam Mahajan, Chief Secretary Swadhin Kshatriya, OSD to CM Kaustubh Dhavse, and officials from the Urban Development Department and MMRDA are permanent members of the team.
Mr Bachchan, who was invited to the team for IFSC as a consultant for art and culture narrated a few incidents about old Mumbai’s rich tradition of art and culture. “Mr Bachchan expressed need to revive the rich tradition of art and culture of the city, which is lost at present,” said the official, declining to comment on the opposition’s demand to remove Mr Bachchan.
A few presentations were led by Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, ICICI Bank; P.S. Jayakumar, MD, Bank of Baroda; Nish Shetty, Partner, Clifford Chance, Singapore on various aspects of IFSC. Ms Kochhar spoke about the concept of sister city development where help could be sought from London, New York. Mr Jayakumar suggested that complementary relations could be built with GIFT city in Gujarat, which was also coming up an International Financial Centre. Lyricist Prasoon Joshi explained how Mumbai IFSC could be developed as a brand.
