Marking a significant step in India’s effort to connect domestic investors with international capital markets, the NSE International Exchange (NSE IX) on Wednesday said it has soft launched a Global Access platform, enabling Indian investors to directly trade in equities, debt and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The platform will initially go live with access to the US markets, with plans to expand to as many as 30 international markets over the next three-six months, said V Balasubramaniam, Managing Director and CEO, NSE IX. “Just like trading in Indian stock markets, investors will be able to use us as a platform to trade in global markets. We are beginning with the US, which is a market of significant interest. Over time, access will be expanded to 30 global markets,” Balasubramaniam told businessline. The initial attempt is to get access to the markets of G-7 nations which caters to the 50-60 per cent of the global GDP.
He said the initiative presents a strong diversification opportunity for Indian investors, particularly affluent individuals seeking global exposure in their equity and investment portfolios. The Global Access platform has been designed to facilitate outbound investments under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) framework of the Reserve Bank of India, which permits resident individuals to remit up to $250,000 per financial year for overseas investments.
“This is a capital market intermediary and a regulated platform,” Balasubramaniam said. Investors can complete a fully-digital KYC process in under a minute. Funds for investments can be remitted through a Gift City-based bank account linked to the platform.
“We have set up a subsidiary called NSE IX Global Access. We are currently in a soft-launch phase and will continue testing for another 10 days before formally signing up partners. Even now, investors can visit our website and open an account,” he said.
He added that retail investors can undertake fractionalised buying of global stocks through the platform. However, trading in cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and derivatives is not permitted.
“At some point, we will also enable the platform for institutional investors in India,” Balasubramaniam said.
Referring to existing overseas investing routes, he noted that current transactions in foreign equities are not directly regulated by SEBI. “In India, what people are currently doing is not very regulated,” the NSE IX official said.
NSE IX has tied up with ViewTrade, among the first foreign brokers to establish a base in GIFT City, to facilitate the execution and settlement of global trades.
When asked what other steps are being taken to internationalise NSE IX’s operations, Balasubramaniam said, “We are reaching out to many (foreign) companies through road shows. We are also looking at countries in the neighbourhood. Some of them have already started with their bond listings. Secondly, we are trying to get into dual listing frameworks so that companies from friendly nations can get listed with us too. The idea is they will create a track record and tomorrow if they want to raise money, Indians can also invest in those foreign companies. Primarily international companies wanting to raise global capital also want Indians investing into their companies. So GIFT City becomes a good centre to list”
The official said that NSE IX was scouting for new age foreign companies to list on the stock exchange. “We are also looking at foreign companies that are doing a lot of business with India because they feel that they can either create an India subsidiary and list in India or they can keep the parent company as it is and they can float it in GIFT City where Indians can invest in a dollar-mode. We are talking to Silicon valley companies, Delaware-based companies in the US,” he added.
Published on February 25, 2026
