Nasdaq Vice-President Edward Knight on Tuesday said he will meet Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss the listing of Indian companies in the United States.
"India should allow initial listing of companies on US stock exchanges, like China, Singapore, Israel, Canada and Nordic States," Knight, who is also the interim chairman of the USIBC board of directors, told CNBC-TV18 on September 6.
He said he has already had productive discussions with the Finance Ministry and he was cautiously optimistic about the listing prospects.
Talking about the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pulling out of Indian equity markets over the last few months, Knight said, "Investors have taken a step back due to uncertainties, but technology is synonymous with economic growth."
On US markets, Knight said he was optimistic about the tech sector and that 250 companies in the Nasdaq pipeline have been wanting to go public. He added that he wanted to explore cooperation with IFSC in GIFT City. "Nasdaq can be a technology partner, provide integrity and anti-financial crime tools to IFSC in GIFT City," Knight said.
He said India has 260 unicorns ready to go public and that he would like to set up a startup-to-unicorn pipeline. "We would like to work with the Indian government to facilitate access for these unicorns to global capital markets," he said.
