Ahmedabad: Leading Indian banker, Uday Kotak, was appointed as the chairman of Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited (GIFTCL) with immediate effect. Kotak succeeded Hasmukh Adhia, who was serving as non-executive chairman of the Board.A Padma Bhushan awardee (2026), Kotak is the founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, which began as Kotak Mahindra Finance Limited in 1985 and became India’s first non-banking financial company to secure a banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India in 2003. After resigning from the post of the MD and CEO of the bank in 2023, he currently serves as its non-executive director.
The latest govt resolution states that Kotak will assume charge with immediate effect, and his appointment will continue until further orders, with the detailed terms and conditions to be decided separately.Adhia, a retired 1981-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre and former Union finance secretary, was appointed chairman of GIFTCL in June 2023.Kotak held key roles as co-chairman of the Indo-UK Financial Partnership and former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry. He was also appointed by the govt of India as the non-executive chairman of the board of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd to steer it through a crisis.GIFT City is India’s first operational International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), wherein over 1,100 entities are operational. As many as 35 IFSC banking units are also present at GIFT-IFSC as of today, according to sources. It is positioned as a global financial and technology hub, attracting domestic and international institutions across banking, insurance, capital markets and fintech.
