The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) on Wednesday inaugurated a finance research and trading lab.

A first of its kind in India, the lab will give students an opportunity to test financial models with live data from financial markets across the globe. The lab is also aimed at helping MBA students develop a rational and informed view of market situations across the world.

The markets may be touching lows every day, but students and faculty at IIMC are elated about the new financial research and trading lab.

Prof Ashok Banerjee, Project chairperson, said: “…The main objective of this lab is to help students and learn to design and develop strategies with the help of live data from global markets… The data is then put into use thru publications… we also have national and international conferences annually where data are exchanged with financial institutions abroad…”

The 48 terminals in the lab run simulated data from NSE, BSE, NCDEX and MCX. There is also a Bloomberg terminal, for reference. The data might be simulated as getting real time data from the exchanges proves to be more costly, but they come at a negligible time delay and gets as close to real time as possible.

“The difference between real and simulated data: the server here acts as the exchange…” Banerjee added.