In a bid to woo Indian startups that are domiciled abroad to relocate to the GIFT City in Gujarat, the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) on Tuesday constituted an expert panel headed by former Reserve Bank of India executive director G Padmanabhan to identify their concerns.
“Many Indian startups are domiciled outside India–despite having the majority of their market, personnel and founders in India. These ‘externalized’ or ‘flipped’ startups constitute a large number of India’s unicorns,” the IFSCA said. India, it said, has the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem with 115 unicorns (firms with billion-dollar valuations).
“In order to better understand the nuances from regulatory, tax, legal and other perspectives and identify measures required to make India (GIFT IFSC) the preferred location, IFSCA has constituted an expert committee to formulate a roadmap to onshore the Indian innovation to GIFT IFSC,” the authority said in a statement on Tuesday.
The committee, expected to submit its report in three months, includes representatives from leading venture capital funds, startups, fintechs, law firms, tax firms and other domain experts. Apart from measures to encourage Indian fintechs and startups domiciled abroad to relocate to GIFT IFSC, the panel would also identify challenges and recommend measures for the development of International Innovation Hub at GIFT IFSC.
