Chief Minister’s New Year gift: Sebi project in state

There could not have been a better New Year gift to the state from chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. In his aggressive best, he has been able to secure the first high-profile mega project for the state in the form of an international training institute by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

The project, almost snatched away from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, is worth Rs 150 crore. The International Institute for Securities Management will come up on a 50-acre land at Patalganga.

Promoted by SEBI, the institute will train professionals in all aspects of securities training. Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and SEBI chief M Damodaran are expected to make an announcement on Monday.

The project is being seen as the first step towards making Mumbai and small areas around it as an International Finance Centre (IFC) and bring it into the league of other trading cities like London, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The idea of making the city into a financial hub was first promoted by the Special Task Force established for the city in 2003, which also called for creating Special Economic Zones (SEZs). 

Bureaucracy and delayed decisions have cost the state major investment opportunities in the past. The financial capital of the country earlier lost the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, which was expected to come at the Bandra-Kurla Complex, to Hyderabad.