India is building a new city to provide a convenient way for global investors to enter its booming economy.
In Gujarat, the home of Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, some buildings have been gradually uprooted on a barren land of about 5,400 acres. India hopes that these buildings will one day rival financial centres such as Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong.
It is called Gujarat International Finance City, or GIFT City.
Two stock exchanges were established in the city last year, and recent government exemptions have made transactions almost tax-free. Hong Kong will also set up its own financial regulator as part of efforts to reduce the red tape and bureaucracy faced by foreign investors.
Ashishkumar Chauhan, chief executive of the Mumbai Stock Exchange, said: "Ultimately, this city should become a tool or a place for people everywhere in India, just as Hong Kong has done for China in the past thirty or forty years."
"We believe that India will provide a platform for companies and investors from overseas to meet, trade and invest in India's growth story," he added.
Some investors have noticed that when trading started 15 months ago, the exchange traded about $1 million a day. On Monday, the figure topped $500 million for the first time.
"When your assets are close to $500 million, some of the world's largest companies, such as JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and others, will start to step in," Pandy said. "Things are starting to improve."
The next step is to make people really live there.
At present, the city has only a few buildings - three large office buildings, a school and a data center, where workers are transported by bus from surrounding areas. Its first homes will be completed in May, and a four-tower World Trade Center complex is expected to be completed in the next two years.
Convenient transportation: Ahmedabad Airport is only 25 minutes'drive away.
GIFT City has attracted nearly $2 billion in real estate investment, and Pandy expects that figure to eventually rise to nearly $11 billion.
He acknowledged that there was still a long way to go to compete with Singapore or Hong Kong.
"These cities were not built overnight..." We still have a lot of work to do, "he said. "If you look at it, you'll see that the right building blocks are in place."