National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) have been given the go-ahead for their international financial centre in western India, they said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

The proposed NSE International Financial Service Centre (IFSC)-SGX Connect aims to bring together the trading of Nifty products in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) and create a larger pool of liquidity comprising international and home market participants, the release said.

The proposal is subject to further approvals from relevant local authorities.

"SGX and NSE will continue to work with all key stakeholders to make the NSE IFSC-SGX Connect operational before the end of 2020, subject to members' readiness and receiving all relevant approvals," the two said.

"Both exchanges are also working to discontinue related arbitration proceedings," they added.

The two exchanges have been locked in dispute after India's three main bourses unexpectedly announced in February last year that they would stop licensing their indices to foreign bourses from August.

Arbitration proceedings began in the matter after an Indian court last May referred the dispute to an arbitrator.

The arbitrator had asked SGX to continue listing and trading SGX Nifty contracts beyond August, and barred it from offering its proposed new products until a final decision.

Over the past two decades, SGX has become the most popular market for foreign investors to bet on Indian equity indexes, with Nifty 50 futures tracking the NSE's main index.