India companies can list their shares directly on foreign exchanges at the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Gujarat International Financial Tech (GIFT) City in Gujarat, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on July 28.
- The move will give domestic firms access to foreign funds.
- The move comes amid demand from industry that Indian companies be allowed to list directly abroad.
- In May 2020, the government had allowed direct listing of securities by Indian public companies in foreign jurisdictions but no law or framework was drawn to take the move forward for almost three years.
- Initially, companies will be allowed to list at the International Financial Services Centre in GIFT City, Ahmedabad, and later, companies can list in any of the eight to nine specified overseas jurisdictions.
- Currently, overseas listings by domestically-listed entities are carried out through American Depository Receipts (ADRs) and Global Depository Receipts (GDRs), which companies like Infosys and Wipro have done.
- Some companies like Makemytrip have chosen to list in exchanges like Nasdaq abroad.
