Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated India’s first centre for international arbitration in Mumbai. The Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA) will initially be located at Express Towers but Fadnavis promised a bigger and exclusive facility at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Mumbai’s only business district.

• Terming MCIA as an important milestone in the journey to develop an ecosystem for the proposed International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Mumbai,
• The London Court of International Arbitration and Singapore International Arbitration Centre each accounts for 30% of cases that involved Indian businesses.
• The businesses not only lose their precious money but also lot of time in these arbitrations. MCIA will attract these cases and also businesses world-over to help make India one of the top arbitration centres in the world.
• The chief minister said the establishment of MCIA demonstrated Maharashtra government’s resolve to create IFSC in Mumbai.
• The MCIA will be governed by a 17-member governing council.
• Kaustubh Dhawse, management consultant, officer-on-special-duty to the chief minister and one of the drivers behind both the MCIA and IFSC plans, said the Mumbai facility would retain a large share of the $5 economy that goes to London, Singapore, and Dubai, on account of litigations.
• Fadnavis emphasised the concerted efforts made by the Union government and Maharashtra to put in place the policy mechanism and physical apparatus for “a transparent, efficient, and credible dispute resolution system”.