In the last two decades, with the opening up of the financial sector in India, new challenges have emerged for financial market participants, regulators as well as investors. In this dynamic environment of complex financial products, increased market competition, and progressive de-regulation, there is a need for all players in the financial sector (banks, capital markets, stock exchanges and regulatory bodies like the RBI, SEBI, IRDA etc.) to develop internal mechanisms for risk management, better macroeconomic forecasting, corporate governance and related issues.

Quantitative methods such as time series analysis and forecasting, VaR, structural modeling, and simulation have become the sine qua non for virtually every organization that seeks to function in the financially liberalized environment of today. In India, there is tremendous potential for the use of such methods by the firms as well as regulators to better understand and predict market behavior. The present conference proposes to address this emerging domain by bringing together on a common platform academic experts as well as senior executives in the financial sector to deliberate on a wide spectrum of issues. The focus will be to discuss the use of quantitative techniques to better understand financial markets, banking and insurance activity. The conference would serve as a platform to young researchers and professionals working in these domains to share their ideas. It would also enable academicians and practitioners with different levels of experience and skills to deliberate policy issues in these domains.

The Conference would also felicitate Dr. Dilip Nachane (currently Director, IGIDR) on his 65 birthday (which falls on 5 Feb. 2010) and to dedicate the seminar proceedings as a Festschrift in his honor. This is but a fitting tribute to a scholar who has had such an important influence both in the development of quantitative methods and in popularizing their adoption in the industry, academics as well as in policy circles.