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Parl panel suggests regional fintech clusters on lines of GIFT City
'While maintaining focus on GIFT City as the core hub, the government may consider establishing satellite financial innovation zones or fintech clusters in other major cities to foster inclusive growth, create talent pools and attract diverse investors all contributing to the goals of Viksit Bharat,' the standing committee chaired by Bhartruhari Mahtab recommended.
The report, tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday, said that GIFT-IFSC in Gandhinagar, Gujarat was the country's sole IFSC unlike other major economies, including some BRICS nations like China which has 10 Centres.
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) was established on April 27, 2020 under the IFSCA Act, 2019 as a unified regulator to promote ease of doing business in IFSC and provide a world class regulatory environment.
The finance ministry in its reply to the committee, however, said that globally one can find only one international financial centre in a country and that this was done for optimum utilisation of resources. The finance ministry said that the reason for this strategy is that the mainland activities are not affected by the offshore activities.
'This provides an easy mechanism for the regulator to monitor one location and keep upgrading regulatory infrastructure at the said location,' the finance ministry said in its response.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary panel noted that the GIFT-IFSC has improved its ranking on the Global Financial Centres Index [GFCI 37] to 46th place out of 119 financial centres evaluated from the previous 52nd rank.
The panel suggested that measures such as further streamlining of policies, improving transparency, fostering financial education, enhancing digital infrastructure, regulatory sandboxes, simplifying taxation regimes, reducing compliance burden, can help GIFT-IFSC position itself as a premier global financial hub, in the years to come.
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