India’s first international arbitration centre inaugurated in Mumbai

The first International Arbitration Centre of India was inaugurated in Mumbai, Maharashtra to provide an arbitration platform for Indian business houses to negotiate commercial disputes.
The Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA) was launched by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Key Facts

• With this Maharashtra becomes first state in the country to clear policy for institutional arbitration.
• It is also considered as a major step towards making Mumbai an International Financial Services Centre (IFSC)
• The MCIA will be an independent, not-for-profit organization (NGO) governed by a council comprising eminent national and international legal luminaries.
• It will provide world-class infrastructure for arbitration, 24×7 functionality and live transcription services recording during arbitration proceedings for transparency.
• It will be in sync with the Make in India campaign and will provide a time bound and cost-effective facility to reinforce investor confidence.

Background

• At present, in absence of an international arbitration centre in the country most of the business disputes involving Indian parties land in Singapore or London International Arbitration Centres.
• Indian parties make up an estimated 30% of the arbitration cases handled by the Singapore and London Arbitration Centres.
• The total outflow of funds to resolve such cases along with logistics and other related expenditure is around $5 billion. MCIA will significantly bring down this cost.

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2016