GIFT City in Gandhinagar is India’s International Financial Services Centre. It is legally treated as offshore: products there are priced in dollars, and resident Indians invest in them through the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, the same route as investing abroad.
What you can buy there today
- US stock receipts on NSE IFSC. Unsponsored depository receipts that mirror around 50 large US companies, traded in dollars.
- GIFT City funds. Fund-of-funds from Indian fund houses tracking indices like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, outside the $7 billion mutual fund cap.
- AIFs and portfolio products, often with minimums of $150,000 or more.
- Dollar deposits with bank branches in GIFT City.
How it compares
| GIFT City | Overseas account | |
|---|---|---|
| Regulator | IFSCA (Indian) | The broker’s home regulator, such as the SEC |
| Funding | LRS | LRS |
| Range | Limited and growing | Global shares, ETFs and bonds across 100+ markets |
| Costs | Fund-of-funds carry two layers of fees | Low-cost global ETFs, single layer |
| Liquidity | Thin in many receipts | Deep, on the world’s largest exchanges |
| Tax reporting | Treated as foreign assets, reported in Schedule FA | The same |
Our view
GIFT City is a welcome addition, and some of its products, such as dollar deposits and certain funds, can be useful. But today it does not offer the breadth, liquidity or low-cost global index funds available through an established overseas broker. Importantly, using it does not remove the paperwork: it is still LRS money and still foreign assets in your return.
We watch it closely. As the range deepens, the right mix may include both.