Gujarat Tec-city greets Cisco

GUJARAT, INDIA: Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited (GIFTCL) and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cisco for the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) project and under this 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.

As a press release shares, recognizing the potential of the State of Gujarat as a centre for the financial services industry, the Government of Gujarat formulated GIFT as a mega project to realize this vision.  Thus, land (initially 550 acre) between the commercial capital of the State, Ahmedabad, and the Administrative Capital of the State, Gandhinagar, has been allotted for the development of a Central Finance and Business District (CFBD). 

GIFT is conceptualized 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 centers. The city is designed to provide next level infrastructure, services and platforms backed by State-of-the art 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, a player in networking for the Internet and Internet Protocol (IP) based networking solutions, that also has to its claim, the pioneer space of the concept of Smart+Connected community practice (also known as Intelligent Urbanisation), will bring together a portfolio of products, services, partners, platforms, solutions and make appropriate investments.

Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer and Executive Vice President, Cisco Services said: “Rapidly expanding infrastructure demands on growing towns and cities is putting increasing pressure on governments and communities. We believe that cities which are run on information will transform the quality of life for citizens, drive economic growth and improve city services and management. 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. We are honored to join hands with the government of Gujarat and IL&FS to help build this city of tomorrow.”

Sudhir Mankad, Chairman – GIFTCL added that GIFT will be developed as an intelligent city, which will transform the quality of life, and offer financial services enterprises a significant competitive advantage to operate regionally and globally. "We are looking to work closely with Cisco, in developing a world-class financial services centre."