FM pitches GIFT City, fintech bets in Canada

Sitharaman said India’s real GDP growth was 7.6% in 2025-26, while rapid urbanisation, a growing middle class, and expanding consumption were creating opportunities across the economy.

For Canadian investors with a long-term horizon, India offered a combination of “scale, sustained growth, a young population, expanding consumption, and rapidly deepening capital markets,” she said.

Sitharaman noted that Canadian pension funds have invested more than C$100 billion (around $72.02 billion) in India across infrastructure, logistics, renewable energy and financial services, reflecting confidence in India’s long-term growth.

“With 100% FDI now permitted in insurance and India’s leadership in FinTech at scale, opportunities for capital are expanding rapidly,” she said.

The finance minister also flagged emerging sectors such as semiconductors, magnets and rare earths as areas with significant potential for Canadian investors. “India can also provide trusted & cost-effective supply-chain alternatives for global markets. I invite Canadian investors and rare earth operators to participate more actively in India’s growth story,” she said.

Sitharaman highlighted the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), describing it as the world’s largest real-time payment system by transaction volume and an important driver of financial inclusion and innovation. “There are significant opportunities here for collaboration with Canadian banks, fintech companies, and regulators,” she said, adding that this could extend beyond payments to shaping the next generation of digital financial infrastructure.

She also highlighted GIFT City, India’s international financial services centre, as a gateway for international capital, alongside greater foreign participation in insurance, asset management and pensions.

Deeper, more liquid and sophisticated capital markets could allow Canadian institutional investors not only to participate in India’s growth story but also to use India as a platform for wider regional and global financial activity.

Sitharaman said the Indian diaspora in Canada was much more than a cultural link between the two countries. “The Indian diaspora is therefore merely a bridge between our two countries. It is one of the strongest foundations of our economic partnership,” she said, while addressing prominent members of the Indian diaspora business community.

She placed the investment pitch against the backdrop of a renewed India-Canada relationship. Referring to the understanding reached between the two prime ministers on the sidelines of the G7 summit in June 2025, Sitharaman said the two countries had reaffirmed a “future-focused strategic partnership.”

The relationship was being given a stronger economic foundation, including through negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement and an ambition to more than double bilateral trade to C$70 billion (over $50 billion) by 2030, she said.

“I believe India and Canada are the most natural partners in the world,” Sitharaman said, citing their shared democratic values, parliamentary traditions, commitment to multilateralism and, above all, experience as multicultural societies.