Gujarat International Maritime Arbitration Centre (GIMAC) – INSIGHTSIAS

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Topics Covered: Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.

Gujarat International Maritime Arbitration Centre (GIMAC):

Context:

The Gujarat Maritime University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Financial Services Centres Authority in GIFT City to promote the Gujarat International Maritime Arbitration Centre (GIMAC).

  • The GIMAC will be part of a maritime cluster that is being set up by the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) in GIFT City at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

Functions of GIMAC:

This will be the first centre of its kind in the country that will manage arbitration and mediation proceedings with disputes related to the maritime and shipping sector.

Why is the GIMAC being set up?

The idea is to create a world-class arbitration centre focused on maritime and shipping disputes that can help resolve commercial and financial conflicts between entities having operations in India.

  • There are over 35 arbitration centres in India but none of them exclusively deals with the maritime sector.
  • The arbitration involving Indian players is now heard at the Singapore Arbitration Centre.

What is GIFT City?

The Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) is a business district near Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India.

  • It is India’s first operational Greenfield smart city and international financial services centre, which the Government of Gujarat promoted as a Greenfield project.
  • The city is located on the banks of the Sabarmati River.

What are International Financial Services Centres (IFSC)?

  • An IFSC caters to customers outside the jurisdiction of the domestic economy.
  • Such centres deal with flows of finance, financial products and services across borders.
  • London, New York and Singapore can be counted as global financial centres.

Services an IFSC can provide:

  1. Fund-raising services for individuals, corporations and governments.
  2. Asset management and global portfolio diversification undertaken by pension funds, insurance companies and mutual funds.
  3. Wealth management.
  4. Global tax management and cross-border tax liability optimization, which provides a business opportunity for financial intermediaries, accountants and law firms.
  5. Global and regional corporate treasury management operations that involve fund-raising, liquidity investment and management and asset-liability matching.
  6. Risk management operations such as insurance and reinsurance.
  7. Merger and acquisition activities among trans-national corporations.

 

Insta Curious: 

Do you know the difference between Greenfield vs. Brownfield Investments? Read Here 

 

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

  1. What is a maritime Cluster?
  2. What is the International Financial Service Centre?
  3. Can they be set up in SEZs?
  4. India’s first IFSC.
  5. Services they provide?
  6. Limitations.

Mains Link:

Discuss the significance of international financial services centres.

Sources: the Hindu.

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