Overview
Overview
International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) is an initiative by the government of India (GoI) intended to encourage foreign capital to participate in India’s growth journey. This would allow financial institutions/fund managers to compete in the international market through a globally competitive platform offering varied financial products and services. Accordingly, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), the first IFSC was set up in Gujarat in 2015.
GIFT City is an emerging global financial and IT services hub, a first of its kind in India, designed to be at or above par with globally benchmarked business districts. It is supported by state-of-the-art infrastructure encompassing all basic urban infrastructure elements along with an excellent external connectivity.
About India INX
India International Exchange (IFSC) Limited (India INX), the first international exchange at GIFT IFSC, was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, on Jan 09, 2017 and commenced its operations from Jan 16, 2017. The Exchange is regulated by the IFSC Authority. It offers investors 22 hours trading in a range of financial market products such as index and single stock derivatives, commodity derivatives, currency derivatives and debt securities. The Exchange, provides a state of the art electronic platform to facilitate trading, clearing and settlement of the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including securities, equity derivatives, precious metals, base metals, energy and bonds. India INX’s technology is the base of its business and a key contributor to the Exchange’s functioning and development with a response time of 4 microseconds. The Exchange also has tier-III equivalent data centre colocation facility for its members. The average daily turnover at the exchange for the month of Aug ’22 was USD 13.38 billion, with a 92% market share among the exchanges at IFSC.
India INX has also introduced the Global Securities Market platform, which is a pioneering concept in India, offering issuers an efficient and transparent method to raise capital. The platform offers a debt listing framework at par with other global listing venues such as London, Luxembourg, Singapore etc. Till date, Global Securities Market has established USD 69.6 billion in MTN programmes and more than USD 47.9+ billion of bonds issued with 124 issuances. Issuer mix is a healthy one with Banks (SBI, EXIM Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank), supranational (Asian Development Bank), State owned finance corporations (NTPC, PFC, REC) and several others (Reliance, Adani Green, Adani Port). India INX also has an exclusive Green listing platform established as per ICMA’s Green Bond Principles and Climate Bonds Initiative which provides an ideal platform for global investors to invest. India INX has also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Luxembourg Stock Exchange for development and promotion of ESG and green finance in the local market. The Exchange provides competitive advantage in terms of tax structure and supportive regulatory framework that is comparable with any other global financial centre. These include waiver of several taxes like securities transaction tax, commodities transaction tax, dividend distribution tax, capital gains tax, GST etc. Further, as an entity set up at IFSC, additional tax waivers are applicable viz. graded income tax holiday for ten years out of fifteen years, one-time subsidy on IT capex spend, no stamp duty etc. With a wide range of innovative products and services, growing liquidity and efficient cost structure, India INX aims to be the offshore exchange of choice for global investors and market participants.
About NSE IFSC
NSE IFSC Limited (NSE International Exchange) incorporated on November 29, 2016 by the Registrar of Companies, Gujarat, is a fully owned subsidiary company of National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) and has received approval from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to establish an international exchange in Gujarat International Finance Tech City (GIFT) – International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) Gandhinagar. GIFT city, which is a special economic zone, is India’s first IFSC. Exchange and Financial Services units located in GIFT IFSC are offered competitive tax structure and facilitative regulatory framework. The benefits include exemptions from security transaction tax, commodity transaction tax, dividend distribution tax, capital gain tax waivers and no income tax.
NSE International Exchange has been launched to grow the financial market as well as expected to bring capital into India.
Stock exchanges operating in the GIFT IFSC permitted to offer trading in securities in any currency other than the Indian rupee.
Subject to SEBI/IFSCA approval, trading is permitted in equity shares of companies incorporated outside of India, depository receipts, debt securities of eligible issuers, currency, index, interest rate and non-agriculture commodity derivatives and all categories of exchange traded products that are available for trading in stock exchanges in FATF/ IOSCO complaint jurisdiction.
NSE IFSC Limited launched trading on June 5th, 2017, offers longer trading hours in various products including in Index Derivatives, Stock Derivatives, Currency Derivatives, Commodity Derivatives and Debt Securities.