'India to become International Arbitration hub'

A day after the country's first mediation centre was inaugurated, the government on Thursday said that India would become a hub of International Arbitration in the next five years.

A day after the country's first mediation centre was inaugurated, the government on Thursday said that India would become a hub of International Arbitration in the next five years.

"The way India has captured the information technology world, we should also capture the legal world. The aim is to do this in next five years," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said on Thursday.

He said the government soon proposes to amend the Arbitration Act to make mediation a cost-effective and time saving process.

"Arbitration should not be continuation of the courts. The idea should be resolving the issue at the earliest," he said.

The law minister said the judiciary has responded to the changes and hoped that the process of judicial reforms would continue.

Former Chief Justice of India Justice J S Verma said if at all the Alternative Dispute Resolution system was to succeed in the country, the process must be "cost effective" and "efficacious".

"No one prefers arbitration or mediation in India, everyone prefers it outside. It is quite disturbing when people talk about the money they (arbitrators) are making," justice Verma said.

They were addressing a gathering at the launch of the India Chapter of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.