The event seemed too tempting to stay away from. Therefore, a national conference on 'Mumbai as an International Finance Centre,' jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and ministry of finance at Mumbai's Taj President, was naturally choc-a-bloc. 

At the onset, the conference referred to the announcement made by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his Budget speech of 2007-2008 to promote Mumbai as a world-class financial hub. The government had recently published a report of the high-powered expert committee of the ministry of finance on the subject and had kept it in public domain.

The report traces the origins of a tendency toward financial repression in India, given its development trajectory since Independence, and the policy choices made under politico-economic pressures and constraints at different points in time.

Giving a bird's eye vision of the detailed report in the beginning, K P Krishnan, joint secretary, Union ministry of finance, reasoned why India needs an international finance centre. The reasons that he cited for this are:

• India is highly integrated with the world economy;
• The country has natural advantages;
• Indians are key participants in the production of international financial services;
• It falls short of supplies to international financial services, etc

Since it is necessary for India to solve this problem, India must form an international financial centre.

Taking the cue from Krishnan, CII President R Seshasayee said that Mumbai being an IFC is a metaphor -- India has no choice but to produce and export. Whether Mumbai should be an international financial centre, however, is an extremely debatable matter, he said.

"It is a colourful dream no doubt and to achieve it, financial obstacles have to be removed and the financial sector has to be deregulated," he said.

The CII chief's words were echoed by Vijay Kelkar, chairman, IDFC Private Equity & former advisor to finance minister.

"This report is relevant for the entire country as there could be nothing more important than promoting competition," he said, adding, "It's plea to target inflation forms the crux of the matter."

According to former Sebi chairman G N Bajpai, "The HPEC (high-powered expert committee) report is excellent because of its illustriousness. To me, IFC is a transnational market platform wherein sellers and buyers of capital bonds meet."

In his usual flamboyant style, L Brooks Entwistle, MD and CEO, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Ltd, gave a clarion call to the audience as he said, "Let's call this great city an IFC. People want to come back to this city to be a part of the country's economic boom."

"To cater to these prodigal sons and daughters, what Mumbai needs now is good roads, competitive schools, markets and better amenities of life."

In his discreet speech, Maharashtra Finance Minister Jayant Patil, substituting for Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, promised there will be a sea change in the landscape of Mumbai. As if to corroborate, he presented a copy of Jehangir Sorabjee's book of photographs of Mumbai to a beaming P Chidambaram.

Now, it was the finance minister's turn. Goes without saying, he enthralled all with his elaborate yet crisp speech, touching on the economic, political, social and cultural aspects of the project.

Do we need an IFC? The HPEC report makes a compelling case for that, said Chidambaram. "To be precise, the report is a manual telling us how to transform Mumbai into an international financial hub."

He said that for the successful promotion of a world class international financial centre, there was a need for deregulation leading to further liberalisation and globalisation of the Indian financial services. "We need to have a positive approach towards the recommendations in order to make Mumbai a truly international financial centre," he added.

The size of India's investment inflow and outflow has reached about 90 per cent of the total GDP and the growth of this investment is touted to be much higher than that of the GDP itself in the future.

India needs more capital to sustain higher rates of growth and thus the need for a robust international finance centre. India needs to decide whether she would house a financial centre which caters internationally or one which caters nationally -- it is time for India to decide whether she needs to be the next financial services purchaser or services provider.

"The choice before us is -- does India have to be a service purchaser or a service provider," he said. "The report states that we are near-marginal service providers to India alone. To be a regional service provider, we have to incorporate huge changes and to attain global standards, we have to almost stand on our heads."

"This," Chidambaram said, "is a huge challenge, which can be taken only by the very best."

The HPEC report would prove to be a path-breaking reform proposal for India, quite on the lines of the 1991 reforms which put India on the progressive growth trajectory, said Chidambaram.

He also said the city had a long way to go before it could reach the status of a global city, and said that greater autonomy and better governance of the city would ensure the global city status.

"The report is not for the faint-hearted or the insular-minded, this report can only be implemented by a society driven by aspiration and ambition."