Sitharaman visited IFSC at GIFT City in Gandhinagar on Thursday and reviewed its progress as an International Finance Services Center
Sitharaman exhorted officials to work towards making GIFT IFSC more competitive and cost effective to attract HNI investments in the country, and underlined the potential of IFSCA’s role in mobilising Sovereign and Pension Funds at IFSC for financial needs of the country
Gandhinagar/GIFT City: GIFT International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) should be developed as a prominent gateway for global capital flows into India to feed the needs of high-growth sectors over the next two decades, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has stressed.
Sitharaman visited IFSC at GIFT City in Gandhinagar on Thursday and reviewed the progress and interacted with key market participants.
Reiterating GIFT IFSC’s core mandate for focussing on bringing foreign capital into India through structured and well-regulated channels, Sitharaman also laid emphasis on the importance of Indian financial sector regulators to take initiatives for identifying aspirational needs of GIFT IFSC in this direction.
Sitharaman exhorted officials to work towards making GIFT IFSC more competitive and cost effective to attract HNI investments in the country, and underlined the potential of IFSCA’s role in mobilising Sovereign and Pension Funds at IFSC for financial needs of the country and also for alignment of talent development with GIFT IFSC’s expanding mandate, for ensuring a deep and future-ready workforce.
The Financve minister remarked that GIFT IFSC should be developed as a prominent gateway for global capital flows into India to feed the needs of high growth sectors for India’s growth trajectory over the next two decades.
The Finance minister indicated that the twin advantages of India pertaining to technology and availability of a very large domestic market and its financing needs must be leveraged to gain competitive advantage.
Given India’s status as a major gold importer, the Union Finance Minister stressed on the need to scale up operations at the India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX) by expanding stakeholder participation and strengthening price discovery, thereby positioning GIFT IFSC as a global bullion hub.
At the roundtable interaction with senior representatives from 21 institutions, the Finance Minister interacted with MDs and CEOs, chairpersons, founders, and CFOs from banking, insurance, capital markets, funds industry, finance companies, payment services providers, aircraft and ship leasing firms, TechFin firms, ITFS platform providers and foreign universities.
GIFT City Co. Ltd and IFSCA made presentations on key policy, regulatory, and tax reforms aimed at positioning GIFT IFSC as a leading global financial centre.
While appreciating the participants for their constructive suggestions, Sitharaman mentioned that regular interactions such as these with investors over the years by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior officials from the Government have helped in resolving the concerns and enable business growth.
Sitharaman further underscored the importance of developing GIFT City into a dynamic smart city, equipped with integrated, modern, and sustainable living infrastructure, and stated that establishing such world-class amenities is essential to attracting top-tier talent from both domestic and international markets.
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