GIFT City should aim to build a diverse fintech laboratory in order to achieve India’s target of becoming a $30-trillion economy by 2047, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday at the 10th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Gandhinagar.
The state-of-the-art business complex in Gujarat, conceived by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2007 when he was the chief minister, is poised to be the gateway for a financial and investment hub in the country, she said while addressing the seminar titled ‘GIFT City-An Aspiration of Modern India’.
GIFT has now expanded into becoming a major international financial hub, she said.
“GIFT City should look at being a platform for green credits. It should also aim to build a diverse fintech laboratory to achieve the target of India’s economy becoming $30 trillion by 2047,” Sitharaman said.
There are three exchanges at GIFT City, including the International Bullion Exchange, 25 banks, including 9 foreign banks, 26 aircraft lessers, 80 fund managers, 50 professional service providers and 40 fintech entities.
“India should aim to become a manufacturing hub for shipping and there are eight ship leasing entities working in IFSC who would enable access to global finance,” she said, adding that retail participation in India’s stock markets is another distinct feature of the financial sector reforms initiated by the government.
Describing GIFT City as a fusion of technology and financial world, the FM said there is a need to infuse the advantages of technology into financial services and the business hub is designed to provide advantages to India’s entrepreneurs to access global finance.
Sitharaman said that most of the global financial hubs earlier looked at only capital, but GIFT City has the distinction of getting financial services infused with technology.
“India is now driving the growth engine of the world and it can become the bridge between the developed Western world and the Global South… As India continues on the path of financial prominence on the global stage, the people of this country want to become innovators and entrepreneurs,” she said.