00:00Talk to us about how attractive GIF study has become.
00:03I think what's important is that now India is its own international financial services center.
00:08What was happening was for India-centric business, India-centric dollar business or the foreign currency business,
00:14one has to undertake and figure out the structures outside of India,
00:19whether you look at Dubai, Singapore, Mauritius, another financial center.
00:22What now GIF brings into play is that you have an international financial services center in Indian time zone,
00:29but it's an offshore within Indian ecosystem.
00:31And that makes it very compelling for the foreign institutional investors and the foreign participants
00:37to use this as a financial center to invest into India and also use it to invest outside of India.
00:44But the thing is, Singapore, Dubai, they've already become a magnet for global finance.
00:48What is the differentiating factor?
00:51I think the most important differentiating factor is GIF is right where the whole economic activity is going on.
00:58You know, large Indian economy, which is very large in terms of the scale and size, which it is going
01:04to cater to.
01:05And the advantage of GIF is, it is just in the same time zone, in the same hinterland.
01:09And it is able to bring those services right at the doorstep of the Indian economy.
01:15That is probably the biggest advantage that the GIF has.
01:18Singapore, Dubai, London, everybody has matured financial center.
01:22I think there were a bit of time, they've really grown into scale and size.
01:26What GIF probably differentiates is, it is part of a larger Indian economy.
01:30Let's talk about the payments companies, those willing to set up a shop in GIF City.
01:36What's in it for them?
01:37I think for payment company, what they look at, they look at ease of getting registrations, ease of getting operations.
01:43And probably the IFFC at the regulatory front is able to bring that ecosystem in play.
01:49Our regulations are more outbound.
01:50It looks at more from a global perspective.
01:53The regulations are outside of the local foreign exchange law of India,
01:57which means that they have more freedom to undertake cross-border transactions more freely.
02:01And also giving them the advantage of cost competitive when you are operating from GIF.
02:06Because the cost of operations are Indian rupee, you're not spending in dollars.
02:10And also the tax advantage or the tax incentives offered from GIF City is comparable to using it,
02:16that, you know, services from any other center outside of India.
02:20Dipesh, we hear that you've been in conversations with a group of payments companies.
02:26Can you clarify what are some of the issues that have been discussed?
02:29I think what payment services really want.
02:32They want an easy registration and access to the cross-border market.
02:37So what we have done is we started with the payment services regulation, the PSP regulations.
02:42We got around 10 registrations already there.
02:44And what we have done is in the regulations, they wanted all the services bundled in one.
02:49For example, somebody wants to do escrow, somebody wants to do merchanting trading.
02:54So everything has been bundled in one license, which helps them not to go for different licenses.
02:59And the nature of the IFFC is a unified regulator.
03:03So once a payment service provider comes in, he can do banking, insurance, capital market, all into one services.
03:10That is what is more compelling to them.
03:12I think in terms of issues, as you just asked me, I think there are pointers about how do we
03:17make sure that we are able to do global operations more freely from GIF City.
03:21And for which they need a lot of registrations and authorizations from the offshore markets also.
03:27I'm wondering whether there's any indication how many payments companies are willing to set up shop in GIF City.
03:35I can't give you the numbers as a regulator, but I can tell you that's a huge interest.
03:39I've been here in GFF since yesterday, and I'm seeing so many payment providers, payment service providers are looking at
03:46GIF City because it solves a lot of the problems.
03:49And they don't need to go offshore to do India dollar business.
03:52They can be now housed in India, in GIF City to do all the global cross-border transactions.
03:57You talk about how you are the regulator.
03:59You are working with other regulators like SEBI, especially on issues like dual listing.
04:04I mean, that has been the ambition.
04:06Where are you with those discussions?
04:08I think what is really heartening to see from a Government of India policy is that the government has allowed
04:13a direct listing on the GIF City exchanges.
04:15Now, this is a path breaking because the first time an Indian unlisted company is able to come and list
04:21on the GIF City as the first offshore listing for them.
04:24And it also allows a lot of foreign companies to come and directly list into the GIF City ecosystem, which
04:30is very, you know, encouraging to see.
04:32Now, I think on the phase two, we are now also working with the regulators to see how the dual
04:37listing can become a reality.
04:38If people want to just trade in dollar, can it be traded through GIF City?
04:42And if somebody wants to go onshore and do a rupee trading, goes to the onshore markets.
04:48You talk about how you are trying to attract foreign companies as well for this dual listing.
04:52Has there been any expression of interest?
04:54I mean, how much interest has there been?
04:56I think listing is a long journey.
04:59It's not a day one success story.
05:02It will always build into some success story emerging from GIF City for listing.
05:07And it builds into its credibility.
05:09So, what I can say right now at this stage is the regulations, the tax law, everything has been put
05:14in place,
05:15which gives the confidence to the foreign companies to come and look at this as one of the listing options
05:20in their journey.
05:21But it takes time for listing is not like, you know, you start in day one, you have 100 companies
05:26to list.
05:27But the question is really, what is a realistic time frame for dual listing to actually come to GIF City?
05:32Are we looking at perhaps 12 to 24 months?
05:35Are we looking at three to five years?
05:37How long might that process take?
05:38I would not be able to comment on this because it's my fellow regulator.
05:42It is between my fellow regulator and myself.
05:45So, the fellow regulator is the primary regulator.
05:48So, I think this question you should pose to them.
05:50We also know that there's interest to be a commodity hub.
05:53I mean, it's not surprising given that India consumes a lot of the commodities.
05:58Talk to us about that plan.
06:00Why in the first place?
06:02I think what we have seen, the purpose of GIF is how do we onshore the offshore activities.
06:08If you see from that perspective what GIF has done, the International Financial Center at GIF has done,
06:14to enable 35 business segments, which were for some or the other reason were happening from outside India.
06:19Let me give you a quick example.
06:21See, the aircraft which are flying in India, were all been leased from Dublin or Singapore into India.
06:26Now, the airlines are Indian, the flyers are Indians, but the aircraft comes from leased from outside.
06:32Now, lot of development has been done in India, but on a platter, these businesses were going outside of India.
06:39So, what GIF now does is that it provides you a platform that you can also provide those services sitting
06:45in GIF for India.
06:46And we have now almost 400 plus assets, aircraft assets leased into India through GIF City.
06:52Likewise, for commodity, lot of players have gone into Dubai and they are doing commodity trading.
06:57Lot of Indian firms have set up their structures in Dubai to do commodity trading.
07:02So, you know, this new avenues provides them an easy access for trading and financing through GIF City.
07:09So, it gives them a platform that why should I go outside to do something which I can do on
07:14and onshore in an international financial center in GIF.
07:17The thing is right now, price discovery happens elsewhere despite the fact that India consumes most of these commodities.
07:25Do you see that changing at all?
07:26I think this is a very important point what you said, you know, and this is what the Honourable Prime
07:30Minister had said.
07:31That, look, why should the pricing for the gold and others where we are the largest consumer be decided outside?
07:38Why can't we create a trading platform which can start evolving the pricing itself?
07:44And that's where the attempt has been made through the India International Bullion Exchange, which is operating from GIF City
07:50now.
07:50And it has started trading gold, silver and other.
07:53So, the purpose objective is to create a marketplace where it can start deciding on the pricing.
07:59One final question before we let you go.
08:01As a regulator, what's top of mind for you?
08:04I think for us, the top of mind is we have to build the new financial center at the time
08:10when others are already very established financial centers.
08:12So, what is needed from a financial center perspective is to gain more and more confidence of the investors.
08:19Like, we have reached 1,300 registrations now.
08:22And last two years, 150 foreign companies have come and set up their base in GIF City.
08:27So, increasingly now, with the base of four or five years of experience, we are seeing more and more players
08:32coming in.
08:33So, for us, it is building credibility and trust for the financial center to believe that you can invest in
08:39India through GIF City.
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