Gandhinagar: Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX), Country’s leading commodity exchange has acquired office space in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) near here in a move to expand its operations in terms of Technology (Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery – BC & DR) and Education, Mr. Mrugank Paranjape, MD & CEO, MCX today informed today.

GIFT city, which has crossed $ 700 million international transaction mark in a very short period of time through its International Financial Services Center (IFSC), has as part of its next phase development recently announced the launch of Office Buildings in the SEZ & Non SEZ Areas and invited proposals from international and national developers to participate in developing these Office Buildings. The MCX has acquired space in the GIFT earlier this month.

Leading stock exchange BSE has has also got approval from the Corporate Affairs Ministry to establish BSE International Exchange and BSE International Clearing Corporation at GIFT.

IFSC at GIFT City is already operational having leading banks like SBI, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, YES Bank, Federal Bank and Indusind Bank while The New India Assurance Co. Ltd., General Insurance Corporation of India, BSE International Exchange (IFSC) Ltd., BSE International Clearing Corporation (IFSC) Ltd and many more institutions are about to commence their operations shortly. In a very short period of time international business of over US$ 700 million has been transacted from GIFT IFSC.

This office space will be utilised by MCX to set-up a full-fledged Business Continuity Facility with state-of-the-art Disaster Recovery Infrastructure to carry out all critical operations and processes seamlessly and effectively in any eventuality. The DR infrastructure planned at GIFT City will be more robust and less prone to failures which will be a replica of the primary site. The IT infrastructure at DR site will be hosted at Data Center which will be built and managed as per the international Tier-IV specifications. Additionally, MCX will also establish a training facility to conduct training programmes, and dissemination of knowledge for the enhancement of skill and capabilities of students and working professionals, desirous of making a career in commodity market, Mr Paranjape said.

He said, “With the world class infrastructure and allied facilities matching global standards at GIFT City, setting up a BC & DR facility at this location would ensure seamless continuation of exchange operations, aid in diversifying our risk, and further strengthening our competence in terms of processes, people and IT infrastructure. Separately, it is also an opportunity for us to expand the footprint of our endeavour in adding financial market skill sets which holds the key for a healthy ecosystem at GIFT.”

“Initiatives like GIFT City will go a long way in fructifying the Government’s vision of creating a vibrant International Financial Service Centre in India, which can compete with the best globally”, Mr. Paranjape added.

Commenting on the development Mr. Ajay Pandey, MD & CEO, GIFT City said, “With the presence of MCX, GIFT City has now achieved another important milestone. This is not only a valuable addition to the growth story of GIFT, but also validates its credentials of being India’s first and only Global Financial Hub. With state-of-the-art infrastructure and world-class amenities, GIFT continues to attract lot of interest from the major financial players of the country and aboard. It is gratifying to see some of this interests taking shape at the ground level: In all, GIFT has embarked on an expansion track and in the coming days, we will see more such developments taking place.”

Having commenced operations in November 2003, MCX is India’s first listed, national-level, electronic, commodity futures exchange with permanent recognition from the Government of India. In the financial year 2015–16, the market share of MCX was 84.30%. MCX offers the benefits of fair price discovery and price risk management to the Indian commodity market ecosystem. Various commodities across segments are traded on MCX. These include bullion, energy, metals and agri commodities. The exchange has forged strategic alliances with various Indian and International commodity exchanges and business associations.

Part of GIFT City is notified as a multi-service SEZ with IFSC status which is catering to India’s large financial services potential by offering global firms world-class infrastructure and facilities. It is estimated that GIFT would provide 5 lakh direct and an equal number of indirect jobs which would require 62 million square feet of commercial, residential & social facilities with total investment of about Rs. 78,000 crore over next 10 years.

GIFT City has so far received good response from the leading realty developers as well as leading Banking, Financial services and Insurance(BFSI) and IT players. It has already made allotments of over 15 million square feet of built up area (BUA) in the SEZ and non-SEZ parts for development of Offices, Residential Apartments and other facilities to be developed at an estimated investment of more than Rs 10,000 crore.

DeshGujarat