Three layers, one address
The name GIFT City is used loosely for three different things, and the law treats each differently.
- GIFT City is the physical city. It is developed by Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited (GIFTCL), which the Government of Gujarat established through its undertaking Gujarat Urban Development Company Limited. GIFT City's own guide describes an integrated development on 886 acres, of which 261 acres are demarcated as SEZ and 625 acres as a domestic tariff area (DTA).
- The GIFT multi-services SEZ is a Special Economic Zone under the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005.
- GIFT IFSC is the International Financial Services Centre approved within that SEZ under section 18 of the SEZ Act. Section 18 lets the Central Government approve an IFSC in an SEZ, and allows only one IFSC in any one SEZ. The IFSCA Act, 2019 defines an IFSC by reference to section 18.
As of 18 October 2026, GIFT IFSC is the only IFSC in India. IFSCA itself describes it as the country's maiden IFSC.
What the IFSC is for
GIFT City's official guide describes an IFSC, in the Indian context, as a jurisdiction that provides financial services to non-residents and to resident institutions in currencies other than the Indian rupee. Its stated purpose is to bring back to India financial transactions that Indian groups and the overseas branches and subsidiaries of Indian financial institutions would otherwise carry out in offshore centres.
Two legal features follow from that purpose:
- A single regulator. Since 27 April 2020, financial products, financial services and financial institutions in the IFSC have been regulated by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), in place of RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA. See IFSCA: the unified regulator.
- Non-resident status for exchange control. A financial institution set up as a branch or entity in the IFSC is treated as a person resident outside India for exchange-control purposes, under the framework that began with RBI's Foreign Exchange Management (International Financial Services Centre) Regulations, 2015.
Why the distinction matters
The rules that apply depend on the layer in which a business sits, not on the skyline it shares.
- A fund manager in the IFSC is registered by IFSCA, deals in foreign currency and is, for exchange control, outside India.
- An IT company in the same SEZ but outside the IFSC is an ordinary SEZ unit. Its approvals and incentives come from the SEZ framework, and any financial activity it carries on falls to the usual Indian regulators.
- A company in GIFT City's domestic tariff area is an ordinary Indian business. GIFT City's guide describes the DTA as the space for business related to India.
The comparison on IFSC, SEZ and domestic tariff area compared sets out the consequences for regulation, exchange control, currency, tax and approvals.
The scale today
IFSCA publishes key figures for GIFT IFSC on its website. The figures shown in October 2026 include:
- 1,260 final registrations and authorisations by IFSCA, as on June 2026;
- total banking assets of more than USD 120 billion, as on June 2026;
- cumulative commitments of more than USD 45 billion raised by funds in the IFSC, as on June 2026;
- 454 aircraft and ship assets leased, as on June 2026;
- 127 TechFin and ancillary service providers, as on June 2026; and
- average monthly turnover of more than USD 105 billion on the IFSC exchanges during the first quarter of 2026-27.
These are the regulator's own figures. They are updated periodically, so check the IFSCA website for the current position before relying on them.
Points that are often misread
- An address is not a status. Taking space in a GIFT City tower does not make a business an IFSC unit. The unit needs SEZ approval for the IFSC and an IFSCA registration for a permitted activity. See Start here.
- Not every SEZ unit is an IFSC unit. The IFSC is within the SEZ, but the SEZ also hosts non-financial units such as IT and IT-enabled services.
- The domestic zone is India. An office in the GIFT City DTA serves Indian business on ordinary Indian terms. A group that wants both an IFSC unit and a domestic presence in GIFT City is running two legally separate operations.