"We have been requested by Farida Youssef, the training consultant of Unctad, to intimate the areas in which we need training for the running of the commodity exchange on modern lines. We shall soon be interacting with the Unctad officials in this regard," Seth said.

He met Unctad officials at a seminar organised by the World Bank on `Commodity Futures Market' in New Delhi on September 17 and 18. At the seminar, Seth made a presentation on `Managing an Indian Commodity Exchange'.

The World Bank recently approved a grant of $0.49 million as institutional development fund for strengthening of India's commodity exchanges.

Seth said the resumption of futures trading in hessian had helped theexchange. "The favourable impact on the hedge market brought about by the resumption of futures trading in sackings is seen in the expansion of volumes of transactions.

In the May 1998 delivery, the volume of transactions was in the order of 47,499 units amounting to Rs 1,187.47 crore and that in August 1998 delivery it had jumped to 1,66,645 units amounting to Rs 4,249.45 crore, despite the impact of multi-point sales tax," he said.

Seth also urged the Union government to start procuring a portion of its B-Twill jute bag requirement from the open market.

"The volume of business would substantially go up if the goverment of India allows a sizeable part of the B-Twill procurement to be made from the open market instead of routing the same through the directorate general of civil supplies & disposals," he added.

He demanded the resumption of futures trading in raw jute. "There is no sense as to why raw jute futures trading should continue under suspension, when the same had been cleared in the UnionBudget of 1997-98.