Startups in India are often beset by the ever-changing regulatory landscape. Compliance-related paperwork can quickly become tedious, distracting entrepreneurs from the main business of growing their startups. Now, IFSCA has stepped in to offer a lifeline to these beleaguered startups. The regulatory body has set up a special committee tasked with making it easier for both Indian and overseas fintech startups to set up base at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City).
GIFT City offers a full ecosystem of operations including banking, financial and economic zones and a fintech sandbox. The city’s International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA) provides a compliancy regulatory landscape free of RBI’s watchful eye, offering startups a space to call home. The newly formed committeee aims to identify and resolve impediments to onboarding startups at GIFT City, helping to make their compliance process easier.
TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer has recently been vocal about their data protection standards, citing that none of their US user data is ever shared with the Chinese Government. This pronouncement comes on the back of a lawsuit filed against Google, Facebook, and Meta, for failing to address the issue of sex trafficking, child exploitation, and other cyber crimes.
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan has issued sweeping subpoenas to universities as part of congressional investigation into foreign efforts to influence US elections. The subpoenas were sent to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford universities, among others, demanding access to data such as archived emails and other records.
Finally, Google recently unveiled Bard, a generative AI chatbot, based on a large language model along the lines of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing chatbot. This chatbot is available as a public early access experiment and is aimed at helping users in the US and UK collaborate with generative AI.
Providing a safe sandbox environment for startups to operate and help them comply with the regulations, GIFT City is set to help fintech entrepreneurs breathe a sigh of relief. With the help of the newly formed committee, startups won’t have to worry any more about missing forms or hiring costly compliance consultants. With the help of better user verification measures and data protection norms, GIFT City is likely to become a safe haven for startups in India.
