PM Modi inaugurates India's first international stock exchange at Gift city

GANDHINAGAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India's first international exchange-India INX- on Monday at International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Gujarat International Financial Tech City (GIFT) located in Gandhinagar.India International Exchange (INX), the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), through its global bourse, will start trading initially in equity derivatives, currency derivatives, commodity derivatives including Index and Stocks. Subsequently, depository receipts and bonds would be offered once the required infrastructure for the same is in place."The exchange will create new standards in quality of service and speed of transactions in different time zones," Prime Minister Modi said while opening the global exchange."I have been told that the international exchange would work for 22 hours a day. It will start when Japan exchanges begin and close when US markets end. The exchange will work from sunrise to sunset", he added."My vision is that GIFT City should become a price setter in several financial instruments" he said.Although the international exchange was inaugurated on January 9, the trading operations are scheduled to begin on January 16."India INX is one of the world’s most advanced technology platforms with a turn-around time of 4 micro seconds. It will operate for 22 hours a day to allow international investors and Non Residents Indians to trade from anywhere across the globe," the exchange said in a statement.“BSE is a pioneer in the world of financial services and India INX will act as a gateway to raise capital for the country’s infrastructure and development needs. In parallel, it would provide cross-border opportunities of investment with a comparatively low cost of transaction in the world’s most technologically advanced platform,” said Sudhakar Rao, Chairman, BSE at the inauguration ceremony, which was also attended by Gujarat Chief Minister, Vijay Rupani The international exchange inauguration was held as part of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit- 2017, to be kicked off by PM Modi on Tuesday at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar.BSE is also going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the Vibrant Summit proposing Rs 500 crore for its international exchange, clearing corporation and other activities.GIFT IFSC provides a competitive advantage in terms of tax structure and supportive regulatory framework. These include benefits in security transaction tax, commodity transaction tax, dividend distribution tax and long term capital gain tax waivers and no income tax.As many as 250 trading members, including commodity and overseas brokers, have expressed interest to function from India INX.