Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday (20 November) will lead a team of seven secretaries from the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Corporate Affairs to discuss the development and growth of India’s maiden International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at GIFT City, Gandhinagar.

The discussions will focus on the role of GIFT - IFSC as a gateway to global financial services for Indian corporates within India, attracting international financial business to India and growth as a Fintech global hub.

The Union Finance Minister will also be visiting critical infrastructure facilities at GIFT City and interacting with various stakeholders in the IFSC.

“The visit underlines the commitment of the Government of India towards developing GIFT - IFSC as India’s premier financial services centre and dominant gateway for global financial flows into and out of India,” the Ministry of Finance said.

“The discussions will bring together a confluence of ideas and strategies for faster development of GIFT - IFSC which was created with the vision of onshoring offshore financial activities and thus embodies the spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat,” it added.

The official statement noted that the Union government had made collaborative efforts with the 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 diverse financial products and services such as aircraft leasing, bullion trading and global in-house centres.

The ministry said that with some of the best-in-league infrastructure for incubating start-ups in the form of Fintech accelerators and global events such as ‘IFSC Beyond Boundary Fintech festival’ and hackathons being on the anvil, GIFT-IFSC is rapidly emerging as a thriving Fintech hub in the region.