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ARTICLE · 29 OCTOBER 2026

GIFT IFSC Funds: How India's New SEZ Rules Simplify Fund Launches And Compliance

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A fund manager in GIFT IFSC that launches three funds does not simply launch three investment vehicles. Because GIFT City is a multi-services Special Economic Zone, each fund is also an SEZ unit, holding its own Letter of Approval and carrying its own set of filings under the Special Economic Zones Rules, 2006. For a manager running several funds from a single office, much of that paperwork has duplicated what the manager had already done for itself.

IndiaFinance and Banking
Pranjal Sehrawat
Pranjal Sehrawat
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A fund manager in GIFT IFSC that launches three funds does not simply launch three investment vehicles. Because GIFT City is a multi-services Special Economic Zone, each fund is also an SEZ unit, holding its own Letter of Approval and carrying its own set of filings under the Special Economic Zones Rules, 2006. For a manager running several funds from a single office, much of that paperwork has duplicated what the manager had already done for itself.

The Special Economic Zones (Fourth Amendment) Rules, 2026, notified on 15 October 2026 as G.S.R. 895(E) and published in the Official Gazette on 17 October 2026, take effect from publication and remove several of these duplications. In short, a fund may now rely on its fund management entity's ("FME") premises documentation, the start of a unit's service activity is now tied to its first final approval from the International Financial Services Centres Authority ("IFSCA"), renewal of a Letter of Approval for IFSC units turns on IFSCA's

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