Gujarat’s GIFT City is positioning itself as India’s international financial hub, attracting foreign investment through new incentives, cutting-edge AI applications, and eco-friendly initiatives, all aligned with the country’s ambitions for global financial integration.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has cast GIFT City as a symbol of India’s ambitions to expand its financial footprint abroad, saying the project is helping realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a more globalised financial sector. Patel made the remarks at the inauguration of Global Connect (GIFT City Edition), a joint initiative by HSBC and NDTV, where he said India’s only International Financial Services Centre and bullion exchange were adding momentum to the country’s rise. GIFT City’s own materials describe it as India’s first International Financial Services Centre, operating since 2015 under the International Financial Services Centres Authority with a regime designed to support banking, capital markets, insurance and fund management.
Patel described the development as a dramatic transformation of land near the Sabarmati River into a financial district intended to compete with established hubs. GIFT City’s official profile says the project covers 886 acres and was modelled on centres such as Singapore’s Marina Bay and Dubai’s DIFC, with a structure aimed at attracting domestic and overseas firms into a regulated but internationally oriented environment. The state government’s GIFT Gujarat website says the city is designed as a greenfield smart city combining commercial, residential and social infrastructure.
He also pointed to incentives in the Union Budget, including a longer tax holiday for companies setting up in GIFT City, as part of the pull for investors. The official GIFT City framework allows entities to operate in foreign currencies and sit outside the usual domestic RBI and SEBI regime, which has been a central part of its appeal to banks, insurers, funds and other financial services firms.
Patel said the city is also becoming a test bed for artificial intelligence in finance, with applications in banking, risk management and wealth management. GIFT City’s backers have increasingly positioned it as a platform for green bonds, climate finance and renewable-energy funding as India seeks to align financial growth with its wider clean-energy ambitions. Reporting on the chief minister’s public engagements in July said he also visited GIFT City to review ongoing and planned projects, underscoring the government’s continued focus on the hub.
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