The Securities and Exchange Board of India is in advanced stage of negotiations with the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India to acquire the UTI Institute of Capital Markets.

This will be its first step in creating the National Institute of Securities Market as per the Budget announcement for fiscal 2005.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had announced in his February 2005 Budget that the NISM would be established under Sebi. The market regulator is looking at land for the institute.

But meanwhile, it will acquire the UTI Institute of Capital Market to "get started straight-away" said a source at Sebi. "Currently, the valuations is being done and the deal will be finalised soon" added the source.

The UTI Institute of Capital Markets was established in 1989 by the Unit Trust of India to support the needs of the investment community for professional education, training and research. It is a specialised training and research facility established to promote professional development of capital market participants.

Set up as a non-profit educational society, UTI ICM provides specialised training programmes for the varied constituents of the capital, markets, typically encapsulating inputs into short duration modules.

The UTI-ICM campus is located in Navi Mumbai. The institute offers residential programmes and has a 22-room hostel called UTI Niwas. It has a director, a dean and seven full-time faculty members.