GIFT city is more about IT than merely buildings: Pitroda

The financial sector in Gujarat will require a major push in the field of information technology (IT) to develop its financial services sector, informed the top technocrat Sam Pitroda.

The advisor to the Prime Minister today addressed the gathering at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit-2011 about the need of IT in bringing a makeshift to the financial services in the country.

Gujarat is mulling to develop a dedicated financial hub named Gujarat International Financial Tech (GIFT) City. Commenting about the future scope of the financial services in state, Pitroda said, "Financial services is a lot about IT. It's not about all these buildings. You need to have the right IT people who know how to deliver." He further added that there needs to be more focus on bringing IT applicability to the financial sector."

Commenting about the Summit, Pitroda said "The event was so far so good." But he also pointed out about the lack of penetration of IT expertise in the state. "For example IBM has a product, but you don't have somebody to do that at that level. So there is a need to create a network first."

Pitroda stressed on educating the people of state on the financial services so that they can take the advantage of information technology. "There is a need to innovate new things for the financial services. Gujarat is known for vyapaar (business) and GIFT is a vyapaar city."

The financial secvices sector witnessed six memorandums of understanding (MoUs) being signed during the event. Major players signing the MoUs included IL&FS group, which signed an MoU worth Rs 3000 crore, which will generate employment for 70,000 individuals.

Other major players included Financial Technologies that signed an MoU worth Rs 400 crore creating employment for six thousand people. Gandhinagar Hotels Ltd signed MoUs worth Rs 1000 crore, which will provide employment to five thousand people.