Jayant Sinha will continue to head IFC task force

MUMBAI: Jayant Sinha will continue to head the task force set up to make Mumbai an international financial centre despite moving to the aviation ministry as the junior minister, Maharashtra government officials have said. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis spoke with Mr Sinha after the cabinet reshuffle in July and he indicated his willingness to continue in the role. The central

government, including finance minister Arun Jaitley is believed to be okay with this arrangement.

The task force was created by Mr Fadnavis soon after he took charge in November 2014 and its other members include Mumbai MP Poonam Mahajan, who is the deputy chairman, Magnus Bocker, former president of Nasdaq and Chanda Kochhar, managing director of ICICI Bank.

A top official who is closely involved in the working of the IFC said that the state government was not at all worried about Sinha’s role in the IFC after his reshuffle. “There was nothing to worry about, as we always knew that he was the right man for the job.”said the official. Sinha along with Mahajan has been instrumental in pushing for relaxations with the Commerce Ministry for the Mumbai IFC. The IFC is yet to take off but the government is laying the foundation for it by opening an international arbitration centre last week.

But there are still a number of hurdles to overcome before the IFC becomes a reality. To qualify as a multi-speciality SEZ, BKC would have to have a minimum of 50 hectares, BKC only had 35 hectares. One of the options suggested to tide over this was to either relax the rule or incorporate all the nearby land in BKC as part of the IFC then the requisite 50 hectares of land would be achieved.

Mr Sinha was the minister of state for finance but was moved to the aviation ministry as its junior minister in July.