17th Oct, GIFT City, Gandhinagar
IFSCA is unveiling a series of videos to spotlight India’s vibrant investment opportunities at the IOSCO World Investor Week 2024. The World Investor Week (WIW) is a global campaign backed by IOSCO that spotlights investor education and wealth protection, with a special emphasis on initiatives kicked off by securities regulators around the globe.
The WIW ‘24 — kicking off on October 14 — seeks to promote investor education and foster financial literacy.
Through a series of physical events and digital content, IFSCA and other market participants are highlighting the numerous investment opportunities that have been attracting investors’ attention from domestic shores as well as abroad. Additionally, new regulatory initiatives making investments in the IFSC fast, friction-free and seamless have also been discussed.
NSEIX, India INX, NSE ICC, SBI, IIDI, HSBC and Appreciate are other major stakeholders who participated in the event to drive awareness through this initiative.
“IFSCA is committed to protecting the interests of investors and, time and again, robust regulations aligned with global standards have been issued by us to ensure that investors’ interests remain paramount. At the WIW, the two themes of sustainable finance and technology are in the limelight. In the first segment, IFSCA’s regulatory framework is benchmarked to the global best practices, whereas in the technology domain, we will showcase how our regulatory sandbox experiments are helping us push the envelope and usher in new-age regulations.” said K Rajaraman Chairman IFSC.
Chief Technology Officer at IFSCA, Joseph Joshy drew attention to the importance placed on integrating ease of doing business norms within the technological framework.
Joseph Joshy, CTO, IFSCA said, “At IFSCA, we ensure that the ease of doing business for the regulated entities is baked into our technological landscape. Our paradigm-changing technological framework is the strategic enabler that differentiates us from other geographies. At IFSCA, we are committed to fostering a macroenvironment where investors from across the globe can capitalise on investment opportunities or harness capital-raising possibilities with ease and super speed.”
Dipesh Shah, Executive Director at IFSCA highlighted the value discovery that awaits new-age start-ups by listing under the aegis of IFSCA.
“Direct listing of start-ups and Indian companies opens the gateway for Indian entrepreneurs to unlock greater value discovery for their businesses. Listing in IFSCA has the unique advantage of letting listed firms operate technically from within India while jurisdictionally operating from a distinct geography. The regulatory regime at IFSCA has been framed keeping in mind ease of business norms that dramatically recalibrate compliance burdens while ensuring that investors’ interest and transparency adhere to global standards,” said Dipesh Shah, Executive Director, IFSCA.
Pradeep Ramakrishnan, Executive Director, IFSCA pointed out that PE and VC investors will be able to see greater value discovery by listing under IFSCA.
“The new direct listing regulations is a game-changing value proposition for private equity and venture capital investors, who would be keen on seeing a return on their investment, after nurturing a business from infancy to maturity. When modern start-ups enlist their businesses under IFSCA’s aegis, they are listed on global exchanges which gives them visibility from across the globe. What’s more, while they run their operations on Indian soil, their regulatory treatment would be that of off-shore entities, effectively marrying the best of both worlds” said Pradeep Ramakrishnan.
Praveen Trivedi, Executive Director, IFSCA indicated that a strong dollar-denominated pension market is up for grabs for insurance companies keen on catering to NRI investors.
“At IFSCA, we are laying down the groundwork for releasing dollar-denominated pension products, which will have massive appeal for NRIs and OCIs. Indians have a strong community overseas who continue to remit massive funds back to India. Many of these remittances are channelled into insurance and pension products, which are subject to a complex and unwieldy regulatory structure. As more and more insurance companies unveil products from IFSCA, there is a vibrant and robust market catering, especially to retail NRI investors that could turn out to be a gold mine” said Praveen Trivedi, Executive Director, IFSCA.
V Balasubramaniam, MD & CEO of NSEIX and Neeraj Kulshreshtha MD & CEO of NSE-ICC highlighted the bright pathway laid ahead of the tax geography, and how the business volumes of the exchanges have been expanding at an impressive pace.
“GIFT City is currently operating on a new burst of energy as it is garnering attention from the likes of big wig investors from across the globe. A lot of international investors, especially from the developed world whether it is the Americas, Europe, Far East Asia or Southeast Asia — are now looking up to GIFT City in a large way. This and the coming year hold a lot of promises in store as direct listing and an expanded portfolio of investment products will pull in investors from overseas and within the NRI community” said V Balasubramanium, MD & CEO of NSEIX.
“The India market story is a robust one, and you can see the evidence for it in the activity figures. In the last month alone, trades over $100 billion have been executed at the exchange. Additionally, the open interest, which essentially reflects the strength of a financial centre, has gone beyond $20 billion. The exchange is slated for exponential growth from hereon forward, and we are at the threshold, where there is no looking back” said Neeraj Kulshreshtha MD & CEO NSE-ICC.
Subho Moulik, CEO, Appreciate spoke on the importance of bridging the last mile investor with GIFT City, and the cost efficiencies that new-age brokerages can deliver to the investors.
“We’re seeing large strides in the regulatory framework and digital infrastructure underlying GIFT City. This is helping the jurisdiction emerge as the next big investment destination for Indian shores. However, the missing link is in terms of last-mile demand connectivity. That’s where new-age brokerages fit in. Modern brokerages can diametrically change the lay of the land by reducing transaction costs for foreign investors and also provide them with simple-to-use tools making security transactions incredibly user-friendly and super-secure.” said Subho Moulik, CEO, Appreciate.
The IFSCA leadership and all the other stakeholders expressed confidence that the Indian growth story has a long and thriving future, which will be nurtured by an expanding intelligent and financially literate investor community, both in India and overseas.
