BSE vice president Deena Mehta told The Financial Express that the concept paper for the fund has been prepared, and the BSE will now write to the finance ministry, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for regulatory clearances of the fund.

The fund is the fallout of deliberations in SAFE, whose members include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Indian stock exchange officials also recently visited Pakistan, where the idea gained momentum.

Mrs Mehta said the structure would be such that any asset management company could come forward to launch such a scheme, within the overall umbrella regulatory framework which would be prepared and cleared by the regulators. The regulatory authorities in each of these countries would also need to clear the fund, she said. The fund would raise money globally and invest in the SAFE countries.

The allocation of assets would be such that a minimum of what has been raised from each company would be invested. The minimum corpus for the fund being planned by the BSE is Rs 500 crore and the amount would be invested in the stock markets of SAFE members. ``They will have to invest at least whatever has been raised from each country. Over and above that, investments will be at the discretion of the fund managers,'' she said.

``Any asset management company in the region can come forward and launch such a fund. The overall regulations would be in place and all that the AMC will have to do is to raise and manage the money,'' she said.

Mrs Mehta said the fund would probably be rupee-denominated since this was found to be the stronger currency in the region and suitable for such a fund. ``However, it can also be dollar-denominated. This will be worked out in detail. The fund will have a global NAV.'' Mrs Mehta said the Pakistan visit was very fruitful and that the authorities in that country were hugely appreciative of the changes taking place in Indian capital markets. She said the proposed SAFE fund infrastructure would be in place once the regulatory officials of the SAFE countries have cleared it.