GIFT City focused on tapping NRI segment: K Rajaraman of IFSCA

Rajaraman said that there is a growing retail segment of 4,000 NRIs who have almost $800 million in savings accounts

Srushti Vaidya

September 03, 2024 / 12:52 IST

GIFT City focused on tapping NRI segment: K Rajaraman of IFSCA

The GIFT City regulator is looking at tapping the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) segment, which presents a big opportunity for India's growth story, said K Rajaraman, chairman of the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).

To give a perspective of how big the segment is, Rajaraman said that there is a growing retail segment of 4,000 NRIs who have almost $800 million in savings accounts. Rajaraman was speaking at the CII Financing 3.0 Summit in Mumbai.

In April, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) allowed funds set up in GIFT City to take 100 percent investment from NRIs, which was not the case earlier.

Rajaraman also said that the NSE IX Nifty 50 has a higher market value than the NSE Nifty 50 index, adding that the NSE IX Nifty 50's turnover in August crossed over $100 billion.

Rajaraman highlighted that over the past five years, the IFSCA has issued 35 regulations across various sectors. Each of these regulations have been crafted by benchmarking against global best practices, he added.