overview

International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) is a unified regulatory authority vested with the powers of all four financial sector regulators in India namely, the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA for the purpose of enabling regulatory framework towards the development of International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) in India. The aim of IFSCA is to provide an efficient and facilitative regulatory system comparable with the best in the world that is complemented with complete ease of doing business to develop IFSCs as a preferred global hub for international financial services.

Globally, FinTech hubs have been successful when FinTechs are able to collaborate with Financial Institutions (Banks, Insurance Companies, Stock Exchanges, Funds, etc.) and Regulators. Government and government agencies around the world have supported various types of initiatives to enable and augment such collaboration and have fostered ecosystems for the FinTechs.

In the Union Budget 2021, the Hon’ble Finance Minister announced that Government of India would be supporting a world class FinTech hub at GIFT IFSC. In line with this mandate, IFSCA has planned to hold a FinTech thought leadership event “InFinity Forum” as an annual feature beginning 2021.

A series of Hackathons were planned as a prelude to the “InFinity Forum”. I-Sprint’21 banner comprises of a series of hackathons/cohorts covering Banking, Insurance and Capital Markets verticals. The objective is to attract FinTechs and convert them into successful businesses. The shortlisted FinTechs will be provided with a direct entry into IFSCA’s Regulatory Sandbox and is expected to set up business at GIFT IFSC.

The first of the series was focused on the "Banking" sector and hosted by IFSCA and GIFT City in collaboration with NITI Aayog.

The second sprint, focussed on the next generation bright minds from the most coveted Universities/Institutions, aims to train the next gen with the possibilities of Quantamental Investing. Hosted by Bloomberg in collaboration with GIFT City and IFSCA, it focuses on data and machine-driven investment making decisions also known as factor investing. It enables the next gen to understand financial market concepts and gain hands on experience in learning these concepts.

'Sprint03 - InsureTech’ focuses on Insure-Tech and hosted by IFSCA and GIFT City in collaboration with FICCI.

‘Sprint04 - MarketTech’ focusing on Capital Markets and shall be hosted by IFSCA and GIFT City in collaboration with NSE.