New Delhi, Feb. 20 -- The GIFT City regulator has started asking inactive companies to voluntarily surrender their licences if they do not intend to start a business, according to three people in the know, as India seeks to ensure the international finance hub is not reduced to a paper address.

"Entities that remain inactive have been asked about their plans and, where there is no clear intent to operate, they may be persuaded to voluntarily surrender the license," said an official, one of the three people quoted earlier, on the condition of anonymity. All three people quoted didn't want to be identified.

In three cases, dormant ventures in the capital markets segment were asked to surrender their licences because of the same reason, th...