FM Sitharaman to lead a team of secretaries for discussions at GIFT City

Talks are likely to revolve around role of GIFT-IFSC as a gateway to global financial services for Indian companies, attracting global financial business to India, and growth as a fintech global hub

In a bid to discuss development and growth of India’s maiden International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to lead a team of secretaries from the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) for discussions at GIFT City on Saturday.

Apart from Sitharaman and seven secretaries from the two ministries, ministers of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary and Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad will also join the discussions, according to a government statement.

The discussions are likely to revolve around the role of GIFT-IFSC as gateway to global financial services for Indian corporates within India, attracting global financial business to India, and growth as a fintech global hub.

Sitharaman will also be visiting key infrastructure facilities at GIFT City and interacting with various stakeholders and entities having presence in the IFSC.

"The visit underlines the commitment of GoI towards developing GIFT-IFSC as India’s premiere financial services centre and dominant gateway for global financial flows into and out of India. The discussions will bring together a confluence of ideas and strategies for faster development of GIFT-IFSC," the statement read.

So far, collaborative efforts have been made by the Centre along with Government of Gujarat, GIFT City and International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA), the unified financial sector regulator for GIFT-IFSC, to provide world class financial regulations, vibrant infrastructure, competitive tax regime and a plethora of opportunities for exploring innovative and diverse financial products and services such as aircraft leasing, bullion trading and global in-house centres.  

The finance hub at Gandhinagar is also emerging as a fintech hub in the region on the back of infrastructure for incubation of start-ups in the form of fintech accelerators and lab and with global events such as ‘IFSC Beyond Boundary Fintech festival’ and hackathons being on the anvil.