Capital market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India on Tuesday announced its plans to set up a national securities institute for upgradation of skills of financial intermediaries.

"The institute is aimed at training various compliance officers of market intermediaries for which the board was looking for international tie-up for courses and inputs," SEBI chairman G N Bajpai told reporters in Kolkata.

The Sebi Saga : Complete Coverage

The institute would be housed in Mumbai, Bajpai said, adding SEBI was also in the process of constructing its own state-of-the-art headquarters there.

The SEBI chairman said since many foreign funds such as CalPers of USA had now identified India as an investment destination, the demand for skills would be much higher.

For this, SEBI plans to set up the exclusive institute, which would function on a self-financing basis.

He said that institute would also help in the expansion of capital market in the country.

Bajpai said SEBI would also introduce T+1 settlement system on the Indian stock exchanges. This was important to impart efficiency and profitability, he said adding it would attract more foreign fund managers to India.

He, however, did not give a deadline as to when the T+1 settlement system would be introduced in the country.

Another area, which SEBI was also looking at was adoption of an integrated surveillance system which will encompass all segments of the capital market.

The SEBI chairman said there was a need for an integrated surveillance system for equity and derivatives segments in the Indian stock market. An expert committee had already been appointed to look into the issue, he added.

Asked about the recent fall in stock market prices on the bourses in the last seven days, Bajpai said that 'SEBI was on high alert' and added that action would be taken if anything unusual was noticed.

Rise and fall in share prices was a normal phenomenon, he said, adding that SEBI would swing into action if any malpractices were detected.