The Daily Brief GIFT City: India’s high-stakes gamble
Oct 9, 2025
Explore India's ambitious GIFT City, aiming to revolutionize financial hubs with real-time dollar transaction systems. Dive into the challenges of creating such a hub, including talent attraction and infrastructure needs. Discover the hurdles facing GIFT, from regulatory red tape to market limitations. Transitioning to renewables is also a hot topic, as advancements face grid bottlenecks despite declining solar costs. Learn why India's renewable strategies are gaining global attention while facing future tests in transmission and financing.
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Network Effects Are The Real Product
- Financial hubs succeed through network effects that are hard to bootstrap from zero.
- Banks, talent and liquidity must arrive together, creating a chicken-and-egg problem.
Why Buildings Don’t Make A Hub
- Infrastructure alone doesn't create a global finance hub; natural trading crossroads often do.
- Legal independence, sequencing and urban amenities matter more than shiny buildings.
Onshoring India-Related Finance
- India wants to onshore offshore activity tied to Indian assets to capture value.
- GIFT offers tax breaks and non-resident status to lure funds and derivative trading back to India.