One thing that is not lost in this whole thing of attracting capital or debt is investor protection or the fact that investors are not short-changed
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, February 26, 2024: Day 2 of IVCA Conclave featured a fireside session between Shri Pradeep Ramakrishnan, Executive Director, International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), and Shri Sivasubramanian Ramann, CMD, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), which was moderated by Vikram Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner, IvyCap Ventures.
Commenting on GIFT City receiving $7 billion in commitments in a short span of time, Shri Pradeep Ramakrishnan said, “At IFSCA, we had the advantage of a 10-year growth. Over these 10 years, what has happened is that the whole concept of AIF – how to handle AIFs, how to handle their offer documents, how to manage the fund flows – all of those things have been learned. For us at IFSCA, when we had to start – the regulations are just 1.5 years old, we had the benefit of all this. What we thought was we can now improve upon it, because the jurisdiction in which the domestic regulator operates is the domestic jurisdiction where it has a capital consumption of domestic investments as opposed to us where we are supposed to attract a lot of global investments and capital. So, we have contoured the regulations to ensure that there is attraction on all fronts. To start with, we have a single-window registration. With one registration, you can carry on a portfolio management activity, an AIF activity, and whatnot, of course subject to complying with certain requirements. This is one big advantage. We are also working on a single-window clearance, where you just come, file, and go ahead with what you can attract.”
He continued, “One thing that is not lost in this whole thing of attracting capital or debt is investor protection or the fact that investors are not short-changed the whole process, is something which we are very mindful of, which is why we have ensured disclosure granularity, which is something important for informed investors, sophisticated investors to take a call on.”
He also highlighted the success of GIFT City: “This is reflected in the fact that the biggest success in the IFSCA till date has been the Funds Management Wing. Presently, we have 100-odd funds that have gotten listed and have taken licences, and there are more in the pipeline. Very recently, just a couple of weeks back, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority found the GIFT City an appropriate place to park its funds and start everything because they have transferred everything, and they want to make this the hub.”
He added, “We have got a very ambitious 2047 vision, which we are calling as Viksit Bharat, and we’re saying that we need almost US$18 trillion to ensure that we go there and we come across as a developed nation. IFSCA is on its way to become one of the funnels through which this can be helped.”
On sustainability, Shri Pradeep Ramakrishnan said, “Very interestingly, out of almost 55–56 billion USD in bonds that has been raised in IFSCA, its 1/5th has been sustainable and which is even more than that what has been raised domestically.”
He added, “We want to create IFSCA as a sustainable finance hub.”
