PM to launch India's 1st international bullion bourse during Gujarat visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch several projects including the country's first international bullion exchange during his two-day Gujarat visit starting July 28.

Assembly elections are due in Gujarat by year-end. On the first day of his visit, Modi will inaugurate a Rs 305 crore milk powder plant of the Sabarkantha District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union (Sabar Dairy) near Himmatnagar, said state minister and spokesperson Jitu Vaghani. The plant can produce 120 metric tonnes of milk powder per day, he said. From the stage, Modi will virtually inaugurate Sabar Dairy's three- lakh-litre-per-day milk processing plant and also perform ground-breaking for a cheese plant which would come up at a cost of Rs 600 crore, said Vaghani. Sabar Dairy is part of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF), the owner of the Amul brand. In a release, Sabar Dairy said the PM will also interact with 20 women cattle-rearers from Sabarkantha and neighbouring Arvalli districts during the event. On July 29, the prime minister will visit India's maiden International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) in Gandhinagar. He will also launch the India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX), the country's first international bullion exchange, said Vaghani. The exchange will give an impetus to the financialization of gold in India, said a statement by the IFSC Authority. The PM will also lay the foundation stone of the unified regulator International Financial Services Centres Authority's headquarters. He will also launch NSE IFSC-SGX Connect. 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, an official release said. The Connect platform will deepen liquidity in derivative markets at GIFT-IFSC, it added. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman would be attending various events during the PM's visit, Vaghani said.