FMC chairman Baldev Chand said "the role of FMC would change very significantly on the coming up of the new multi-commodity exchange. And FMC has taken several measures for improving the working of the exchange". He was addressing a seminar last week organised by Business Asia on `Commodities: The next step'.

Among the various measures that FMC has taken are a system of daily mark-to- market margining, simultaneous reporting, guarantee of performance of contracts, balanced representation of public and professional nominees and introduction of rule-based, rather than discretionary, systems.

According to Basis-point Consulting managing director David Chin, India should learn lessons from China, Korea, Australia and Malaysia on future trading systems, regulatory and brokerages rules etc. so that there are strong futures exchanges in India, necessary conditions for contract success like guarantees against volatility, uniform standards, buyers/sellers balance and the like.

Further, he said, brokers are essential to start the futures industry ``since they are the ones who gather liquidity''. And there are various opportunities for information providers, IT firms, smaller brokers and their combined efforts will kick-start the industry.