As you drive from Ahmedabad towards Gandhinagar, you see a shiny new city rising along the banks of the Sabarmati river. The region, once dotted by green fields, is rapidly emerging as a gateway for global capital as new multi-storey towers soar into the sky across the 886-acre Gujarat International Finance Tec City (GIFT City), the first ground-up smart city in India which hosts the country’s only International Financial Services Centre (IFSC). GIFT IFSC, while onshore, is considered a foreign jurisdiction, and offers companies various tax incentives. Conceived 20 years ago when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat as the hub of global capital, both in-bound and outbound, GIFT City is emerging as a serious competitor on the global stage, dominated by countries such as Singapore, Dubai and Mauritius.