Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said India is now driving the growth engine of the world and can become the bridge between the developed Western world and the Global South.

As India continues onwards on the path of financial prominence on the global stage, the people of India want to become innovators and entrepreneurs, she said while addressing the seminar ‘GIFT City-An Aspiration of Modern India’, organised as part of the 10th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit.

Sitharaman said the Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City is ideally poised to be the gateway for financial and investment hubs and has an important role to play in fulfilling the vision for India to become a developed nation by 2047.

She noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had conceptualised the idea of GIFT City way back in 2007 when he was the chief minister of Gujarat and it has now expanded into becoming a major international financial hub.

Spelling out the government’s vision of green technology, Mrs Sitharaman said the GIFT City should look at being a platform for green credits. It should also aim to build a diverse fintech laboratory to achieve the target of India’s economy becoming $30 trillion by 2047.

Listing out the growing presence of operations at International Financial Services Centres (IFSC), she said there are now 3 exchanges including International Bullion Exchange, 25 banks, including 9 foreign banks, 26 aircraft lesser, 80 fund managers, 50 professional service providers and 40 fintech entities in the GIFT City.

The finance minister further said India should aim to become a manufacturing hub for shipping and there are 8 ship leasing entities working in IFSC that would enable access to global finance. Retail participation in stock markets in India is another distinct feature of the financial sector reforms initiated by the government, she added.

Describing GIFT City as a fusion of technology and the financial world, she said there is a need to infuse the advantages of technology into financial services and GIFT City is designed to provide advantages to India’s entrepreneurs in accessing global finance. She said most of the global financial hubs earlier looked at capital only but GIFT City has the distinction of getting financial services infused with technology.