PM Modi launches India's first international bullion exchange in Gujarat

PM Narendra Modi lays the foundation stone of the Headquarters Building of the International Financial Services Centres Authority, in Gandhinagar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launch 'India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX)', the country's first international bullion exchange near Gandhinagar. He visited India's first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) on Friday.

This exchange will facilitate efficient price discovery with the assurance of responsible sourcing and quality, apart from giving impetus to the financialisation of gold in India.

The prime minister also laid the foundation stone for the headquarters building of the International Financial Services Centres Authority.

Apart from that, Modi launcedh NSE IFSC-SGX Connect platform. Under this system, all orders on Nifty derivatives placed by members of Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) will be routed to and matched on the NSE-IFSC order matching and trading platform.

The Connect platform will deepen liquidity in derivative markets at GIFT-IFSC.

"International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) will become an enabler, it will support innovation and also become a catalyst for growth opportunities. In 2008 there was a global economic crisis and recession. There was an atmosphere of policy paralysis in India. But, at that time Gujarat was taking new and big steps in the field of fintech. I'm glad that idea has progressed so far today

"India is now standing in line with countries like USA, UK and Singapore from where global finance is given direction. Today India is one of the largest economies in the world. Today a record foreign investment is coming to India," said PM Modi at the launch.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Union Minister of Home Affairs and Co-operation Amit Shah, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Ministers of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad were also present at the events.

"It's a momentous and historic occasion when three major milestones are being launched. PM has sown the seeds of this center (GIFT City) and will launch the major initiates and more initiatives will come in the near future," said Sitharaman.

"Gujarat contributes more than 8% to the country's economy. Gujarat has become a diamond, manufacturing and ceramic hub. Now we’re moving towards making it a financial services hub," said Gujarat CM.