Chairing a meeting with officials of International Financial Services Authority (IFSCA) and GIFT City in Gujarat, on Thursday, Union minister for finance and corporate affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman stressed on fast-tracking reforms and scale up operations at the India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX).

Sitharaman who held closed-door meetings during the day reviewed the progress of GIFT City project and discussed the way forward.Given India’s status as a major gold importer, Sitharaman stressed on the need to scale up operations at IIBX by expanding stakeholder participation and strengthening price discovery, thereby positioning GIFT IFSC as a global bullion hub. She also spoke about fast-tracking the reforms in the next few years itself, to enable growth to align with the vision of ‘Viksit Bharat @2047’.

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.

Bringing foreign capital

Reiterating GIFT IFSC’s core mandate for focussing on bringing foreign capital into India through structured and well-regulated channels, Smt. 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. The Union 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.

Currently, over 865 entities have been given in-principle and provisional approvals for setting up a base in GIFT IFSC. The closed-door meeting was attended by Gujarat’s finance minister Kanu Desai, IFSCA chairman K Rajaraman and other senior officials from the finance ministry, Reserve Bank of India and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). 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. 

Senior industry leaders from more than 20 entities including leading banks, insurance companies, fund management entities, capital markets, brokers, payment service providers, ITFS, aircraft leasing, ship leasing, BATF services, Techfin companies and higher education were among those present at the meeting. A day ahead of finance minister’s visit IFSCA held its 24th authority meeting and approved the framework for transition bonds. IFSCA also approved a proposal to enable third-party fund management services in IFSC and cleared regulations for promoting innovation, operational efficiency and regulatory clarity for entities that support delivery of financial services in GIFT-IFSC .

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Published on June 26, 2025