Gandhinagar, Nov 20 (PTI) Leading startups operating elsewhere in the country should be invited to GIFT City to help create the ecosystem necessary for a global financial hub, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said here on Saturday.
During her visit to GIFT City, Sitharaman also emphasised on greater coordination among stock exchanges as well as regulators for growth of the global financial services centre. Besides, she said the International Bullion Exchange coming up at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) will be a big “game changer” and an “important milestone” for the country.
Sitharaman also announced formal clearance of two proposals of Rs 469 crore for International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) at GIFT City here during her one-day visit.
“I have suggested that there should be interaction with leading startups — not just those belonging to fintech but even startups dealing with different activities who are present in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurugram — to be brought in here,” Sitharaman told reporters after her day-long meetings at GIFT City.
The state government has agreed to the proposal to interact with them for the purpose and see if that can be one of the activities outside of the IFSC but within the GIFT City, to create an ecosystem which is necessary for global financial hubs, she added. “In the process (of discussing plans for building up GIFT City’s future), we realised there are quite a few things on which greater coordination is required among the authorities dealing with the stock exchanges and also among the regulators.
“They are not major concerns, but it is possible to sit around the table and sort it all out. So that is the understanding that all of us have had,” she said. She further said the International Bullion Exchange coming up at the GIFT City will be a “big game changer” for India.
She pointed out that Indians consume a lot of gold, and every gram of gold consumed is imported. “To have an exchange in India and determine the price — being one of the leading buyers in the global gold market — will be a very big, important milestone.” The finance and corporate affairs minister said the possibilities for the growth of GIFT City lie in the ways in which more companies can get listed here and more funding and transactions can happen.
She also said development of the periphery of the GIFT City will bring more real-time activities to the place.
“Clearly things to do are three or four of them which we have recognised today — the stock exchanges to talk among themselves, the regulators, whether it is SEBI, the RBI, insurance regulator, to talk among themselves, startups be brought in, and fourth, development of the outside of the IFSC but well within the realm of GIFT City activities to be taken up,” she said.
She said during her recent Washington visit she had recommended business leaders to visit GIFT City when in the bilateral meetings they expressed willingness to shift some of their core activities from the US to India. Besides, Sitharaman announced formal clearance of Rs 269.05 crore for supervisory technology fund for IT infrastructure and Rs 200 crore for headquarter building, and underlined the central government’s commitment to make GIFT City a world-class fintech hub as stated in the Union Budget 2021-22, the Ministry of Finance said. “Two proposals of the IFSCA have been cleared. One is the headquarters of Rs 200 crore, of which Rs 100 crore is loan and Rs 100 crore is a grant. Another is supervisory technology fund for IFSCA IT infrastructure which is of Rs 269.05 crore. Both have been sanctioned,” she announced. PTI KA PD ABM ABM
