Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a series of high-level meetings with top global executives in New York on 4 September, pitching India's digital infrastructure sector as a premier investment destination, according to an official statement. The discussions covered opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, data centres, financial services, and GIFT City, against the backdrop of India's 7.8% real GDP growth in Q1 of FY 2026-27.

Digital Infrastructure and AI in Focus

In a meeting with Sanjeev Ahuja, Chairman and CEO of Tillman Holdings, Sitharaman highlighted how India's policy framework — including recent Union Budget announcements — is designed to attract investment in digital infrastructure. She pointed to rapid expansion in AI, cloud computing, digital services, and enterprise technology as sectors generating sustained demand for data centres, high-capacity networks, and reliable power infrastructure.

The Finance Minister noted that firms like Tillman are well-positioned to participate in the next phase of India's digital infrastructure build-out, and the two sides discussed prospects for developing large-scale, resilient, and sustainable digital infrastructure campuses.

Risk Management and GIFT City Expansion

Sitharaman also met Dean Klisura, CEO of Marsh Re, and Devanshu Dhyani, head of strategy and corporate development at the firm. She underscored that India offers global professional-services and risk-management companies a rare combination: a large domestic market, skilled talent, expanding infrastructure, strong digital capabilities, and a reform-oriented business environment.

The Marsh Re team acknowledged the government's reform orientation and expressed keenness to expand its presence in India, citing the country's level playing field and a well-informed regulator in the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). The company also informed the Finance Minister that it has strengthened its focus on GIFT City and is deepening its engagement with the financial ecosystem there across products and services.

BNY Mellon Sees India as a Strategic Global Hub

In a separate meeting with Alejandro Perez, Group COO of BNY Mellon, discussions centred on India's resilient growth trajectory and opportunities for deeper investment by global financial institutions. Perez highlighted BNY Mellon's longstanding commitment to India, describing the country as a critical market in its global operations and growth strategy.

He noted that BNY Mellon's India operations are evolving beyond a delivery centre role, with the country increasingly serving as a strategic global hub for innovation, technology, and advanced capabilities — including AI. The company also flagged its engagement with leading Indian institutions, including IITs, to develop and nurture high-quality talent.

The discussion additionally covered India's growing Digital Public Infrastructure, Global Capability Centres (GCCs), and the GIFT City-IFSC ecosystem. Sitharaman invited the BNY Mellon team to visit GIFT-IFSC and explore the range of products and services available there.

Broader Context: India's Investment Pitch Abroad

The New York meetings are part of a sustained outreach by the Finance Ministry to attract foreign capital into India's fast-growing economy. This comes amid heightened global competition for investment in digital infrastructure, with countries across Asia and the Middle East aggressively positioning themselves as AI and data-centre hubs. India's combination of scale, talent, and a reform-oriented regulatory environment has increasingly become the centrepiece of its investor pitch. With GIFT City gaining traction as an international financial hub, the government is clearly looking to accelerate institutional inflows through direct CEO-level engagement.