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Our Bureau

Ahmadabad, June 3

Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Ltd (GIFTCL) and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Cisco for the proposed Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) project in the presence of the Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, here.

Under the MoU, Cisco will collaborate with GIFTCL in achieving GIFT’s vision of becoming a world-class financial services centre, with infrastructure and facilities benchmarked to global standards.

Recognising the potential of the State as a centre for the financial services industry, the Gujarat Government had formulated GIFT as a mega-project to realise this vision.

Initially, 550 acres of land has been allotted to it between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, for the development of a Central Finance and Business District (CFBD).

GIFT is conceptualised as a global financial and IT services hub, a first of its kind in India, designed to be at or above par with globally-benchmarked financial centres.

It aspires to catalyse India’s large financial services potential by offering to global and local financial services firms world-class infrastructure to tap the opportunity and best-in-class quality of life to attract top talent in the country, according to an official release.

As a central business hub, the city is being designed to provide the next-level infrastructure, services and platforms backed by modern information and communication technology (ICT), secured and resilient data centres benchmarked to tier IV standards, integrated and intelligent townships with high-tech city services management.

Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet and Internet protocol (IP)-based networking solutions and is pioneer of the concept of Smart+Connected community practice (also known as intelligent urbanisation).

It will bring together a portfolio of products, services, partners, platforms, solutions and make appropriate investments.

Cisco will utilise its industry knowledge in working together with GIFT for establishing a world class city.

The parties will jointly market, develop, implement and explore financing options of the GIFT Project.

A joint task force will be constituted to work out legal, technical and financial aspects of this cooperation.

Mr Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer and Executive Vice-President, Cisco Services, said that rapidly expanding infrastructure demands on growing towns and cities is putting increasing pressure on governments and communities.

Cities like GIFT, that use the network to accelerate and multiply their infrastructure investments, will be those who not only survive challenges but thrive and lead into the future.

Mr Sudhir Mankad, Chairman, GIFTCL, and Mr Hari Sankaran, ManagingDirector, IL&FS, were also present.

More Stories on : Infrastructure | E-Governance | Gujarat

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