The Securities and Exchange Board of India has embarked on possibly the most ambitious project in its history.

The Indian capital markets watchdog is planning to set up a global securities markets training centre in Mumbai.

The Sebi Saga: Complete Coverage

The project, christened National Institute of Securities Markets, is likely to take off before the end of fiscal year 2004-05. It will be set up at a 60-acre land at Khandala on Mumbai-Pune high way.

Sebi has constituted a high-profile board of governors for the project, which had its first meeting about a fortnight back. Sebi chairman JN Bajpai is the chairman of this board.

The other members are Howard Davis, director of the London School of Economics and political science and former chairman of Financial Supervisory Authority of UK; David Fischer, chairman of Capital International; Marti G Subramanyam, Charles E Merrill Professor of Finance, Economics and International Business at the Leonard N Stern School of Business, New York; Venu Srinivasan, managing director and chairman, TVS Motors; Sunil Kant Munjal, MD and CEO, Hero Corporate Service and president of CII; Hemendra Kothari, chairman, DSP Merrill Lynch; T N Ninan, editor, Business Standard, A K Batra and T M Nagarajan, wholetime directors of Sebi and Pratik Kar, executive director.

The academic council consists of Pritam Singh, former director of IIM Lucknow and currently director, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon; K C Mishra, director, director, National Insurance Academy; C H Bhave, managing director, NSDL; Ravi Narayan, managing director, National Stock Exchange; R K Mishra, executive director, Sebi and M S Sahoo, chief general manager.

The council is in the process of working out the syllabus and appointing the faculty for the institute.

"The objective is the set up a world class institute for training of securities markets professionals," a source said.

Besides upgrading the skills of Sebi professionals and offering short certification course to domestic capital market professionals, it will also cater to international training needs.

"Particularly from southeast Asia, there has been demand for such training," sources said.

What will distinguish NISM from other business schools is its focus on regulatory and compliance and policy issues.

"We are exploring the possibility of attracting faculty from overseas besides experts in India in this field. Over a period of time, the institute will issue diploma courses too," said sources.

A similar securities training institute has been operating in Australia.  In India, the UTI Institute of Capital Markets in Navi Mumbai has been into capital markets training in a relatively smaller scale.