NEW DELHI: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the foreign currency settlement system in GIFT IFSC, which will facilitate seamless transactions on a real-time basis, enhance liquidity management, and ensure compliance.
At the Global Fintech Fest 2025, Sitharaman said that with the operationalisation of the foreign currency settlement system, GIFT City joins a select list of financial centres that include Hong Kong, Tokyo, Manila, and some other centres which have the infrastructure to settle foreign currency transactions locally.
Currently, foreign currency transactions usually get settled with a lag of 36 to 48 hours.
She emphasised the government’s enabling approach towards business, technology and innovation.
“We’d like to remain in the fringes and watch. We like to remain in the fringes and help…we have to enable businesses and not interrupt in their progress,” Sitharaman added.
She further said that the Fintech in India has not merely digitised payments but has also democratised finance, empowering millions to save, invest, borrow and insure with transparency adding that the fintech has democratised finance in India.
Speaking further on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Sitharaman said India has stepped decisively into the global AI arena with the $1.3 billion India AI Mission, showcasing the country’s commitment to innovation and technology.
While AI has transformed finance and governance, there are also darker sides to the technology.
“Even as AI opens extraordinary possibilities, we must confront its darker side. The same tools that power innovation can be weaponised for deception and for fraud. I’m not personalising it, but I can say, I have seen several deep fake videos of myself, being circulated online, manipulated to mislead citizens, distort facts,” the finance minister said.
Sitharaman also pitched for using technology for public good, while expressing her disappointment at “weaponising” the advancements at the global level.
It is important to constantly remind ourselves that technology cannot be in that sense truly mastered, but having obtained certain propriety, rights over some part of it, we should refrain from weaponising it,” she added.
We have constantly seen instances of inward-looking attitudes along with technological advancements. The idea of “global progress itself gets questioned because of weaponising it”, she added.
Agencies