NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, November 3, 2014

MUMBAI: A young chief minister with a management degree, a prime minister who wants to make India noticed on the global stage and a regulator who knows international finance like the back of his hand. This could be just the right combination to make Mumbai’s dreams of becoming an international financial centre (IFC) a reality, although sceptics abound.

Maharashtra’s new chief minister,Devendra Fadnavis, wants to have 10 more business districts similar to theBandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai, besides building highways and railways like those in Japan (or China) and elevated corridors to cut through congestion. All this may breathe new life into the seven-yearold plan to make Mumbai a global centre for financial services.

Other centres in Asia may be losing their shine—Dubai is surrounded by geopolitical chaos and Singapore is apparently turning less attractive to expatriate workers due to slowing economic growth—marking an opportunity for Mumbai to aspire to that regional position.

“If Dubai could do it in a few years, why can’t India?” said Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, State Bank of IndiaBSE 0.73 %. “There is no reason why we cannot do it. India has a lot of talent to do that. What we need is better infrastructure.”