You can now open dollar accounts sitting in India! Yesterday an RBI circular allowed Indian residents to open foreign currency accounts in GIFT City. This can be for any permissible purpose under its Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS). This can be tourism, maintenance of relatives, gifts, investing in stocks/ETFs/bonds or education. So let’s say you do 1-2 foreign trips and also want to buy Apple stock and also want to fund your kid’s education. Earlier you might have to go to London/Singapore/New York and deal with the hassles of opening accounts there. Now this is possible in our very own GIFT City near Gandhinagar. The catch is you must either use the money for remit it back within 6 months. For example if it is for investment, invest the money in foreign stocks/bonds/ETFs within 6 months of remitting it to GIFT City. Also, the accounts have to be declared in Schedule FA of your ITR and any returns are taxable in India.