In continuation to Part I of the III part IFSC Education series available at Shaping Global Education: Foreign Universities in GIFT IFSC, this article focusses on certain frequently asked questions in the education sector, with the objective of bringing clarity to prospective universities intending to establish International Branch Campuses (“IBC”) in
Summary: The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) introduced regulations in 2022 permitting Foreign Universities to establish International Branch Campuses (IBC) and Offshore Educational Centres (OEC) in GIFT IFSC, marking India’s initiative to create an international education hub within a financial services centre. Foreign universities must meet specific eligibility criteria including ranking within the top 500 QS World University Rankings, proper accreditation in their home country, and demonstrated financial stability, whilst academic offerings are restricted to financial management, fintech, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.Continue Reading IFSC Education Series – Part I – Shaping Global Education: Foreign Universities in GIFT IFSC
Summary: This article is crucial for legal, fintech, and business leaders as it unveils how the IFSCA PSP License at IFSC, GIFT City empowers cross-border payment service providers to operate globally from within India. By offering a unified regulatory framework, tax incentives, and foreign exchange flexibility, it positions IFSC as a strategic hub for building scalable, efficient, and globally aligned payment infrastructures.Continue Reading FIG Paper No 49: IFSC, GIFT City: A New Legal Frontier for Cross-Border Payments
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (“IFSCA”) is the unified regulator of India’s maiden International Financial Services Centre (“IFSC”) at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (“GIFT City”). Uniquely positioned both as a developer the regulator for the IFSC jurisdiction, the IFSCA is tasked with fostering a robust financial ecosystem, regulating financial products, financial services, and financial institutions while promoting ease of doing business. A critical aspect of its objective is enforcing compliance requirements and ensuring that IFSC, GIFT City, maintains its status as a jurisdiction of “substance”, with its regulatory standards on par with other global centres.Continue Reading Enforcement actions by IFSCA: Upholding of regulatory standards in IFSC, GIFT City
In part VI of our series on key legal considerations for establishing global capability centres (“GCCs”) in India,[1] we discuss global in-house centres or GICs that precede and are a variant of current GCCs.Continue Reading GCC Series: Setting-up Global In-house Centres (GICs) in India: Key regulatory considerations
The onset of Global In-house Centres (“GICs”) in India was driven by global financial services companies seeking to drive costs down and access India’s large talent pool across various locations. These factors together made it a compelling case for GICs to invest in India to setup large centres which performed a variety of functions across technology, risk, AML, operations, research, credit analysis, etc., for a wide variety of businesses, from retail banking, wholesale banking to investment banking, located in various foreign countries. This model has been visibly successful in driving the upskilling of a large talent pool in India and enabling significant cost advantages to the financial services companies that have implemented this model.Continue Reading GICs in IFSC, GIFT City: A Combination to Unlock Value
In our previous post we had provided a synopsis of the legal framework relating to aircraft leasing in India and Indian IFSCs. In this piece, we will provide an overview of the tax incentives offered to the aircraft leasing activities undertaken from IFSCs located in India to achieve the dream of developing the GIFT IFSC into a global aircraft leasing hub. We have provided a few more thoughts to ponder upon as India fuels its engines to realise its objective of ‘letting the common citizen of the country fly’ (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik).Continue Reading Part III (B): Aircraft Leasing in IFSC – Let’s kick the tires and light the fires!
The Government of India (“GOI”) has, in the recent years, realised the importance of aircraft leasing activities in the global market and has made its intentions clear to promote aircraft leasing and financing activities in India’s first International Financial Services Centre (“IFSC”) situated in GIFT City, Gandhinagar. The aim is to bring the aircraft leasing business, currently being carried out in countries that have established themselves in this sector such as Ireland, USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc[1], to the Indian shores. Leasing aircraft from abroad leads to incurring substantial liabilities payable in foreign currencies. Hedging currency fluctuations also becomes an additional cost for Indian airline operating companies. The above reasons highlight cost-inefficiencies and put into perspective how crucial it is to begin aircraft leasing and financing activities in India.Continue Reading Part III (A): Aircraft Leasing in IFSC – Let’s kick the tires and light the fires!