The Indian Institute of Management Lucknow is in the middle of a two days training seminar on Commodity Futures Market. The seminar which will conclude on December 15, 2007 is sponsored by the Forward Markets Commission and is primarily aimed at senior state government officials of the departments of civil supplies, agriculture, agricultural marketing, information technology and the heads of state agricultural marketing boards.

A press release by the IIM says that the seminar is expected to see representation from from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Tripura, and Assam.

To be inaugurated by B C Khatua, chairman, FMC, the training will be from the market experts from NCDEX, MCX and IIM Lucknow faculty members on commodity market operations and market dynamics, future market instruments and trading system in futures market, and various price risk management strategies.

According to Prof. Sushil Kumar, Chairman, Agri Business Management, IIM Lucknow, the seminar is basically for all the policymakers who allocate capital according to the sector and will empower them to take decisions based on futures speculation. This in turn will provide them the means of achieving greater diversification and higher over all returns.

"India's market for agricultural commodities is almost completely government authorized and now in this scenario of privatization and economic liberalization there is strong need to reform the policies. Considering inefficiencies in existing marketing system for agricultural commodities, the role of futures market needs to be explored for the benefit of the farming community at large," he said.

Among other topics to be discussed during the seminar, the enhancement of Futures in terms of price discovery at the time of the beginning of the crop season leading to better correlation between demand and supply, prediction in volatility in the market leading to less wastage, mitigating the risks and have a regular supply and emphasis on dissemination of Futures price and market information to help farmers and policymakers to diversify the agricultural production will figure prominently.