NSE IFSC Ltd, a subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange
(NSE), on April 222, announced the launch of an international sustainability
platform at Gujarat’s GIFT city. The platform is expected to get functional in
the second half of the year.

According to the NSE IFSC statement, this is a first of
its kind ESG (environmental, social and governance) platform in India.

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The ESG platform will facilitate the listing and trading
of a range of products such as green bonds, voluntary carbon, sustainable
bonds, green real estate investment trusts (REITs), and green equity, among
others. It will also help to channel the flow of sustainable finance to India
and other markets.

Setting it up in GIFT city will facilitate the
participation of international investors in ESG transitions in India and other
markets.

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“It is expected to get operationalised in the second
half of 2022 subject to regulatory approvals,” NSE IFSC said.

For listing on the platform issuers will have to meet a
minimum set of ESG standards apart from complying with the specific criteria
defined by NSE IFSC for the sustainability which they want to list.

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NSE IFSC expects a variety of corporate bodies, including
large corporate, small and medium enterprises and startups, as well as
non-profit and social impact organizations and government and quasi-government
organizations to leverage and attract capital to meet their climate and ESG
goals.

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Blockchain will
be used to ensure integrity, speed, tracking and traceability of transactions.
ESG-focused platform ECube Investment Advisors and Blockchain products company
Chainflux are working closely with NSE IFSC.

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Vikram Limaye, Managing Director and CEO at NSE said,
“We are committed to establishing the international sustainability
platform at GIFT City. Such a trading platform can play an important role in
channelizing capital that will be required in ESG and sustainability
transitions across the globe”.

The platform will encourage the issuance of new
sustainability-related financial products by a wide group of organizations from
across the world. This represents an important response to the challenge of
resolving global environmental issues like climate change, he added.

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Injeti Srinivas, Chairman at IFSCA said the move would
encourage responsible conduct of business and allow organizations to raise
sustainable finance from such a platform.