The inaugural session was kicked off by IIFT director Mr K T Chackoas note on the commodity markets. With a special focus on the WTO ministerial rounds, he discussed the contribution of China and India towards the growing commodity markets. Amongst other members present was Mr Sanjeev Asthana, President and CE, Reliance Retail. He stressed on the commodities markets. The speakers emphasised how the span of commodities today includes various previously unknown facets such as kilowatt hours, board feet of wood, arts and even long-distance minutes.

Another facet that surfaced during the discussion was the issue of future water trading. Keeping the current global water issue in perspective, this trading arena holds huge potential for the future. Other modes of tracking may include community trading and trading free time. Mr Vijay Mehta, Chairman, Capital Markets Committee, PHD Chamber, laid much importance on the role of government in developing commodity markets. The market space is currently influenced by a spate of rules and regulations. A particularly protectionist attitude tends to hamper its growth. Frequent policy changes and bans also tend to drive away investors. Thus, it is the onus of the Government to provide and comfortable policy environment for the markets to grow.

The second session focused on new areas such as carbon trading. The symposium provided the optimum platform for the discussion regarding the various parameters of carbon trading. Mr JK Dadoo, who presided over the session on carbon trading was of the view that carbon trading should be moved from the flash scenario it is now, to that of an organised sector in a retail environment. He maintained that such a stride required strong, capital regulation based on a global perspective to engender competitive instruments.

Mr. Aseem Chaturvedi, consultant, Emergent ventures, presented a new idea of personal carbon trading which would not be limited to the corporate scenario but would penetrate to the individual level as an instrument of growth. He expressed the view that in the current market scenario any industry could be provided with an alternative means to capital realization through this potential sale of carbon rights sale. This would provide the investor with a low-risk instrument to trade directly with corporate backing and bring back investor confidence into a shaky market settlement.

Mr. Dipankar Ghosh, partner, Ernst & Young gave an idea about the global scenario regarding carbon markets. The differentiation of the carbon markets from the scenario of environment and status of Indiaas as a supplier of credits to the rest of the world was raised during his presentation.