India fever : the new Indian professional in Singapore. 9789810823191, 9810823193

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Reproduced from India Fever: The New Indian Professional in Singapore by Amrit Barman (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009). This version was obtained electronically direct from the publisher on condition that copyright is not infringed. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Individual articles are available at < http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg >

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Dedicated in loving gratitude to my mother, Tulsi Barman

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn, Hundreds of bees in the purple clover, Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn, But only one mother the wide world over. George Cooper

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The Singapore Indian Association, established in 1923, seeks to fulfil the material, intellectual, cultural and recreational aspirations of the community. The IA left its mark on the destiny of the Indian community during the Great Depression, World War II, and the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. Since Singapore’s Independence in 1965, it has provided a link between Indians and the larger multi-racial community that constitutes the nation. With the rise of India, the IA is serving as a platform where new arrivals from India can socialize with settled Indians. The Singapore Indian Association Book Series is a new initiative to make available scholarly works on the Singapore Indian community to a wide audience, both Indian and nonIndian, whether in Singapore or abroad. Carefully researched and engagingly written, these books are part of the IA’s outreach efforts as it continues to identify itself with the needs and aspirations of Indians in a globalizing, multiracial Singapore.

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First published in Singapore in 2009 by the Singapore Indian Association 69 Balestier Road Singapore 329677 Distributed worldwide by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author. © 2009 Amrit Barman The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the author and his interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the publisher or its supporters. Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Barman, Amrit. India fever : the new Indian professional in Singapore. (Singapore Indian Association book series ; no. 2) 1. Indians (Asian people)—Singapore. 2. Professional employees—Singapore. I. Title II. Series. HD8038 S6B25 2009 ISBN 978-981-08-2319-1 (hard cover) ISSN 1793-8325 Cover photo courtesy of Vishal Garg. Typeset by Superskill Graphics Pte Ltd Printed in Singapore by Seng Lee Press Pte Ltd

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Contents Foreword

ix

Acknowledgements

xi

Introduction

xiii

1

The Decision Tree

3

2

Dateline 1997

23

3

The Shell

35

4

Crème

49

5

Mild India Fever

65

6

Support

83

7

Silence

101

8

Tipping Point

119

Epilogue: CECA

131

About the Author

134

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Foreword The arrival of global Indians in Singapore continues a relationship that stretches back centuries. Indic influences have played a defining, and even a determining, role in the life of Singapore from the pre-colonial Indianized empires of Southeast Asia; through the colonial period, when the East India Company was instrumental in the setting up of modern Singapore; even during the Cold War period; and certainly since then. The global Indians who are arriving in Singapore today represent the cutting edge of Indian excellence in critical economic areas such as information technology. They embody the possibilities created by a rising India in Southeast Asia and beyond. Singapore’s ability to attract global Indian talent shows the Republic’s success in providing an environment in which talent can thrive. One question that has come to the fore in recent times is whether these new Indians are interacting sufficiently with settled Indians and the wider Singaporean community. After all, without this interaction, the new Indians will not become a full part of the mainstream. This would mean a loss both for them and for Singapore. The country’s cultural coherence requires that immigrants become integrated into the public sphere. In order to achieve this coherence, arriving Indians need more opportunities to meet settled Indians. This is where the settled Indians can play a greater role through

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institutions such as the Singapore Indian Association that can be a platform for social mixing. Mr Amrit Barman’s book probes beyond the surface to examine what brings global Indians to Singapore, what holds them back here, how they relate to the rest of Singapore, and what their hopes and aspirations are. As a global Indian himself who is a product of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, the author draws on his own experiences in articulating the views of global Indians who have made Singapore home. This book weaves personal insights into larger issues of the Indian diasporic identity in a brisk and readable narrative that will educate even as it entertains. I congratulate the author on his work, and commend the Singapore Indian Association for publishing it. Miss Indranee Rajah Deputy Speaker and Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC, Singapore

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Acknowledgements I would like to thank a number of people who have influenced the creation of this book. First, I need to express loving gratitude to my wife who gave me all the encouragement in the germination stages of this idea and to my daughter, Sneha who supplied me with endless cups of late night chai to go along with the midnight oil. I express my gratitude also to my friend, Asad Latif, who first suggested this topic to me and subsequently supported me all the way. Asad also introduced me to Ambassador Kesavapany, Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, who has been a source of support and encouragement from the moment I was introduced to him. As the leader of the Singapore Indian Association, he has primarily been influential in ensuring that this book gets to meet the bookshelves. I need to thank two other people who have shaped many of my thoughts on this topic — Dr Jaishankar, the Indian High Commissioner to Singapore for his keen insights; and my mentor, Mr Supriyo Sircar; both of whose thought processes helped to shape some of the key building blocks of this book. A very special note of thanks also to Mrs Triena Ong and her team at ISEAS who took the considerable effort to

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design, oversee production and take it all the way to you, the reader. My thanks as well to Markus Bischof, Jim Kapernaros and the rest of our great team at Cisco Systems for supporting my avocation all the way and for turning a blind eye to my occasional red-eyed morning. Finally, I would like to thank Vishal Garg who devoted considerable thought and effort to conceptualizing the cover design for India Fever.

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Introduction Although it serves as an introduction, this piece is written last of all. Firstly, who is the new Indian? To me, and for the purposes of this book, the new Indian is a first generation Indian in Singapore. He could have come here twenty years ago and even become a Singaporean citizen. Or, he could be “fresh off the boat”. Either way, the fact is that he represents the India of today in Singapore. The New Indian phenomenon in Singapore becomes highly visible due to two reasons. The first is to do with the nature of Singapore itself — its small land mass and its limited population base. As a result, any change of demographic tends to get highlighted quickly. We have seen this repeatedly in the various responses to new population groups like the foreign workers assimilation issues, the China-mom phenomenon and the entire foreign talent debate. The second reason is rooted in a number of contrasts between the native Singaporean Indian and the new Indian professionals coming into Singapore. These contrasts are largely due to historical reasons that resulted in a majority of native Singapore Indians having their roots in the southern part of the Indian sub-continent and speaking Dravidian languages like Tamil, which is one of the four official languages of Singapore. In comparison, the New Indian in Singapore comes from all over the sub-continent, including

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the south and speaks a large number of Indian languages with Hindi serving as some sort of a common thread. One other aspect of this contrast is also rooted in history. The native Indian Singaporean carries an Indian cultural legacy from a century ago that has been extrapolated over time and has been peppered with Chinese and Malay influences. In contrast, the new Indian professional carries a more recent Indian cultural identity largely untouched by local South East Asian influences. In the recent past, there have been several discussions on the role and influence of the new Indian professional in Singapore. These discussions have taken place at various platforms, ranging from the HDB coffee shop to the Singapore parliament. There are really no negative aspects that have been raised, the worst of the crimes being snobbery and arrogance! However, these discussions have taken place and they highlight some concerns and well as opportunities that the recent influx of the new Indian professional signifies. No other foreign community in Singapore is as brashly “in your face” as the new Indian. While Caucasians are expected to be rich and high profile; eyebrows tend to get raised when Indians are seen to be very successful, rich or fun-loving. Somehow, this image of an Indian is not at sync with the traditional line of thought! In fact, in recent years a new term has been coined to describe this — the “Orchard Road Indian”. Nothing can describe the contrast better and the term is both an acknowledgement and a back-handed compliment. A number of stereotypes are getting re-constructed — in corporate boardrooms, at the shopping malls and in the residential heartlands of Singapore. Much of this is part of

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a larger global trend, but possibly more starkly visible in Singapore, due to the historical contrasts in this part of the world. My journey through the writing of this book has been an exploration of the gradual assimilation process of the new Indian in Singapore from a number of angles — business, arts, social life and the influences on Singapore. As I researched, wrote and re-wrote, I started to understand the influence of the new Indian on Singapore at a deeper level. I was also able to identify with the influence of Singapore on the individual new Indian. From a personal perspective; I was able to better understand my own relationship with this country which has welcomed my family and me with open arms and has given us opportunities way beyond the possibilities back home. Over the last eleven years of my stay in Singapore, I have been part of and witness to some fairly fundamental changes. India has graduated from being a poor sleeping giant to being the next economic powerhouse. From a Singaporean perspective as well, India has become an important trading partner. Indian tourists are everywhere. And, north Indian cuisines are available almost anywhere in Singapore. An orchid has been named after Shahrukh Khan and the sales assistant at the Mont Blanc shop lavishes attention on me even after I tell her that I do not plan to buy anything that day. India Fever is structured in the form of a number of essays that individually focus on several key areas like the individual, the community, business as well as the relationship between this new group of Indian immigrants and the rest of Singapore society, especially native Indians.

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While these essays can be individually read, I would urge the reader to start from the beginning itself since at several points, an essay raises issues or ideas that are also used in a subsequent composition. While it is interesting and even easy for me to approach this topic, the reader may encounter bias at some points. I would like to clarify that I have tried to be objective and approached this project with an observation-insight-analysis perspective. Still, I would not be too surprised if my own cultural roots and situational alignments were to influence some of the insights. To the reader, I offer no apologies but at the same time, I do offer encouragement to interpret some of the insights based on your own experiences and if possible, to send feedback to me. A few notes on the writing of this book. Largely and pre-dominantly, this book was conceptualized, structured and composed on a PDA. Many of the chapters, ideas and observations were quickly jotted down as notes or text messages; later retrieved and expanded into a proper word document. In terms of the research, a large part has been done on the internet with a very liberal usage of the google and other search engines. The internet is the genie of our times and its blessings are liberally sprinkled across many of the pages of this book. Of course, my journey has also included many observations as well as a large number of conversations with a wide cross-section of Singapore society. These conversations have given me the greatest amount of pleasure amongst all the activities involved in this project. I have tried to use facts and figures as examples to highlight some points or insights that I wish to make across

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these pages. At other times, I have used facts to lead the reader towards an insight. However, this book is not intended to be a reference document and I have not included the usual “references” that you may be used to in books of this nature. I would wish you to read this as a line of thought or perhaps as a point of view, more than anything else. I would like to see this book play a role in encouraging more interactions between the first wave of Singapore Indians and the new wave of Indians coming into Singapore in more recent times. Hopefully, more conversations will throw up ideas and identify areas where both the groups can work and play together. Amrit Barman December 2008 Singapore

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When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature. Sigmund Freud

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1 The Decision Tree Who is the new Indian in Singapore and why is he here? Is he simply a mercenary and a migratory bird? Beyond his contribution at work, is there anything else that he offers to Singapore? Defining the New Indian in Singapore Indians have been a part of Singapore since the earliest days and the last century itself has seen multiple waves of demographic movement from India to Singapore. It is not the easiest exercise to specifically define the new Indian. However, the new Indian is easy to place. We can say that he is first generation (not born in Singapore), though he may not necessarily be born in India either. We can also say that he is well educated and possesses at least a graduate level qualification and often more. He would either be on an Employment Pass or a Permanent Resident, though he is increasingly being seen to be carrying a Singapore passport as well. He is in distinct contrast to his poorer and less educated countrymen who are still hired by Singapore companies as workers on work permit contracts. From a purely logical perspective, the Indian worker is as much of a new Indian as is his educated cousin. However, the Indian worker’s journey is very different in gradient and perspective, and for the purpose of this book, we will not include him in

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our definition of the new Indian in Singapore. Nor do we include the Singaporeans of Indian origin whose parents came to live and work in Singapore during the colonial era and before. The new Indian in Singapore is actually part of a larger phenomenon that is seeing a large and growing number of Indian professionals traveling the world. While Indians have always been happy to travel to distant lands in search of opportunity, the current stream is propelled by India’s dominance in the areas of Information Technology, outsourcing and an increasing impact in the world of management in general. The initial impact of Indian brainpower was concentrated in the Silicon Valley in California, USA in the eighties of the last century. At that time, India itself was termed a “sleeping giant”. In the quarter of a century since, the giant has awoken from its slumber, though not yet fully energized. India is slowly moving towards taking its rightful place in the league of nations and it’s English educated middle class exudes an increasing hunger as well as confidence. India produces the largest number of English speaking graduates a year. It also produces almost 400,000 engineers every year. Over the last decade, India has become the developed world’s favorite recruitment destination for smart talent. The availability of this talent pool has made India an attractive destination for outsourcing work for multi-national companies from around the world. More than anything else, including government policy, this availability of talent has been a driver for growth for India’s cities and indeed for the nation itself. The story of Bangalore is a good illustration and is well documented. Ever since Texas Instruments set

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up shop in Bangalore in the mid-eighties, the city has never been the same. However, dozens of Indian cities are now going thru’ the same boom today, including several Tier 2 cities across the country. The entire phenomenon of “India Rising” has resulted in Indian professionals traveling the world in search of the best work, the best pay and the best quality of life. They are being courted with increasing vigor by countries as varied as France, Japan, New Zealand and Germany to mention just a few; apart from the USA which has been a traditional and long time magnet for Indian professionals. A good example is the creative approach adopted by the French. The French government is easing work permit rules and even funding French language courses for students in India who wish to go to France for higher education. There are already 31 colleges in India which have French language trainers! The obvious thought process is that French language enabled students graduating from French universities would find integrating into the business and cultural landscape of France much easier than otherwise. Singapore, with its emphasis on an open economy and its need for global talent is also doing its bit to make itself attractive to the new global Indian professional. In fact, it is doing quite a fair bit, as you will see from the discussions across these pages. Speaking at a seminar in Mumbai, India in 2004, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, then Deputy Prime Minister said, “Over the years, we have benefited greatly from an inflow of talent from India, as well as of NRIs from around the world, and we will continue to welcome them.” Singapore enjoys great branding in India and a number of initiatives across education and industry are focused on

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attracting fine Indian talent to this country. Hot favorites are the graduates of the IITs and IIMs who enjoy a high degree of visibility. However, professionals in the biomedical sciences, in banking and finance as well as in manufacturing are no less welcome. This then, is the breed of Indian professional that is making its way to Singapore in rapidly increasing numbers. Making the Decision In a strictly local context, there is a feeling that the new Indian professional is a migratory bird, only in Singapore to further his own narrow interests with no regard to the contribution that he should or could make to Singapore. To some extent, that is true — and for good reason. Consider this. On one hand, Singapore is a small country focused on maintaining its competitiveness by positioning itself as an attractive hub for money, goods and services. To do so, it needs to compete for talent and does so aggressively and generally successfully. On the other hand, the Indian professional is a man on the move. And, in a hurry. The world is his stage and he is wont to move to locations that best reward his skills and provide the best quality of life for him and his family. Once away from home, every city and country is equally placed in his eyes — a foreign city. At least at the start, the romance of the new Indian professional with Singapore is a courtship of convenience. He makes a professional decision to come to Singapore to work. He is primarily driven by what probably would be a good career opportunity. And, that represents the beginning

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of his relationship with Singapore — however fleeting that may be. I remember an afternoon in June 1997 in a shared flat in Tampines. I had been in Singapore for only a few days at that time and was spending a weekend afternoon with Sujay, a college friend of mine, who himself had been in Singapore for only a couple of weeks. I remember that both of us had been very convinced that we would be in Singapore for a very short time, and would soon be on our way to brighter shores. As it transpired, Sujay still lives in Tampines and very happily so. And, at another edge of the Bedok Reservoir, I too remain happily rooted to Singapore. We still meet often and sometimes at the Bedok Reservoir Park. We talk of property and COE prices. We do not discuss the potential of moving to brighter shores. Having chosen Singapore as a place to work, the Indian professional goes through three distinct phases of decision making that drive his perceptions of and responses to Singapore. It is an interesting exercise to look at these phases to try to understand the New Indian professional’s relationship with Singapore. This understanding then gives us some clues on why some of these professionals stay on in Singapore, sometimes forever, while others choose have a more temporary relationship. Thirty Rupees for a Cup of Tea The first phase is one of trial. On arriving in Singapore, the Indian professional gives himself and Singapore a while to get to know each other. Since most new Indians, in fact, come to Singapore from India, a natural journey is the

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search for India in his new place of residence. He looks for his comfort zones and reaches out to the familiar. I have described some of these emotions and experiences in the chapter “Hello Singapore”. This is also a period when the new Indian professional evaluates his workplace as well as his social background. At work, he seeks a good work environment, challenging assignments, adequate pay as well as a degree of bonhomie. Specially, he is looking to see if he is considered an equal with the local population and is sensitive to real or even imagined signs of inequality. If he is not fully satisfied with his first job — for whatever reasons –– then he needs to look for a new employer. The existing Employment Pass would need to be cancelled and a new one applied for with the help of the new employer. There is a lot of discussion and heartburn about the potential of looking for and applying for a second job. The new Employment Pass must be approved all over again and this causes anxiety and tension. Typically, this is a key moment when the new Indian may evaluate opportunities in other countries as well and decide to move on — giving rise to the migratory bird phenomenon. From a social perspective, the questions and experiences can be more varied — depending on whether the new Indian professional is single or married. In either situation of course, there is a tendency to gravitate towards the more Indian aspects of Singapore and meet with more people of his own linguistic group, for example. If he is married, then the issues impacting family play a huge role in determining the impression that he may have of Singapore. The inputs that he is getting from his wife and the feedback that he may receive from his children of their

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experiences in school are particularly important. By and large, I have found these to be generally favorable to Singapore. Most Indian professionals and their spouses (who also tend to be working women, in general) tend to enjoy living and working in Singapore. This is also a period when everything gets multiplied by thirty — the quick conversion rate between the Singapore dollar and the Indian rupee. So, everything seems to cost a lot more. Thirty rupees for a regular cup of tea and three hundred for a pack of cigarettes can be quite disconcerting! However, the savings at the end of the month also seem to look very good. Some nice indulgences as well — maybe a new digital camera or the ipod. And the first trip home. The buying of the gifts, the photographs to be taken, the stories to be told and the logistics to be taken care of. This usually happens at the end of the first year of stay in Singapore and is also usually the time to say “yea” or “nay” to the new country. Getting Permanent If the first phase of the new relationship with Singapore has progressed well, the new Indian professional is ready to look at a longer term future in the country. There are no numbers that can help illustrate the relative number of the new Indians who actually cross this chasm but anecdotal evidence points to a very high rate of conversion. Most new Indians who I have known have more or less chosen to remain back in Singapore and embraced the many goodies that Singapore has to offer. Also important to note is the fact that the population of new Indians is not at all homogeneous in character. Not by

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a long mile. Equally large is the diversity of cultural backgrounds. They could be speaking any one of more than eighteen languages and the concept of a linguistic and regional cultural identity is deeply ingrained. On coming into Singapore, these cultural identities can actually take deeper roots in a sub-conscious effort at the preservation of traditional value systems. The fact that Singapore itself is a highly multi-racial and multi-lingual society helps immensely. There is also a vast variance of professional standing in terms of job scope, seniority and salaries amongst the new Indians. In Singapore, the new Indian may not actually know his neighbors, but he generally succeeds in finding his own little niche in the city. He is able to cultivate his little circle of close friends and a broader circle of acquaintances. It helps immensely that home is also close by — just a few hours away by air. Over a period of time, the new Indian decides that this is where he intends to live and work for “the time being”. Often the length of the “staying” is not clearly defined. However, there is a greater sense of commitment and the resume stops traveling the globe. How quickly or gradually does this happen? It depends. I know of a lot of families that have very quickly decided that Singapore is the place for them. Others tend to take more time, even a few years occasionally. Much also depends on the work front. If the first job is not too satisfying or not too well paying; a question mark remains for a while. A significant number of new Indians actually arrive in Singapore holding an annually contracted job and there is always an element of uncertainty in that situation. Culturally, most Indians, like most Asians, prefer the stability that

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comes with a permanent job and a contract-worker status is not too comfortable a situation to be in. However, once this key career-related issue is settled, the big decisions start getting made. First and foremost of these is the decision to apply for and to acquire the piece of blue plastic called a Permanent Resident card. The Permanent Resident status is very important because it allows the new Indian to choose to look for a better job without any risk of losing his residence status in Singapore. The normal Employment Pass is sponsored by the employer and needs to be cancelled once the employee is out of the company rolls. In comparison, the Permanent Residence Identity, as the name suggests, allows the new Indian to stay on in Singapore regardless of his employment status. This makes the PR status a very highly coveted and desirable status for those intending to make Singapore their home for a longer period of time. The Permanent Resident status also activates the Provident Fund (CPF). What this means is that the new Indian now starts contributing to his Provident Fund, thus reducing the cash component of his take home pay. Nobody really likes to bring home less cash than he has otherwise been used to. His acceptance of this fact is the first real show of commitment that he makes towards Singapore. Once done, he is no longer a mercenary. At least; not completely mercenary. A number of other decisions follow swiftly and without too much complication. These include decisions like investing further in the country — like buying a house, buying insurance locally and perhaps a car as well. These then are the beginnings of getting rooted — for a while, for the time bring, for now. By now, the thirty rupee syndrome would have vanished completely though the

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options to go anywhere in the world, including back home, remain very much open. With spiraling salaries and a rapidly improving standard of living in India, the plan to go back home is always present and represents an attractive option. However, by this time, the family is usually the holding back factor since Singapore provides an extremely congenial environment for the family. The country is safe and education is both very affordable and very good. So are the public transport and public healthcare systems. So, many of the new Indians fall prey to the “next year” or “soon” syndrome — where the plan to return home exists but remains constantly in the future. However, even as a Permanent Resident, the new Indian retains his identity as distinct from Singapore. His lifestyle, social and cultural preferences remain deeply his own and very Indian. Cricket and Bollywood remain the primary sources of entertainment and the Indian newspapers are read online ever so often. Politics at home is closely followed and the achievements of fellow Non-Resident Indians in Singapore and in other countries are sources of immense pride. Weekend dinners are punctuated with lively discussions on what is wrong with Indian cricket team and how poverty and illiteracy can be eliminated in India. There is opportunity in the “am here now, but may go back someday” syndrome. A good example is the emergence of the Indian International schools in Singapore. There are several such schools — all following the Indian school curriculum and a very large number of Indian professionals prefer to send their children to these schools, even though the costs are very much higher than those in the local schools. One such school, the Global Indian International

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School was started just a few years back and now has two campuses in Singapore and several more across the region. At least two other Indian International Schools — the Delhi Public School (DPS) and the National Public School (NPS) — have their campuses in Singapore and run full classes. Together, these schools form the largest chunk of international schools in Singapore. Interestingly, about five years ago, there were no such schools. The rapid growth of Indian education in Singapore is an interesting aspect that highlights several phenomena — the rapid expansion of the new Indian community here, the importance of the family and of education in this context as well as the opportunities that this “New Indian” phenomena is throwing up. Over a period of time, however, for the new Indian professional, more serious thoughts start crossing the mind. Like that of citizenship. The Red Passport The first thoughts of citizenship are often sparked by a tertiary need. The Indian passport is notorious for being subject to stringent visa requirements imposed by almost every country in the world. This makes traveling a chore for Indian professionals. Even a day trip to neighboring Philippines requires a visa application that is complicated, time consuming and expensive. In contrast, the Singapore passport allows for hassle-free travel to almost every country in the world and certainly across the region. This is perhaps a reflection of the openness of Singapore as a nation and it makes a great difference to traveling executives. After a

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number of years of facing travel-related complications and inconveniences with an Indian passport, the Singapore passport tends to provide the most immediate and tangible benefit of taking up citizenship. The decision process, however, is not as simple as the changing of the color of the passport from black to red. Firstly, Singapore does not allow for dual citizenship. This creates a conflict since several other countries like the USA, UK and Australia allow their “new-citizens” to retain their original passports as well. Singapore, on the other hand, requires its new citizens to discard their original allegiance. Secondly, India itself is fast becoming a global powerhouse and the old arguments of “poor home country — better prospects here” often and increasingly do not hold true. It is quite possible now, for example, to live and work in India itself, and make as much (or even more) money that one would make in Singapore. That prospect is especially attractive for Indian professionals working with American or European multinationals, who could (over a period of time) seek to be transferred back to India within the company itself. It is a reality now that many of these companies have massive and growing set-ups in India. American multinationals like Citibank, Texas Instruments, Unilever, Microsoft, SAP and many others are far bigger in India than they are in Singapore. This increasing attractiveness of India itself drives the need for far greater reasons to want to discard Indian citizenship in favor of Singapore. Thirdly, the Indian psyche is highly nationalistic in nature and it is never easy for the Indian professional (or,

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for any Indian) to discard his Indian passport and adopt Singapore as his new home in the most complete sense of the word. This one is an emotional barrier and is often the most difficult to cross. Still, an increasing number of Indian professionals are taking the plunge; changing the color of their passports to red, and raising their hands to sing “Majulah Singapura” at the National Day Parade and other occasions. The choice is driven by an increasing realization that in a global world, the choice of nationality is becoming increasingly irrelevant. For a globetrotter, it makes no difference if he belongs to Singapore or Hong Kong or China or India. Far more important is the value of what he brings to the table in terms of his experience, capabilities and contributions. Also, aiding the decision process is the suite of various advantages that Singapore offers to the new Indian professional. I have already discussed the advantages related to travel that are an immediate and tangible benefit. There are other advantages as well. Singapore citizens enjoy a host of benefits and privileges that foreigners (including Permanent Residents) do not. These include tax-related benefits, subsidies connected to the purchase of property from the HDB and even cash-bonuses connected to prolific procreation. Even more important than the professional and financial perspective is the involvement of the family in the decision making process. In more ways than one, the family perspective favors Singapore as a place to consider and call home as compared to Europe or the even the USA. Many Indian professionals are happy to raise their families in

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Singapore since they feel that the value-systems in Singapore are closer to that of India, as compared to the USA for example which is largely more permissive. It is the Asian value systems factor — giving emphasis to education and hard work, respecting one’s elders and so forth that is a source of comfort to the new Indian family. Finally, Singapore actually offers a number of unique benefits to the new Indian professional. By remaining in Singapore, he is able to provide a good English based environment to his family that is both efficient and safe. At the same time, he stays close to his extended family in India since India is only a few hours away. He can actually hop onto an aircraft and be with his parents and cousins at no great expense of time or money. As a result of all of these factors and despite the drawbacks of giving up Indian citizenship, Singapore offers the best of all worlds to a fairly substantial number of Indian professionals. Once done, we have a new Singaporean and another new Indian enters Main Street, Singapore. The Aftermath of Citizenship Actually not too much changes after the new Indian professional takes up citizenship. There is no marked change in value systems and of social circles. There is not even a visible flaunting of the new status. There is however an increasing adoption of the Singapore lifestyle and an involvement with the local community centers for example. One key change is that the children of the family would definitely go through the local education

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system and not to the Global Indian or other International schools. For the second generation, of course, the story is completely different. The second generation tends to consider Singapore as home in any case. Across late 2007 and in early 2008, there has been a quite a debate on the topic of the new Singaporeans being able to relate to (or rather not relating to) the original native Indian Singaporeans. The topic has even been discussed in parliament and there are a number of factors that drive and contribute to such a divide. These issues are discussed in the chapter “Silence” in this book. The Singapore Perspective The new Indian phenomenon represents opportunity for Singapore from multiple points of view. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the new Indian global professional represents an important talent pool in the context of the global fight for talent. Singapore’s competitiveness is based on the existence of a great business infrastructure and the availability of top grade talent. The new Indian professional is educated, talented and hard working. His track record is well proven worldwide and he has made his mark across industries. In fact, many Indians now populate global achievers listings regularly. The most powerful lady in the corporate world today is Indra Nooyi and she is the archetype new Indian professional. The boards of top multinationals are already well populated with new Indian professionals. In the area of entrepreneurship

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as well, the new Indian professional has established his mark. Vinod Khosla, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems and Sabeer Bhatia, founder of hotmail.com are good examples. They are part of a growing number of new Indian professionals who have broken the barriers of the Indian educated middle-class mindset to create value in their business ventures. The new Indian professional is also the current darling of the global talent chase. It is thus important and even imperative for Singapore to establish itself as a destination of choice for the newly global Indian professional. Secondly, the new Indian professional in Singapore has a largely positive impact on the Singapore job scene. Fundamentally, his professional profile is one that creates or helps to create more jobs in Singapore, rather than compete with Singaporeans for existing opportunities. Overall, it can be quite safely said that the new Indian in Singapore ends up creating far more jobs than the one he may have taken up. For a start, the several thousand Indian companies operating in India are themselves responsible for a large number of new employment opportunities at all levels. Companies like Satyam and Tata Consultancy Services are at the forefront of such contributions but of course each Indian business that sets-up shop in Singapore creates new opportunities. The best part of that the number of such companies is only increasing by the month. Further, the new Indian community in Singapore has spawned a large number of entrepreneurs. Just two companies started by expatriate Indians — Emerio and Optimum — have helped to create several thousand job opportunities in Singapore over the last few years. Their

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journeys are detailed in later pages of this book. Like these companies, the dozens of other start-ups have played a major role in creating new job opportunities in Singapore. Apart from entrepreneurs and even in his capacity as a manager in a multi-national company; the new Indian professional helps generate new ideas, execute fresh initiatives and drive programs that lead to more business opportunity and more jobs. Most of the new vacancies thus created are actually filled in by local Singaporeans. The nature and some examples of these contributions have been discussed in the chapter “Mild India Fever” later in this book. Singapore’s ability to attract Indian professional talent also leads to its engagement with India itself at multiple levels — business, tourism and investment. With the new Indian professional, Singaporean companies have access to a group of people who understand India well and are able to help Singapore companies start meaningful conversations with Indian businesses. These contributions take multiple forms. The more than 4,000 Indian companies that have operations in Singapore offer a great starting point for Singaporean companies seeking to establish a foothold in India. Another great starting point is the group of several “bridging” organizations like Network India that help Singaporean companies link up with their counterparts in India. No less important to the entire planning process are the expatriate Indians working in Singaporean companies. They provide direct first-hand market knowledge as well as a wealth of connections into the India market. All of these combine to smoothen the path of Singaporean companies going to India.

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Equally important is the general awareness of India that the presence of the new Indian brings to the Singaporean psyche. Ever so occasionally, a neighbor or acquaintance of mine may seek some advice on this or that issue connected to doing business in India. These sessions are generally informal – over lunch or even a postprandial coffee. On these occasions, I make the effort to explain the manner in which Indian companies do business, what a stray comment may mean, the peculiarities in the specific region where the deal may be happening or even the sort of gifts that may be best appreciated. These “soft” insights coming from Indian friends like myself and the thousands of other new Indians in Singapore represent a deep and valuable well of knowledge for the Singaporean to take advantage of. In fact, a significant number of Singaporean companies are already doing business in India and with a good measure of success. In line with the global shift in business and the increasing importance of China and India on Singapore’s economic perspectives, the significant presence of the new Indian professional provides a great platform for Singapore to engage with India in a holistic manner with multidimensional perspectives.

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Chasing the past, I stumbled into the future. T.A. Sachs

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2 Dateline 1997 In June 1997, as Singapore was about to dive headlong into the Asian currency crisis, I land for the first time at Changi Airport. The first thing that strikes me is the splendor of the airport and the beauty of the drive out from the airport towards the city. The brightness and the luxury of the airport itself and the tree lined highway on the taxi ride into the city remain etched on my mind. The feeling of wonder still comes back — each and every time I return to Singapore from an overseas trip. During the first taxi-ride itself I note that all the taxis are air-conditioned and that my taxi driver has a mobile phone. In the Bombay of 1997, only the very rich carried mobile phones and air conditioned taxis were only to be seen in Hollywood movies. And the imposing sky scrapers. One of the early pilgrimages was to take the MRT to Raffles Place, stand at the Arcade and look straight upwards to view one of Singapore’s iconic images. It is a wondrous sight — with all the skyscrapers reaching to the heavens. Later, I learn that Singapore is actually not the city with the tallest buildings. This is because it stipulates a maximum permissible height for all buildings in Singapore. For really imposing high-rise skylines look at Hong Kong. Even Kuala Lumpur has the Petronas Towers — the twin pride of the

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city that was till recently, the tallest building in the world. Nevertheless, for the pilgrim from Mumbai, looking skywards at Raffles Place MRT station is a really big deal. And the efficiency of this city!! Singapore is so efficient that after a while, one gets used to it and only ever notices when one is outside the country. I love the efficiency of the trains in the MRT and admire the frequency as well as the efficiencies around the facilities, the signage and public communications systems. In many ways, it is too easy for someone to come to Singapore and to feel comfortable with the system very quickly. And I am careful. I take care to cross the roads only at pedestrian crossings. I take care to throw my cigarette butts only into ashtrays and litter into dustbins. I am shaken as well by the “Fine $500” signs all over the city and the reports of Corrective Work Orders in the newspapers. Singapore, after all, is a fine city. I wander into the night and I see that Singapore at night is just like any other city — with its share of entertainment and sin. That feels good. And the first experience of the food courts. Many an Indian has been known to be thrown off his feet on his initial expeditions to the coffee shops and food courts of Singapore by the multi-cuisine-flavored aroma that pervades the premises. Of course, that wonder subsides soon enough and before long, one ponders why other cities have not taken to this great concept more wholeheartedly. Soon enough, like any other non-resident Indian, I set about looking for India in Singapore. Eleven years on, sometimes I still find myself subconsciously doing so. The first thing about Singapore, of course is its name itself. India has hundreds or maybe thousands of localities,

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villages, towns and cities whose names end with “pur” or “pore”. The town where I studied, in fact, is called Kharagpur. However, it is a fact that the name “Singapore” was not a gift from Sir Stamford Raffles or the British administration. How then does a city so far removed from India come to have a purely Sanskrit name? History (or legend) has it that in the 14th century, Singapore had become part of the mighty Sri Vijayan empire and was known as Temasek (“Sea Town”). In that period, this small but strategically-placed island had earned a new name — “Singa Pura”, or “Lion City”. According to legend, a visiting Sri Vijayan prince saw an animal he mistook for a lion and Singapore’s modern day name was coined. As I visit the food courts and hawker centers, I find an Indian food stall in almost each one of them — especially the larger ones. They sell, among other stuff like Indian Rojak, the hugely popular “Roti Prata” which is in fact very similar to the Indian bread except that it is made of flour instead of wheat. It is served with a curry, either with or without pieces of chicken or mutton. Come to think of it, when served with Mutton gravy, the Roti Prata is pretty much the same as the Bengali “Mughlai Paratha and Kosha Mangsho”!! So, when did Bengal interact with Singapore? In fact, roti is a commonly used term for bread in Singapore and Malaysia and is the traditional Indian term for bread as well. In fact, the Malay and the Indonesian cuisines have a close similarity with the Indian way of cooking. I always loved Chinese food in India. And, of course, one does not have to look far for Chinese food in Singapore. So, I try out the local Chinese food as well. But, hey, I look through the menu cards and am unable to find Chilli Chicken, Chicken Manchurian or even Chicken Chow Mein!! Quickly,

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I realize that the Chinese food I know is quite different from the real Chinese food and from that point on, I start my acquaintance with the real thing — the dim sum, the hor fun and the char kway teow. The one I am still not able to make friends with is the king of all fruit — the durian, even if it is a D28! I come across something called Indian Rojak and I wonder what it is. Certainly I have not come across something like this in India. It is actually a mix of fried dough fritters, bean curd, boiled potatoes, prawn fritters, hard boiled eggs, bean sprouts and cucumber mixed with a sweet thick, spicy peanut sauce. It turns out that Indian Rojak (Rojak means mixture in Malay) was invented in the 1950s or 1960s by Indian immigrants to Singapore and has parallels in other cuisines — like Malay Rojak or Indonesian Rojak. In Indian Rojak, I see an intermingling of Indian culture with the local Malay culture to produce a hybrid that is both rich and delicious. I visit a famous Indian restaurant — The Apollo Banana Leaf — famous for its super spicy fish head curries, of course. I am thrilled to see the very traditional banana leaf being used as plates. Surprisingly, I find the curry a bit too spicy for my palate!! Even more surprisingly, I find that the majority of the patrons at Apollo are not Indian, but local Chinese Singaporeans and a smattering of Caucasians. What is it that makes the South East Asian palate so appreciative of spicy Indian curries? Not long after, a friend invited me to lunch at the food court on level four of the Amara Hotel building. He treated me to a mutton curry and bread from a traditional Chinese eatery — Nana Curry. Nana Curry is a traditional Chinese curry house — with choices of Chicken

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and Mutton. Oh, the thunderbolt that struck me on the first taste of that hot steaming spicy mutton curry is still fresh in my mind. I have been there many times since and have taken along my friends as well. Still, in a blindfold test, I would have bet my last dollar that I was having a spicy Indian curry. And the ubiquitous cup of tea. One of the finest aspects of Singapore is the ever available cup of tea. In India we say “paani kum chai”, which denotes a very milky sweet cup of tea. Go to any coffee shop in Singapore and say “teh” and you will be served a cup of almost the identical nectar. Forget the fine teas, the herbal stuff and Earl Grey. Go for a strong cup of teh and feel yourself fill up with energy. Coincidentally, the Chinese call tea “cha” which is the same as the colloquial Indian term: “chai” or “cha” in most Indian languages. Maybe not so co-incidentally, since tea was what the Chinese pilgrims like Hsuen Tsang gave to India in exchange for the learnings of ancient Buddhist scriptures. Not a bad deal at all!! I am surprised to find that Tamil is one of the official languages of Singapore and that the Tamil population of Indian origin actually forms more than seven percent of the population of Singapore. It is a testimony to my glaring ignorance that I did not know that before I came here. That helps me understand why Singapore has so many road names that I can relate to. Hindoo Road, Parsi Road, Veerasamy Road, Chulia Street, and so many others. There is even a Tagore Road! Apart from the road names of Indian origin, there are names of colonial origin like Mountbatten Road that provide familiarity. And of course the Singapore Cricket Club at the Padang right in the heart of downtown

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Singapore. Directly, it makes me nostalgic about Mumbai which similarly has the Bombay Gymkhana right across from the Victoria Terminus Station. Also, just a stone’s throw away from the City Center is that little cocoon for all Indians — Little India. Even now, after all these years in Singapore, the general principle is that when in doubt, go to Little India. Little India really is a throwback to the real India, with its crowds, chaos and noise. Every little lane has its own character, provides a brilliance of colours and dozens of food outlets representing every Indian cuisine. Also, in Little India is the redoubtable Mustafa’s, the mandatory stop for every Indian — tourist or otherwise — that walks the streets of Singapore. I have read that this departmental store — famous for its reasonable prices, its vast varieties of everything, its crowds and its twenty-four hour operations grosses a million dollars of business every single day! There is always this debate about Singapore culture. People discuss what constitutes Singaporean culture or if such a concept even exists. Whatever the conclusion to that question may be, it does remain a fact that if there be something called Singaporean culture, there would surely be an Indian flavour to it. The fact is that the Chinese Singaporean goes “aiyoo” once in a while and loves his roti prata. On a more serious note, my notes from conversations on various topics with Singaporean taxi drivers (our social encyclopaedias on wheels) gave me the impression that there is a fairly strong element of Indian influence in the social fabric of Singapore. Firstly, the fact that many Chinese are of Buddhist faith makes them philosophically close to Indians at a fundamental level. As

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I meet and talk with more people, I realize that many of them are followers of Indian saints, the most recent and common being the Sai Baba. Many Chinese Singaporeans are Sai Baba followers and regularly visit his ashram in India. Several old timer Singaporeans are aware of the names and movies of Indian Bollywood legends like Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar. I still find it hard to understand how a Chinese Singaporean could be a fan of Indian cinema. However, that only indicates a similarity in values that the Chinese Singaporean is able to identify with at a fundamental level. One of my favourite haunts while looking for souvenirs for my guests is Bugis Village. Bugis Village boasts of scores of shops selling brass figures and other antiques of Chinese origin. It is a great place to go to when I want to present some purely Chinese figurine to a friend who lives in Europe or in America. One of my favorites is the set of Fu-Lou-Shou which represents Health, Wealth and Prosperity. Another one of my favorites is the image of Sun Wukong, the Chinese Monkey god. Sun Wukong is the strong and mischievous Monkey God born of the Five Elements who traveled to India to bring back valuable Buddhist scriptures. Today, Sun Wukong is well loved and even regarded as a god. Kowloon’s Sau Mau Ping Temple provides the setting for the Monkey God Festival, one of Hong Kong’s most fascinating and strange, celebrations. Some scholars believe that the character Sun Wukong was partly based on Hanuman, the “monkey god” of Hinduism described in a book by the historical Sanzang. I am honored to be invited to the wedding celebrations of my friends, Yasmeen and Abdul. Yasmeen and Abdul are

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the younger generation of extremely cultured Malay families and their marriage was celebrated over two days in a most traditional manner bringing to the fore the richness of the Malay culture. I followed the Khatam-Al-Quran ceremony in the morning where the last few pages of the Quran are recited followed by devotional songs. Even more interesting was the afternoon event in the Mandi Lulur tradition which includes the “berinai” ceremony, which is the dyeing with henna of the hands, and the feet of the bride. This is of course very reminiscent of the Mehndi ceremony of the north Indian marriage tradition. Later in the evening, Yasmeen and Abdul were bathed in a special bath scrub made of natural ingredients including tumeric. Again the mind went back to an evening sixteen years ago, when I went through an extremely uncomfortable ceremony called the haldi (Hindi for tumeric). God only knows how much it cleansed me, but attending this Malay wedding sure did make me contemplate the convergence of the cultures of Bharat and the mythical Suvarnabhumi (of which the Malay peninsula was a part). One of the ways to define a place is by its sounds. The words spoken by the people; the sounds in the advertisements and the voices on the road all contribute to defining the city. In Singapore, the most common sound is that of words spoken in English. Following that is Chinese, the language of the majority and Malay, the language of the original natives of Singapore. While I find Mandarin quite out of reach (other than the cursory “ni hau ma”? or the likes of “tau pau” or “teh see seu tai”), the Malay language is full of familiar words. One of the first words I came across (at MRT platforms) was “Bahaya” which meant “danger”. I

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guess that the word is derived from “Bhay” or fear. Of course, the Malay language (as also the Indonesian language) is called Bahasa Melayu which directly hails from the Indian word for language — Bhasha. Much of the vocabulary of the Malay language is derived from Sanskrit based languages. Many Malay words, ranging from descriptions of Malay royalty (Raja, Putera, Puteri, Maha, Mulia, Seri, etc) and common everyday terms (bakti, suami, cuma, dunia, bumi, jendela, serpu, kerana), have Indian roots. I interact with the people of Singapore. Overall, I find Singaporeans to be soft spoken and very specific in their approach. This is very different from people in India who are not soft spoken at all and rarely specific. I notice a campaign being run all over the country. It urges people to smile more. Yes, it would be nice to have more people smiling in Singapore. And I admire the HDB. I look at the buildings and wonder that 85% of Singaporeans own their own residences. This is a higher number than anywhere else in the world. But, more importantly, it is in such stark contrast with the situation back in India. The average HDB apartment would be considered very good housing in India and would then be accessible to very few people. I am totally impressed by the success of the public housing system in Singapore. And, thus, I look for my India in Singapore. I will not go into the history of these influences but I do realize that many of these influences are the result of the British — led immigration from India to what was the Malaya of the early twentieth century. But I also am able to visualize and listen to the sounds of more ancient influences coming from the Suvarnadwipa period.

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I used to have a comfort zone where I knew I wouldn’t fail. The same four walls and busywork were really more like jail. I longed so much to do the things I’d never done before, But stayed inside my comfort zone and paced the same old floor. I said it didn’t matter that I wasn’t doing much. I said I didn’t care for things like commission checks and such. I claimed to be so busy with the things inside the zone, But deep inside I longed for something special of my own. I couldn’t let my life go by just watching others win. I held my breath; I stepped outside and let the change begin. I took a step and with new strength I’d never felt before, I kissed my comfort zone goodbye and closed and locked the door. If you’re in a comfort zone, afraid to venture out, Remember that all winners were at one time filled with doubt. A step or two and words of praise can make your dreams come true. Reach for your future with a smile; success is there for you! Author Unknown

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3 The Shell First generation immigrants tend to cling to their cultural roots and comfort zones. This tendency, in fact, can often persist for several generations before the processes of assimilation set in. It has been noticed also that people belonging to deep rooted and strong cultural traditions tend to stick to their roots more than others. Almost every major city in the world has its own Chinatown and Little India and these enclaves are testimony to the deep rooted traditions of these two ancient cultures. In India itself, the Jewish community remains fairly closed after centuries of living in their adopted homeland — again a testimony to the strength of the Jewish traditions. In Singapore, of course, we see the blending of three major cultures — the Chinese, the Malay and the Indian. While there has been some assimilation of sorts over time, like the synthesis of the Babas and the Peranakan traditions; the three communities tend to co-exist, even integrate but not fully assimilate. In the previous chapter, Hello Singapore, I talked about my experiences on my arrival to Singapore in 1997 and my search for Indian-ness in Singapore at that time. Over the last decade or so, and several tens of thousands of Indians later, Singapore has more of India than ever before. In fact, it now has a new Indian tradition as a sort of overlay to that which has originally existed. The new Indians come from diverse parts of India, speak a number of different languages

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and follow their own set of traditions that are similar to but distinct from those that Singapore has previously been acquainted with. A thriving and prosperous new Indian community has access to almost everything they would have back home and a superior standard of living to top that. Singapore itself recognizes this phenomenon and is making the most of it as well. When I came to Singapore in 1997, I was ignorant and sometimes even disdainful of all things Chinese. Over the last eleven years, however, I have seen a number of fundamental changes. The changes have happened to me at a personal level, as well as to Singapore at a community level. Earlier this year, on the 1st of July, 2008, the BIG Bollywood FM96.3 music channel was launched as part of MediaCorp’s International Channel. Set up in 1998 to cater to the expatriate communities in Singapore, the International Channel had thus far been broadcasting in French, German, Japanese, and Korean. This is what Mr Philip Koh, Managing Director of MediaCorp Radio had to say. “The addition of Hindi programming on FM96.3 will further reinforce the station’s position as a station for the expatriate community. The Hindi expatriate community is possibly the fastest growing one in Singapore’s quest to attract foreign talent to our shores. We are honored to partner BIG 92.7FM to reach out to this audience and play a part in helping them assimilate.” The Food Scene In 1997, one had to go to an Indian fine dining restaurant to get hold of the simple dal and roti — the staple food of the

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communities from northern India. Today, I could go on and on naming mid-level eating outlets that serve dal and roti and chana and alu-gobi to name just a few of the regular dishes that are easily available. Today, when I go to Lau Pat Sat — the food centre in the heart of the business district on Robinson Road, I am happily confused about which Indian eatery to patronize. I have not counted but I could guess that there are at least fifteen Indian food stalls at Lau Pat Sat itself representing different traditions of Indian cuisine. Even “my Chinese” has come to Singapore. Visit the Fifth Season restaurants or even some of the Komala’s outlets and you can lay your hands on a plate of Gobi Manchurian and Chilli Chicken with Chinese Fried Rice. In India, it used to be called Chinese food but in Singapore, it is called Chindian. There is an interesting bit of history here. About a century or more ago, a few hundred Chinese families migrated to the Eastern Indian city of Kolkata. They number about 7,000 today and a majority of them are based in the locality of Tangra. Tangra itself has become famous for its Chinese eateries and over the years the cuisine has evolved into an eclectic mix of Indian-type Chinese food. Tangra Chinese in fact is the foundation of the flourishing IndianChinese cuisine now popular all over India. In parallel, due to colonial influences, the Chinese Singaporean has developed an innate appreciation of Indian cuisine. To this primarily Chinese audience has arrived the Tangra Chinese cuisine — an Indian-Chinese fusion product. In a strange twist of historical confluence, a genre of Chinese food developed in India is introduced to a Chinese majority audience in a primarily Malay part of the world. I have taken some of my Chinese colleagues to sample these dishes,

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even though they had never come across these “Chinese” dishes earlier, they loved the food and some of them have actually taken their families over to sample this new Chinese taste as well. No other community in Singapore has ever presented Chinese food to the Chinese in a brand new flavour and got away with it. American Hor Fun, anyone? Rajul Patel used to work as a financial controller in London. She moved to Singapore in 1999 with her banker husband and initially took up a job with a local software firm as their Finance Controller. When that did not work out, she dug into her roots and started “Chutney Cafe” a mid-end Indian food outlet serving simple Indian foods tastefully presented and geared to the new corporate Indian. The food is not too heavy, but very traditionally Indian and the ambience is casual but still corporate. The single eatery has now grown into a chain of eateries and has done fantastically well. Others from amongst the community have come forward to provide equally compelling alternatives that are proving to be extremely popular with Indian expatriates and locals alike. Today, “Indian” is as acceptable a choice for a corporate dinner as “Italian” for example. I have been born and brought up in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata but somehow had never come across a dish called Macher Pathuri — a sort of Bengali Otak Otak. I mentioned this to one of my Bengali friends and got a sound scolding. However, the one to introduce me to this dish was a restaurant on the East Coast called “Zurna”.* It is a restaurant run by a Bengali lady, Deepali Ray and is *Note: Zurna has since been renamed “Fifth Season — Flavors of Tangra Chinese”. See photograph.

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dedicated to serving the most original Bengali food ever. It is sometimes surprising to me that I travel all the way to Singapore to learn of something that turns out to be a traditional food of my place of birth. It does seem that India is coming to Singapore. Today, Singapore is an Indian food lover’s paradise with all variations of Indian cuisine available across all sorts of price segments. Television and Entertainment I remember how in the early days we used to yearn for Indian television. It is well known that Indian cinema and television are worlds quite onto themselves. Bollywood is a great unifying force of India and is a lifetime addiction for most Indians. As is cricket. I sit in front of my television screen as I type this. As I write, movie super-star Shahrukh Khan is busy trying to prove to a school teacher that she is not smarter than a fifth grader. This is the Hindi version of the reality show, “Are you smarter than a fifth grader?”. Today at home, we have three Hindi television channels with the option of a few more. All of this on Starhub cable itself. If I choose to subscribe to SingTel mio, I would have access to several others. Of course, most homes in middle class India actually have more than a hundred channels, but in Singapore, we do have access to the most popular ones. As a result, as far as television is concerned, we are able to converse intelligently with our cousins back home. As an entertainment channel and as an organization, Zee Television has taken a number of major strides. It is the only Indian television channel to broadcast content in

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Singapore in the same time-slots as it does in India. As a result, since June 2004, prime-time shows in India are beamed to Singapore homes at prime-time as well. As an organization, Zee Television has reached out to involve itself with the community with locally produced shows and events. For the last few years, Zee has been organizing its gala event in Singapore – the Zee Carnival. This year it outdid itself by bringing on Bollywood superstar, Shahrukh Khan to the carnival. Of course, popular stars from Zee television shows were there as well, but having Shahrukh Khan took the event to a completely different level. The superstar waved at his fans, danced for them, recited his movie dialogues, chatted with his crazy fans, kissed & hugged them, clicked pictures with them and signed autographs with as many as he could. Zee Television also collaborated with the Rupee Room, a Bollywood themed nightclub to organize the Rupee Room Zee Television Dance Academy, a very successful event topped by a dance competition that brought in some very enthusiastic participation. We listen to radio as well. I had mentioned the BIG Bollywood FM96.3 music channel and the Hindi Power 103.7 FM but my favorite is actually Radio Tarana — Auckland’s Indian Radio Channel that is available to me over the internet. Singapore’s broadband lifestyle allows us to access and consume entertainment of our choice from the world over. No dearth of the latest Bollywood hits, or even the oldie-goldies. Oh, and cricket of course. For years, we pleaded with Mediacorp to give us our cricket. And this is what came of it. Channel 109 is Neo Cricket with features like Cricket Masala, Dial C for Cricket and so on. Channel 110 is Star

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Cricket and Channel 111 is a channel called Cricket Extra. I am now finally off www.cricinfo.com and into some realtime cricket watching. Last year, the Harry’s Group came up with the idea of setting up an India-themed night club in the high-end Clarke Quay belt. The Rupee Room was born. The club plays bhangra rock and Bollywood favorites and is choc a bloc every night with Indian expatriates as well as a large number of local Singaporean groovies. My colleague, Valerie Lim, is an irregular at the Rupee Room and she says that she likes the place because the music is great and the ambience is cool. What more does one need to party? Last weekend, a group of us went to watch a Bollywood movie at the Prince. The Prince, at Shaw Towers, is a regular Singapore multiplex with a number of theaters running the latest Hollywood hits. On this occasion, it did. As a matter of fact, over the last one year, I have caught several Bollywood movies at GV in Tampines Mall and I understand that top-rated Hindi movies enjoy regular releases at most mainstream multiplex chains. This indeed is a far cry from a few years ago when the only place one could go to catch a Bollywood show was the rundown Bedok Cinema which has since been demolished. Actually, now even the neighborhood CD and DVD rental shops carry all the latest Bollywood titles. Household Help Singapore is one of the few first-world cities where the middle-class citizen is able to afford live-in household help. The average resident in Los Angeles or London or New York has no hope of being able to afford full-time domestic

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help. In Singapore, it is different. Many families are able to afford a “maid”. Many condominium apartments have a room that serves as a bed-room for the maid. Most maids in Singapore come from either the Philippines or from Indonesia. Some also come from Sri Lanka. Earlier, most ethnic Indian families that could afford a maid chose to employ a Sri Lankan maid. This was mainly due to the culinary similarities between Sri Lanka and the southern part of India where most ethnic Singaporean Indians hailed from. This is changing quickly. With more Indians from other parts of India choosing to live in Singapore, there has been a growing demand for household help that speaks Hindi. Today, we see a fairly large number of maid agencies working to help Indian expatriates find maids hailing from the Punjab region. These maids speak Hindi and are able to quickly fit into the family as well. This phenomena is an indication of the increasing buying power of the new Indian community. At the same time, it is a very unique convenience that fundamentally changes the living conditions in Indian homes. The new Indian couple today enjoys a degree of convenience rarely experienced anywhere else in the world. Education Indians typically take education quite seriously, as of course do the Singaporeans. For long, Indians coming to work in Singapore had the choice of the local schools and the fairly expensive International Schools like the Overseas Family School as options for their children. The local education system is an excellent system, with focus on building a

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strong platform on the basics like English, Mathematics and the sciences while encouraging co-curricular activities as well. However, the new Indian in Singapore now has access to Indian education systems as well. For someone who has just moved to Singapore on a one year contract, for example, this is a great facility to have access to. The family can then come over to Singapore with no fear of having a disruption in the education of the children. If there is a decision to go back after a year or two, the children simply switch to another school in India that follows the same syllabus. Today, there are three Indian International Schools that follow the Indian curriculum and all three of them are doing really well. Over the last few years, most Indian families moving to Singapore have decided to send their children to these schools. Devesh Sharma arrived in Singapore three years ago with his wife and two school going daughters. I met him when we went to watch the Singapore team play against the Brazilian Olympic squad at the Kallang Stadium. He told me that he decided to send his children to the Indian school just in case he had to move elsewhere or even back home. Devesh had actually just completed a stint in Saudi Arabia where his children went to an Indian International school as well. So, when he came to Singapore and found that he had a choice of Indian International schools in Singapore, accepting the employment offer was really no decision at all. Living in a Shell? It is said that Indian families in New Jersey drive 50 km each weekend to go and have dinner with another Indian

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family. Is it something about being Indian? Or is it something about being a first generation immigrant? Over the years, the new Indian expatriates have built up a virtual India for themselves in Singapore. The food, the household help, the family friends, the movies and the cricket, and even the schools — everything is Indian. What does it mean? Does it mean that the Indian expatriate community is a community of snobs that does not want to interact with the community at large? Or does it mean that the community is highly opportunistic and perhaps migratory in nature? Is this a good thing or a bad thing for Singapore? Firstly, there is no evidence to suggest that the new Indian expatriate does not want to interact with people of other cultures including the local Singaporean culture. It is to be noted that this is a community of globally mobile knowledge workers — most of who either already have or will go ahead to work in other countries outside India as well. Many have worked in Europe or in the USA. An equal number aspire to work in the western world after their stint in Singapore. Either way, the very nature of this community makes them receptive to multiple cultures. Indeed, most expatriate Indians are very much at home with Chinese as well as western cuisines and are quite forthcoming in their interactions with the multiple cultures that thrive in Singapore. They have chosen to live and work in Singapore for many reasons — proximity to home, safe and efficient ambience, good work opportunities etc. One of the key reasons many have chosen to live and work here is simply

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that so many aspects of Indian living are easily accessible in Singapore. Surely, in the competition for global talent, that has to be a good thing for Singapore. The other aspect, of course, is that they can afford it. Just as the Americans have their American School and the American Club; the new Indians have also succeeded in building up a social eco-system of their own. Are they migratory? In the globally connected world of today, all talent is migratory in the medium and long term. The passport that you carry does not matter too much, what you bring to the table matters a lot. Still, it does make a difference that Singapore can offer these advantages. It does make more Indians want to come and work here. Most of them have profiles that help to create more than the one job opportunity that they take up. Some of them may find better opportunities elsewhere and move on. Others may like the city and decide to stay. Overall, it is a net gain to Singapore.

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The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. Vincent Lombardi

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4 Crème “IIT is India’s finest brand”, said professor MGK Menon speaking at IIT Everywhere 2006, the IIT Alumni Regional Conference at Sentosa Island in Singapore in August 2006. Nothing new about it, since countless reams have been consumed in extolling the virtues and contributions of this bunch of Indians, sometimes called “India’s Intellectual Treasures”. Ranjan Pant has even written a book called “India’s Intellectual Treasures”, tracking the success of its alumni the world over. The book sells at USD 80 on amazon.com and has lots of buyers. In India, every parent’s dream is for their children to somehow find their way to one of the seven IITs. The tutorial business for the entrance examination preparation is booming. A single tutorial, Narayani has 15,000 employees and 175,000 students. What is so good about these people and why is the rest of the world so much in awe of them? The reasons are many, but primarily, it is the fact that IIT alumni are fantastically successful professionally. Of the 140,000 IIT graduates, about 70% live and work in India while the other 30% are spread all across the globe with a major concentration in the USA. In effect, more than 50,000 IIT graduates ply their trades outside India. However, a large part of the gloss comes from the fact that IITians have been at the spearhead of the journey of

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Indian domination in the information technology industry. In the late eighties & early nineties a large group of IIT graduates found their way to the Silicon Valley and played stellar roles in the making of the Silicon Valley itself. Kanwal Rekhi was the Chief Technology Officer at Novell Technologies and Vinod Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems. Padmasee Warrior is Chief Technology Officer at Motorola and Arun Sarin has just about completed his assignment as CEO of Vodaphone. In 2003, Bill Gates delivered the keynote speech at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the founding of IIT at the Flint Center, Cupertino, CA. He said, “It’s hard to think of anything like IIT anywhere in the world. It is a very unique institution.” At the same event, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, delivered a message saying, “IIT is a world treasure…. IIT thank you, bless you.” Cisco employs more than a thousand IITians today and appreciates the contribution that IITians have made to its great success. The IIMs, in concept, are the brother institutes to the IITs. It may be said that what the IITs are to technology, the IIMs are to management. Since many IIM graduates hail from the IITs themselves, there is a close bonding between the two groups. IIM alumni have been hugely successful in India and the world over and have been the spearhead of the spread of Indian managerial talent in the boardrooms of global companies. This is best exemplified by the rise and rise of Indra Nooyi. Born in Chennai in 1955, Indra is today the chairwoman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo, the world’s fourth-largest food and beverage company. She regularly features in the top quadrants of the list of the most

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powerful people in America and the world. Fortune magazine named her the #1 Most Powerful Woman in Business in 2006 and 2007. Even apart from Indra, there are many successes. Vindi Banga is a director at Unilever, Raghuram Rajan has served as the Chief Economist at the IMF, Ajay Banga is the Global Head of Consumer Business at Citigroup and Prof Aswath Damodaran is a globally acclaimed finance guru. Their successes and those of their compatriots have established the IIMs as one of the best management institutes in the world and certainly in the Asia Pacific. As in the case of alumni of all major educational institutions, there is a very high degree of bonding amongst the alumni of the IITs and the IIMs. Almost every major city in the world has its own IIT Alumni Association with most of them being linked to the Pan IIT Alumni Association which is like a global umbrella body, facilitating global interaction. Rarely would an IIT or IIM graduate knowingly put off a meeting request from another. Networking is intensive and continuous — at work and at play. Networking also exists between the IIT and the IIM alumni, if only because they share so many alumni in common. In Singapore, for example, they get invited almost by default to each others events and even have a rolling cricket trophy between them (sponsored by Emerio, a company founded by Harish Nim, who is both an IIT and IIM alumnus). Closer home, in Singapore, Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, speaking at the IIT Alumni Conference in August 2006, praised the spirit of the IITs and recognised their importance in today’s global knowledge economy. Calling them an asset to Singapore, he praised the ideas-

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based culture that they foster and invited more IITians to come and make Singapore their home. The IITians of Singapore Singapore counts about 500 IIT graduates and about 200 IIM alumni amongst its residents. Considering that the total population of Singapore is only about 3.5 million (compare with New York’s almost 19 million, & Los Angeles 10 million), the number of IIT and IIM alumni living here is quite astounding. Together, they form the glistening tip of the arrow of the newly arrived Indian population in Singapore. Over the past few years, they have displayed dedication and have contributed handsomely to the embellishment of Brand India in Singapore. Some time back, there used to be a rumor that the immigration authorities would automatically invite any IIT or IIM graduate to take up Permanent Resident status even if they had only just applied for an Employment Pass. Since that did not happen to me in 1997, I assume that there may not be too much substance in that. But in its own way, it does highlight the branding that the IIT or IIM degree carries. When I was interviewing for my current position at Cisco, I was asked by one of my many interviewers, a Singapore born Chinese, “How did you ever manage to get into IIT?” I could only smile in reply. I guess after that, I only had to be careful to not say anything too stupid to be able to clear that particular interview. Rumors and jokes apart, there are really a large number of IITians in Singapore. And they do very well for themselves — as entrepreneurs, as employees and even as free lancers. At one end of the spectrum, many are now citizens of

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Singapore and at the other, many have just about arrived and are doing their masters at the National University of Singapore or other educational institutions. IIT Alumni in Singapore have done well in business in Singapore as well. The first movers were the graduates of Naval Architecture who came to Singapore in the seventies and contributed to Singapore’s rise as a port and logistics hub. Many IITians of that generation started their own companies and several are still active and growing. This generation has been in Singapore for so long that most are already Singapore nationals. The nineties saw a new generation of the IITian entrepreneur in Singapore. It was the decade of computers and information technology and several start-ups were focused on those areas. Companies like Optimum Solutions and Emerio Corporation were established in that period. Over the years as well, there have been successful forays into the traditional business segments like trading, commodities and shipping. Companies in these segments that have made their mark through long term growth include Tolani Shipping and Agrocorp. Lately as well, we have seen quite a few IITians taking the plunge and starting their own businesses. Many of these are start-ups in the new-age industries like multi-media marketing and e-commerce. One of the advantages that the Association itself has is that come rain or shine, there is always a little pool of sponsors for internal events that are regularly being organized. Recently I was tasked with doing a feature on the IIT Entrepreneurs in Singapore. It was a great experience.

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We searched for and located more than thirty IITian entrepreneurs in Singapore. I think that if we had done a more thorough job, we would have extended that list to a number closer to forty. A majority of these ventures are less than five years old; indicating that in recent times we have seen the community becoming more self confident and ready to take on risk. Even apart from those who have already taken the plunge, there are several who are on the verge of doing so. There is always a lot of conversation around opportunity and risk at any IIT Alumni gathering. Apart from being entrepreneurs, IIT and IIM graduates are driving successful businesses for their corporate employers. DK Sharma is a notable example. DK has enjoyed a very successful career at Citigroup and currently head of IT and Operations for the Asia Pacific, he is driving innovation in IT operations across the Asia Pacific to support Citibanks’ rapidly evolving business models. Over at IBM, Satish Khatu leads the business for IBM in the Asia Pacific region. Satish, in fact, is an interesting personality, since he is of Indian origin, holds an American passport and works in Singapore. Here we really see the global nature of the IITs at close range. And, yes, like all alumni, Sathish, is intimately connected to the cause of furthering the value of Brand IIT. Across industries, in banking and in finance, in manufacturing and in services, IIT and IIM graduates have made their mark and are doing their bit to enhance the reputation of Indian talent. IIT alumni are present in large numbers in the universities as well. While the seniors make their mark in industry, students make an impact in the campuses. There are a large

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number of IITians doing their post graduation at the NUS and other universities in Singapore. Aveg Agarwal, an IITian who cleared the highly regarded Civil Services examination as well and served in the Indian embassies across Europe and finally in Peru, is currently a student at INSEAD, a top global management school with its own full fledged campus in Singapore. Last year, he gave up the comforts and perks of the Indian Foreign Service to get back to academics once again and enrolled as an MBA student. Tusher Khetrapal, another IIT-ian is doing his MBA from the Business School at the NUS. As part of his co-curricular activities, Tusher organized a business trip to the USA which included a meeting with Warren Buffet, the great American investor, businessman and philanthropist. IITians are present in academia as teachers as well. Jasjit Singh, an IIT alumnus is Professor for Strategy at INSEAD. The National University of Singapore (NUS) also has a large number of Indian professors including Deans in several departments. Many other IITians have found a satisfying career in several of Singapore’s universities and research institutions. Away from the corporate world, these IITians are making a great contribution to the shaping of the relationship between Singapore and India through academics. Singapore universities, equally, seek to establish association with the IITs. There was quite a serious proposal a few years ago to explore the establishing of an IIT in Singapore. There was a lot of discussion and a lot of excitement but that proposal did not materialize. Still, the NUS has gone forward and established exchange programs with the IITs. An MOU to facilitate that initiative was signed in March 2005. This was, in fact, the first significant

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MOU signed between any IIT and a foreign university. NUS President, Professor Shih Choon Fong, told me that he feels that this is already tremendously helping both students and faculty at the NUS to improve their systems by working alongside their counterparts at the IITs. Recently, he signed a further agreement with IIT Madras to offer joint PhD Degree Programmes in Science and Computing in addition to Engineering. These collaborations have been aided by the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) implemented in 2005. The NUS Business School also has Exchange Programs in place with IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta. In 2005, it signed an agreement with IIM-Ahmedabad that focused on MBA student exchange programs. Taking that forward, the NUS Business School signed a comprehensive MOU with the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIMC) in 2006. This allows for collaboration beyond MBA student exchanges and includes faculty exchanges as well as joint international field studies. At the signing ceremony, NUS Business School Dean, Professor Christopher Earley said, “In line with our focus in elevating the global mindset of our students, NUS is confident that this collaboration with IIM-C will provide an avenue for NUS business students to better understand the Indian economy and adopt the best business practices of India.” From an overall perspective, there is now a very healthy interaction between Singapore’s education institutes and the IITs and IIMs. This interaction encompasses the leadership levels, the professors and the students. It is helping to foster a number of very positive relationships as well as creating a solid platform for even greater Singapore-India collaborations in other spheres like commerce and industry.

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The Alumni Associations The two Alumni Associations in Singapore — IIT Alumni Association and IIM Alumni Association — are extremely active in serving as networking platforms as well as providing for family based bonding for their members. The IIT Alumni Association is especially active with almost monthly activities for its members, a broad membership base and large scale annual family based events. Festivals like Diwali and Holi are lustily celebrated and regular professional conferences allow for deep level networking amongst its members. It is in fact at the Alumni events that the students get to know their seniors and the executives mingle with the entrepreneurs. Many a career move has been carved out at as result of these activities. And business ventures as well. Every two years, the IIT Alumni Association also organizes a regional event that is usually supported by various Singapore organizations and government agencies. These events serve to bring together alumni from across the region and from India as well and highlight the contributions that IITians are already making in this part of the world. At the previous such conference IIT Everywhere, organized in 2006, I was involved in launching an interesting initiative called the “IIT Industry Interaction”. This initiative brought together business in Singapore and the IIT leadership. We had several IIT Deans and Directors present and we put them in the same room with industry leaders of Singapore. The interactions were illuminating, but the results were even more so. Barclays Capital was represented at the session and subsequently Barclays interlocked directly IIT Kharagpur. Barclays executives traveled to the small university town of Kharagpur to directly interact with the

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students there. In the two years since then, Barclays has hired more than 30 fresh graduates from IIT Kharagpur. There have been no regrets on either side. The IIT Alumni even has an Entrepreneurship Club that aims to help budding IIT entrepreneurs have an even easier time in establishing their businesses. This is where the entrepreneurs and to-be-entrepreneurs hang out to exchange notes and establish collaboration. The IIM Alumni Association on the other hand runs an annual Business Plan contest where students from the NUS, the IITs and other universities present their business plans on the way to a glittering finale. What these groups of high profile Indian professionals are doing raises the overall profile of Indian professionals working in Singapore. Slowly, the perception of Indian professionals as “low cost alternative” is changing to “high value”. Realizing Potential But have the IITians and IIM graduates really realized their full potential in Singapore? Supriyo Sircar, who runs Polaris Software’s Asia Pacific business out of Singapore and is the President of the IIT Alumni Association thinks “not yet”. Supriyo has lived and worked in the USA before choosing to move to Singapore and feels that the new breed of the professional Indian has not yet made as significant an impact in this part of the world as they have done in the USA. One reason is that for several decades, the brightest minds have flocked to American universities to do their post-graduation studies, usually on a generous

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scholarship. Having completed their studies there, they usually stay back and contribute to American business, research and education. That is not the case with Singapore where most IIT and IIM graduates arrive later in their careers with a few years of experience. Also, they mostly work with multinational companies who have their Asia Pacific offices here. Therefore, they are at best able to contribute to the localization of global policies to meet the needs of this region, rather than crafting products, services or positioning from scratch. If more IIT and IIM graduates were to work in local companies, we would see higher value contributions coming up. A good example of that is Dhrubajyoti Das. He went to the Asian Institute of Management in Manila for his MBA after completing his graduation at IIT, Kharagpur. He then joined Samudra Shipping in Indonesia and currently is Managing Director of Samudra Shipping based in Singapore. Dhruba is a good example of an IITian making a high value contribution since he finds himself in a position where his ideas and views make a direct impact on the policies of the company he works for. He feels that having his roots in the region’s education system (in Manila) helped him to identify himself as an “insider” in the first place. We are now seeing IIT graduates coming to Singapore as students. That is a wonderful sign. The IIT Alumni Association has more than 30 members who belong to the “student” category. They will enter the Singapore corporate world as “local graduates” and will have a deeper sense of identity. If they go to work in Singaporean companies, we are likely to see a number of high profile success stories in the coming years.

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Local companies, as well, need to step up and take the initiative. They need to walk the talk of “acquiring talent”. We see multinational companies like Barclays taking the initiative and going to the campuses at the IITs to recruit. Local companies need to do so as well to be able to attract talent from the IITs and the IIMs. The Associations are doing their bit. The IIM’s business plan competition goes directly to the universities and the IIT’s initiative to invite industry to interact with the leadership of the IITs signals that the need is understood and some action points have been identified. This November, IIT Alumni get together for their bi-annual regional meeting and one of the key discussions is around examining how IITs can realize their full potential in Singapore and the region. Beyond the IITs and IIMs Last year, SP Jain Center of Management, one of India’s most reputed business schools launched its sprawling 100,000 square feet campus in downtown Singapore. SP Jain is India’s first tertiary institute to establish a presence in Singapore and its act of leadership has been well rewarded already. In its first year itself, SP Jain exceeded its five year target for student intake!! The SP Jain Center of Management brings a dimension of higher education to the platform created by the several Indian International Schools in Singapore. These institutions are creating a critical mass of Indian students that will be in tune with the dynamics of Singapore society and the pulse of its business environment well before they enter the workforce.

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I would also like to add a note on the choice of the topic of this chapter itself — the IITs and the IIMs. Overall, they comprise only a minority of the new Indian community in Singapore and the dedication of a chapter to their alumni may be seen as quite disproportionate. However, that is not the case. There are two reasons that led to the examination of the impact of the IITs and IIMs in Singapore. The first reason is that they represent a creamy layer that in fact attracts Singaporean employers, who are often happy to go the extra mile to secure the services of these groups of Indian expatriates. By extension, they also occupy positions of leadership in their organizations and often are in a position to contribute value and to make an impact. The second reason is that they are both well-knit groups that are extremely organized and engage in professional and social networking. They also actively reach out to and work proactively with a large number of Singaporean businesses, government organizations and regulatory bodies. When they do this, they enhance the already high value points at which they are perceived in Singapore. In a sense, they serve as the face of the Indian professional community to Singapore. There is yet another perspective that is especially applicable to the IIT community. In its fold, the IIT Alumni includes successful entrepreneurs, very many start-ups, a large number of corporate leaders across almost every sector — IT, banking, shipping, manufacturing, logistics and retail; as well as professors and students. The Alumni Associations are active and popular and provides a platform for vigorous interaction at a professional and social level. Due to these reasons, the community serves as a microcosm of the new

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Indian professional community in Singapore as a whole and is its best and most recognizable face. It also carries the new Indian’s most glaring drawbacks — being too internally focused, even snobbish; including a reluctance to go forward and interact with the local Chinese, Malay and Indian communities at a grassroots level and quite content to focus almost blindly on their own professional objectives. I take up this discussion in the chapter “Silence” later in this book.

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Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. Peter Drucker

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5 Mild India Fever For decades, Indian foreign policy did not include Singapore and South East Asia amongst its major focus areas. Nor did Singapore look seriously at India either as an opportunity or as a challenge. Across the cold war decades, as India was perceived to be closer to the Soviet bloc and Singapore closer to the West, the two countries seemed to be looking the other way from each other. All of that indifference began changing in the mideighties and early nineties. In the early nineties, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh (now Prime Minister of India), India had started opening up its economic boundaries to the outside world. Around the same time, foreign policy had also shifted to include India’s “Look East” policy. A watershed was reached when Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong (then Prime Minister) visited India in 1994. During the visit, SM Goh initiated what he termed “mild India Fever”. The visit started with the launch of the International Tech Park in Bangalore, the idea for which had been mooted two years earlier in 1992. Those were the early days of the technology boom in Bangalore and the ITPB played the role of a catalyst in the development of Bangalore as the IT capital of India. The project itself was the result of a great collaboration between Ascendas and the Tata group, both of

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who have continued playing a major role in SingaporeIndia business relations. A decade later, Mr Goh, by then a confirmed Indophile, was to receive the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Award for his work in promoting bilateral relations and for inducing an ‘India Fever’ in Singapore’s business community. Then, in June 2005, the bilateral Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Singapore was signed; further facilitating the movement of goods and people between the two countries. The rest is history in the making. Impact Today, Singapore and India both enjoy great visibility in each other’s territories. Companies in Singapore are eager to go ahead and do business in India and the reverse is very true as well. A quick look at some key numbers throws up a number of surprising facts. In 2007, 749,000 Indians visited Singapore. At the same time, it is estimated that more than 100,000 Singaporeans visit India every year. By 2006, bilateral trade had reached approximately USD 15 billion, roughly similar to India’s trade levels with China and comparable to India’s trade with its largest trading partner, the USA at $21 billion. Also, in 2006, India was the fourth largest recipient of global foreign direct investment (FDI) behind China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Within that, Singapore was the 4th largest investor in India, with investments of US$621 million. By 2007, Singapore was already the second largest foreign investor in India putting in more than $1.4 billion dollars.

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In terms of exports, Singapore follows only the USA and the UAE as the largest market for Indian products and services. And it is not all one-way traffic either! In 2006, India was Singapore’s 12th largest trading partner and FDI in Singapore from India has risen dramatically in recent years. In 2005, India invested $1.2 billion in Singapore! Mr Vijay Iyengar is the Chairman of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI). SICCI itself has played a substantial role in the blossoming relationship between Singapore and India and was part of Goh Chok Tong’s historical mission to India in 1994. As Chairman of SICCI, Vijay was also a key contributor in the organization of the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas in Singapore in October this year in Singapore — the first time this event was held outside of India or the USA. He mentioned to me over an evening cup of coffee recently, “What we see is a gradual build up of relationships. The potential of Indian companies to be active in the Singapore market is huge, as is the potential for Singapore companies doing business in India. The best of India–Singapore business ties is yet to come.” Why Singapore? Singapore today houses more than 3,000 Indian companies. Together, they form the fourth largest group from any single country. In that respect, Indian companies are only following what Western companies and the Japanese have done for many years — operate from Singapore to take advantage of its logistical advantages, positive business image and business friendly environment.

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Almost all major Indian business groups have a presence in Singapore. One of the earliest birds and still the most prominent amongst them is the house of Tata. Recently, in August 2008, Tata Steel decided to consolidate all its overseas assets including Corus under a new holding company, Tata Steel Global, to raise funds for its overseas expansion including future acquisitions. Tata Steel Global will be based in Singapore with over $13 billion enterprise value and will raise funds for international acquisitions of smaller steel makers and mines. But this is nothing new. Since the arrival of Tata Precision Industries in the 1960s, the house of Tata has cultivated rich business links with Singapore for many years and its presence spans telecommunications, information technology, manufacturing, education and logistics. The Tatas are not alone amongst the leading Indian conglomerates that have focused on Singapore in recent years. The house of Godrej, the Mahindras, Satyam and NIIT amongst others, are also present in Singapore in a major way. In 2003, in a path-breaking move, Satyam inaugurated its global Business Continuity Center in Singapore. Singapore is currently Satyam’s Asian headquarters, covering Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. In fact, Satyam’s Singapore office also looks after India’s domestic market! Following Satyam, other Indian IT companies like i-flex and Polaris Software Labs have identified Singapore as the best base for their disaster recovery set-ups and headquarters for their Asia Pacific business operations. Another company with its regional HQ in Singapore is NIIT Technologies. NIIT’s regional centre here provides

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support for finance, technology and software delivery to its subsidiaries in Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia. Considering its miniscule domestic market, what is it that makes Singapore a magnet to Indian companies? A number of factors come into play. The most important factor, of course, is the strategic location and logistical advantages of Singapore. Many Indian companies look at Singapore as a gateway to South East Asia, to China and indeed to the West as well. These advantages have been well documented and indeed, are part of the foundational competitive advantage of Singapore as a business hub. Secondly, Singapore has Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with 13 countries and negotiations are on with 10 more. The FTA partner countries of Singapore together constitute more than 48 per cent of world GDP. Also, as a member of ASEAN, Singapore benefits from trade agreements between ASEAN and the ASEAN plus countries — China, Japan and South Korea. Indian companies operating out of Singapore get access to a large chunk of global commerce by just being present here. Thirdly, even apart from the advantages of the FTAs, Indian companies in Singapore are able to interact and transact with more than 10,000 American, European and Japanese companies based in Singapore, with many of them having their Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore as well. And, finally, the excellent business and physical infrastructure that Singapore offers. In terms of physical infrastructure like ports and airports; as well as business infrastructure like connectivity, tax environment, judiciary and immigration policies; Singapore is right at the top of the list of places to do business in.

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I had once asked Harish Nim, the founder and CEO of Emerio Corporation why he decided to start his company in Singapore. His reaction was that less than a year after he arrived in Singapore in the eighties, he felt that “this is what a government is supposed to be doing”. From a business perspective, that about summed it up. Why India? In August 2000 Singapore Telecommunictions (SingTel) invested US$400 million in India’s Bharti Group, its second largest overseas investment after Optus. The investment was the largest single foreign investment into the Indian telecom market. In 2003, Temasek Holdings, a Singapore basd investment holding company acquired a 5.2% stake in ICICI Bank. In August, 2003, Temasek Holdings and Standard Chartered Bank formed the Merlion-India Fund of US$100 million for investing in mid to late stage Indian companies. This fund was set up with the purpose of Singapore companies investing in Indian companies seeking to expand in India and abroad. In 2004, Temasek Holdings, bought a stake in Matrix Laboratories, Hyderabad for S$114.7million. CapitaLand has formed a joint venture with retailer Pantaloon and has invested $75 million in Pantaloon’s retail property fund. The aim is to acquire and manage 50 retail malls covering 15 million square feet across 30 Indian cities. In the business infrastructure segment, Ascendas has been an early entrant and continues to invest and expand. The Port Authority of Singapore, PSA, manages ports and terminals in Kandla, Hazira, Tuticorin, Kolkata and Chennai.

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Singapore’s investments into India span across industry segments — retail, telecommunications, banking and finance, property and infrastructure. It is easy to see where the big moves are and why. Each of these sectors is a high growth and high potential sector and Singaporean companies are already queuing up to acquire a generous slice of the pie. To Singapore, from a strategic perspective; India is a counterweight to the dominance of China. It is also a land of great opportunity as it wakes from its long slumber. The market is huge and the need for infrastructure is massive. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been quoted as saying that India can absorb more than $100 billion of investments only on infrastructure creation. Singapore’s proven capabilities in infrastructure building and its experience in exporting that, most notably to China and more recently to the Middle East, makes it a natural partner to a rising India that is hungry for more roads, more ports, more airports, more houses, more malls and more everything. Singapore and Singaporeans with their keen sense of opportunity have been the early birds into India. The Straits Times ran a feature in May this year, titled “Catching India Fever”. In that article, Mr Tng, the Chief Financial Officer of Ascendas India said, “I missed the China boat. I didn’t want to miss the India one as well.” The same article states that in 2005, the Indian High Commission issued 60,000 business and travel visas to Singaporeans. That figure rose to 74,000 in 2006 and to 80,000 in 2007. This year, that number would cross the 100,000 mark! The logic for partnering is self-evident. India has the buying power and a growing demand for Singapore’s

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expertise as well as products and services. Singapore has the business platform and connectivity that Indian companies desire to venture out into global markets. With the business logic so clear and the potential for conflict of interest so remote (or insignificant in the larger scheme), the blossoming of the business relationship is hardly surprising. Contributions of New Indian Entrepreneurs Even apart from the maturing business relationship between the two countries, the new Indian population in Singapore has made phenomenal contributions to Singapore business. Of the Indian professionals coming to work in Singapore in recent times, a significant percentage actually end up starting their own businesses. They have created value, created jobs and created wealth. Over the years, I have been lucky and privileged to know several such entrepreneurs. Many of them would not in the normal course have set-up their businesses. One of the key catalysts that appears to be a common factor is the ease of setting up a business in Singapore and the culture of meritocracy, most specifically in procurement decision making. Vijay Iyengar, Harish Nim, Balwant Jain and Nikhil Jhingan are four successful Indian businessmen who have made an impact and their journeys are illustrative of the impact that the new wave of professional Indians are making on the Singapore business landscape. Vijay Iyengar was the first to strike out on his own and he set up Agrocorp International in 1990. Agrocorp is one of the largest trading companies of its kind in Singapore

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and specializes in seven major product lines encompassing cereals, rice, sugar, pulses and beans, oilseeds, animal feed and edible nuts. Aided by Vijay’s clear vision, Agrocorp has enjoyed phenomenal growth and has been ranked continuously since 2000 in ‘Singapore 1000’ — placing it among Singapore’s Top Corporations ranked by financial performance. Both Vijay and Agrocorp are consistent winners of excellence awards in Singapore. Apart from business, Vijay spends a lot of effort and time in engaging with the local community. For one, he is the Chairman of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Singapore. He is also on the board of Network India, which is a premier networking platform that fosters connections and business linkages between companies that have an interest in the India market. He also plays a leadership role in organizations like the Singapore Business Federation and the People’s Association Talent Council amongst others. With his wide range of activities and associations, Vijay is a great contributor to the development of the overall business relationship between Singapore and India. From an industry segment standpoint, Harish Nim and Balwant Jain are at the diametrically opposite end of the industry spectrum from Vijay. Both of them run information technology services companies. And just as well, since this is the industry most representative of the new Indian in Singapore. Both started out in the same year, 1997 — Harish with Emerio Corporation (then called GlobeSoft) and Balwant with Optimum Solutions. Both have enjoyed growth through the ups and downs of the Singapore economy and have built up organizations of similar size, through not

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exactly of the same nature. Taken together, Harish and Balwant employ roughly 3,000 employees with about 2,000 of them based in Singapore. Individually, Emerio and Optimum rank amongst the largest IT companies in Singapore, and indeed, in South East Asia as well. Harish Nim had been in Singapore for about a year when he started Emerio Corporation in 1997. From almost nothing, Harish has guided Emerio to developing into a company that employs more than 1,300 IT professionals in sixteen countries. Emerio is a force to reckon with in the South East Asian region and it regularly competes with major Indian IT players like Satyam and TCS in Singapore, Malaysia and other countries in the region. Similar to Agrocorp, Emerio is also a regular winner of excellence and branding awards over the years. Earlier this year, Harish took in investments from Rothschild and from a Japanese information technology major. His plans for Emerio include tapping on business opportunities in Europe and Japan, while keeping delivery bases focused in Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. In line with his growth plans, Harish set-up a 3,600 capacity state-of-the-art Global Delivery Center in Cyberjaya, Malaysia that was commissioned in September 2008. With all of these investments, Harish is poised to take Emerio to the next level which he hopes would arrive at a point when Emerio has 5,000 employees. Balwant Jain has tasted an equal measure of success. Like Harish, he is extremely well educated and articulate and runs his business based on simple foundations. He is deeply focused on Singapore and very tuned to his core competencies. He employs a very flat organization structure and is still very hands on in his business operations. Almost

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every major multinational company in Singapore, especially the big banks and a large number of local Singaporean companies are amongst his clients. When one speaks to Balwant, his extreme sense of sincerity comes through almost immediately. One surprising piece of trivia about Balwant’s career in business is that he has never lost an employee to a competitor. Considering that he operates in the information technology space, this is a truly remarkable achievement! Singapore is also home to Nikhil Jhingan who founded Accelion in Singapore in 1999. Nikhil is a pragmatic teetotaler whose professional objective is to do away with email attachments. He has designed an email management product that does away completely with the need to attach files to emails. I can say this from personal experience — I wish everyone used this product since it would make life a lot simpler at work. Believing in his product, innovating continuously and growing steadily, Nikhil has now established Accelion as a market leader of sorts with global multinationals across the continents using his products and services. The four journeys highlighted in these pages is just the tip of the iceberg. Several hundred Indian expatriates have already started up their own businesses in Singapore. These range from information technology to business consulting to trading to logistics to education to retail. Many of these are aiming to break technological and geographical barriers and have great ambitions in addition to great skills. Already there are dozens of success stories. As the community develops a greater sense of confidence, more new Indians contemplate entrepreneurship and finally make the leap of faith.

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Singapore makes it so easy for individuals to start their own business that many Indian professionals who come here to work actually end up starting out on their own. Over the last six months, at least six people of my immediate acquaintance have crossed over from being employees to being their own bosses. The significance of such entrepreneurs is immense. They add a lot of value to the Singapore economy and create jobs. They create innovations in services and products and help to further cement Singapore’s position as one of the leading economies with a global perspective. One would assume, that amongst other things, these are the sort of inputs that Singapore is looking for from the talented individuals that they attract to these shores. Impact of the Salaried New Indian Professional Even if the new Indian professional is not running his own business, his presence in Singapore plays an important role in the business of keeping Singapore’s economy in good health. One aspect that is almost assumed and easy to understand (for which reason I will not discuss in much detail) is the value-add that he brings by simply doing his job. Today, new Indian professionals play a major role at the business end of most global banks operating in Singapore. In August this year, Citibank appointed Mr Piyush Gupta as its new Head of ASEAN Markets. Piyush is not alone. In almost every major multinational bank, Indian professionals are playing valuable leadership roles. Somehow, that is a phenomenon that has escaped the local Big Three banks,

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but that is a topic we do not get into the details of in the pages of this book. Apart from creating value in their jobs, Indian professionals are playing a leading role in guiding their companies in exploring investment and expansion opportunities in their home country. To the un-initiated, India can be a daunting prospect; to the average Singaporean organization it is nothing short of mysterious. The Indian professionals working in these companies play a major role in showing the way to tap on opportunities in India. A good example of such a contributor is SN Venkat. Venkat works for the Singapore Management University and one of his roles is to seek out Indian companies that would accept SMU students as interns in India. Over a period of time, Venkat has been instrumental in the exposure of hundreds of Singaporean students to Indian business environments — culture, customs and practices. This core of India-ready Singaporean professionals is an important part of Singapore’s plans of engaging with India in the coming decades. Similarly, new Indian professionals in other institutes are running similar programs to establish Singapore’s competitive edge from an Indian perspective. The New Indian Woman A special mention also needs to be made of the large number of ladies amongst the new Indians. While most of them have followed their husbands to Singapore, a fairly significant number have actually made their way to Singapore quite independently; either preceding their husbands here or simply being single. Apart from their

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considerable professional achievements, they provide the vital backbone that the community needs in the social context. At the same time, the growing number of Indian ladies in the workplace provides a great diversity and richness to the flavor of the impact that the new Indian community is making on Singapore. Several Indian women run their food and catering businesses with great success — including several very well known restaurants. I have mentioned Rajul and Deepali in other pages of this book as ladies who have provided us with great options for Indian dining. Other ladies, as well, have built up a variety of businesses, ranging from beauty, garments and boutiques. Even apart from traditionally feminine fields, several ladies have built up their organizations in fields such as media management, advertising, public relations and education. In parallel, a growing number of Indian women are seen to be working at the banks, in the information technology industry as well as other sectors like in the media. In the social groupings as well, whether it be an alumni association or a linguistic based society, it is often the women who take up major initiatives to run programs or organize events. While I have referred to the new Indian as “he” in this book, I must clarify that the choice of pronoun is only a matter of convenience. In the real world, the contribution of the ladies is no way lesser than that of the men. Collective Impact But really, the major impact is not so much that of the individual; but rather that of the community. For long,

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Singaporeans have considered Tamil and India to be sort of synonymous. Of course, nothing can be further from the truth. In contrast to the movement of the first wave, this new generation of Indians coming to Singapore does not hail specifically from any particular region of India. As a result, and increasingly so, Singapore is getting acquainted with the diversity of India. The new Indian community is actually made up of several sub communities, especially in a linguistic sense; and Singaporeans are now slowly being able to appreciate and understand the mind-boggling diversity that India offers. Even now, when I mention to my Singaporean friends that India has twenty-two “official” languages each with its own script, literature, music and movie industries, I am met with nothing short of bewilderment, bordering on disbelief. However, at least now the Singaporean executive landing in Chandigarh is not surprised to find that the locals do not speak Tamil. If fact, he would be quite aware that there are significant differences between the Tamil culture that he has grown up to be familiar with and the culture that he may expect in a north Indian city like Chandigarh! This increasing level of acquaitance with India as a whole is a key contribution of the new Indian professional in Singapore.

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Four things support the world: the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the good, and the valor of the brave. – Muhammed

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6 Support India has been the flavor of Singapore in recent years. The level of organized activity is high, be it social and cultural interactions or business seminars and conventions. I went to the Registrar of Societies and Associations and did a check for organizations using the word “Indian” to describe themselves. There are forty five such organizations and the list is definitely not complete since not all India-centric organizations would have the word “Indian” as part of their name. There is the Bhojpuri Society, for example, that is an intrinsically Indian association but would not be included in a list of search results of this nature. Of course, not all of these organizations are purely those catering to the new Indian professional in Singapore. Several organizations in fact are platforms for the newer arrivals from India to meet with and talk to those who have come before them and perhaps have even been born here. Overall, these associations and organizations form an important network of support structures that serve as platforms for new Indian Singaporeans to interact amongst themselves as well as with other sections of society in Singapore. They provide a venue for families to celebrate religious festivals together and keep their traditions alive. They also give second generation Indian children an opportunity to interact with other Indian children. Finally,

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they give an opportunity for the professionals to meet other Indian professionals and expand their networks. There are several types of these organizations. They could be organized Alumni organizations like the IIT or IIM alumni (which have been discussed in detail in “Crème”) or cultural organizations like the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. There are also a fairly large number of language-based or region-based organizations like the Bengali Association, the Khalsa Association and the Bhojpuri Society as mentioned earlier. These associations are focused on providing a home-like ambience in terms of the language, food, culture and festival traditions to its members. Over and above these organizations are the pan-Indian social clubs like the India Club and the Indian Women’s Association. These social clubs are more exclusive and have smaller memberships. And finally, there are the business organizations like the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In the business space, there are in fact, several organizations that act as bridges between the Indian and Singaporean economies like Network India and the Singapore India Business Association. While a number of these are private initiatives, there are also a number that have been started by or enjoy the patronage of various Singapore government agencies. In any discussion of Indian organizations, it is important not to forget the schools. There are now three Indian International schools in Singapore with a total of four campuses. These are the Global Indian International Schools (with two campuses in Singapore), the Delhi Public School (DPS) and the National Public School (NPS) which started its operations recently. These schools form a nucleus for the Indian expatriate community in Singapore in the early stages

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of the Decision Tree process. Till the point that the new Indian professional is yet to be completely comfortable about his future in Singapore, the Indian International Schools present a great option for him to keep up a manner of continuity in the education of his children. The schools follow standard Indian curricula and provide a seamless continuity of education for the children. Moreover, they provide an avenue for the children to remain in touch with Indian history and culture. The flipside, of course is that the children are not able to experience the exposure that they would otherwise have got in a local school. Still, to be fair, there are pros and cons in every choice and till the time that the new Indian professional is clear that he has firm plans to stay in Singapore over the long term, these schools provide an important and necessary facility. For a long time, there were no such schools in Singapore and the first ones only started in the early years of this decade. However, the increasing number of new Indian professionals coming to Singapore has created a lot of demand leading to the phenomenal growth that these schools have enjoyed. And, of course, there is cricket — the religion of modern India. Almost every organization has its own cricket team and cricket matches and tournaments are common between associations and at a corporate level as well. Most IT companies and the global banks have their own cricket teams and they participate in semi-professional leagues as well as knock-out tournaments. A few months back; I was at Jaggi’s, a family-run Indian restaurant on Racecourse Road (highly recommended for home-style North Indian food) sipping a cup of after-dinner masala tea when Sagar Kulkarni, a young software professional and enthusiastic

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part-time cricketer (and an ex-colleague) came up to me and hung around for a few minutes to say hello and exchange notes. He told me that he was very excited that he had recently scored a double century in a Twenty 20 club game two weekends ago. Now, those who follow cricket and know anything about T20s will understand that it is close to impossible to score 200 runs in that format of the game. It had never been done before, in any case. So, I did offer my congratulations to him but remained slightly skeptical. Later, I checked out cricinfo.com where I found the following entry: “In May 2008, Sagar Kulkarni, software engineer and club cricketer hit the first double century in Twenty 20 cricket in the world. He scored 219 in 56 balls.” Sagar Kulkarni had put Singapore on the cricket map of the world. The Regional Organizations Next only to the schools, the organizations that attract the maximum number of new Indian professionals are the regional organizations. The reason for this is that India is simply too diverse from a cultural and language perspective for any pan Indian cultural organization to be able to provide a completely comfortable cultural environment. There are twenty-two official languages in India in addition to a large number of dialects that are widely spoken as well. Each of these languages represents a cultural sub-section of Indian society and has fairly unique festivals and the manner in which these are celebrated. The Singapore Bengali Association is one of the better organized associations. It was founded in 1956 with a membership of fifty families and the first programme was

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to celebrate the Bijoya Sammelani — a version of Dusshera in Bengal. Bengal prides itself on being the cultural heart of India and the association is very active in various cultural spheres like music, dance, drama and art. This year, a group of its members staged a play called the Verdict in Bengali and then re-staged it in English at the Singapore Repertory Theatre with great success. All the actors in the play follow complicated professional schedules and still find time to devote to rehearsals on a fairly regular basis. One of the lead actors, Dhrubajyoti Das, whose day job is to provide direction to the major shipping company Samudra Shipping (he is its Managing Director), sacrifices other social activities to make time for his passion for the stage. Twenty two years ago, he was my director when I was taking part in a freshers’ play (partly to escape ragging) in IIT Kharagpur and it is a pleasure to see him and others like him keep those flames alive. As well, it is good to be able to have a chance to chant, “Azad ka Tempo high hai” all these years later (Azad was our common Hall of Residence in Kharagpur). The Bengali Association holds its primary annual event — “Durga Puja” at the Khalsa Club on Racecourse Road. The Khalsa Club is a part of the Singapore Khalsa Association, which is the focal organization for the Sikhs in Singapore. What the Bengalis are to Indian arts, the Sikhs are to sports. In the early 1920s, a group of Sikh scholars at Raffles Institution took it upon themselves (and with the support of a few adults) to establish a place where Sikhs could give expression to their love for sports. The Singapore Khalsa Club was set up as a sports club on 8th May 1931. One of the first sports inaugurated was football and it is no surprise then that today, the Chairman of the Singapore

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Khalsa Club, Mr Balbeer Singh Mangat is also the Chairman of the Balestier Khalsa Football Club which plays in the Singapore top football league. In the 1960’s, SKA got its cultural aspect when a group of Sikh youths, enthusiastic in organizing cultural activities, affiliated themselves with the Association. Amongst the activities conducted were talks emphasizing Sikh religion, culture and education. Today, the Khalsa Association is an active organization with an active calendar of cultural and sports activities, a vibrant Young Khalsa League and a well organized Ladies Wing as well. Apart from the Bengali Association and the Singapore Khalsa Association, there are a number of other regional associations like the Singapore Malayalee Association and the Maharashtra Mandal and I will not go into the details of the workings of each of these. From an overall perspective however, the Bengali Association and the Singapore Khalsa Association serve to highlight the key roles that all of these associations play in the lives of the new Indian professional in Singapore. At these Associations with their proud histories, the new Indians learn that they are not the first to consider making Singapore their home. In fact, they get a chance to get to know and meet and exchange notes and views with many who have come before them and have gone through the decision making process to finally make Singapore home. The India Club For the new Indian professional in Singapore who may want to interact and converse at a pan-India level, the

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social groupings like the India Club have special relevance. At the India Club, one gets a chance to meet Indian professionals from all parts of India and from all walks of life. Set up in 2004 by a group of senior Indian expatriate professionals, the India Club is devoted to furthering the interests of a resurgent and rapidly globalizing India in the economic, commercial, financial and socio-cultural spheres. It also focuses on building upon the reinforced foundation of steadily improving ties between India and Singapore as well as the rest of ASEAN and East Asia. Last year, India Club launched a series of talks on the emerging knowledge-based industries in India called the Sunrise Industries series. Mr Ashok Soota (Information Technology) & Ms Kiran Majumdar-Shaw (Biotechnology) — both icons of their respective industries — are amongst the illustrious speakers who have spoken at the Sunrise Industries series so far. The India Club also actively participates in showcasing Indian cultural activities. Shobha De, the renowned Indian author, was one of the speakers at an India Club event in 2004. The club has also initiated an Indian author series that will bring eminent Indian authors to interact with its members. The Business Organizations The apex organization for business amongst Indians in India is the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Established first in 1924 as the Indian Merchants Association, the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) is an independent, non-profit organization with

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over 500 members. It is a platform for enhancing interaction and information exchange for business promotion and development for its members. It is a unified body representing the Indian mercantile community and serves as its voice to the private and public sector organizations in Singapore. The SICCI also serves as a Secretariat for the Asia Pacific Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (APICCI). SICCI has a proud legacy and has worked for many years to help set-up the foundations for the current levels of interaction between Singapore and India. SICCI was there as a part of Prime Minister Goh’s team in India in 1994 and was also a contributing agency to the CECA negotiations. As a next step, SICCI has already instituted interactions with the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) and facilitates business visits for their members to India. It also works with the SCCCI to organize visits for its own members to China. When we say that Singapore can serve as a gateway for Indian companies to China, here we find a live example of how that is being made possible at the ground level. A few years ago, SICCI set up the Singapore Indian Entrepreneur Awards to showcase the achievements of Singapore’s leading Indian entrepreneurs and businesses by highlighting their contemporary entrepreneurial spirit. The award is sponsored by DBS Bank and has KPMG as its knowledge partner. There are three categories for the awards — large enterprises, medium enterprises and young entrepreneur. The award itself is recognition of the growing number of Indians entering the business space in Singapore and provides encouragement and reward to those doing so.

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Even apart from high level interactions, SICCI is doing its bit to facilitate interaction between the new Indian professionals, the local Indian business community and society at large. By its very definition, SICCI serves as a platform where the new Indian business talks to local Indian business in Singapore. Its committees and its membership is a mix of the two. More importantly, SICCI reaches out to the local community and in particular to the local Indian community to impart business skills and encourage entrepreneurship. It has set up a subsidiary called the Enterprise Development Center in collaboration with Spring Singapore. The EDC is helping new and existing businesses achieve excellence by enhancing their capabilities in various areas like business development, financing and management. The organization also works closely with government agencies, IE Singapore, EDB, IDA, etc to help Indian enterprises develop a better understanding of available assistance schemes and programs — to help businesses upgrade management skills and develop new capabilities through exploring new technologies. Singapore’s President, S R Nathan has this to say of SICCI: “In recent years, we have seen SICCI as a proactive chamber — active in promoting entrepreneurship, trade, and business efforts abroad; and working together with other chambers and trade associations in the furtherance of Singapore’s drive to take up the opportunities emerging beyond us in India, in the Middle East, and even in China” Alluding to some “concerns” about “the disconnect between the Indians who were born and bred in Singapore and Indians from India, be they citizens, permanent

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residents, or expatriates,” he said the SICCI “can act as a bridge” to establish suitable connectivity. The SICCI, with its “healthy mix between the two groups, both in the membership and in the leadership of the chamber,” could indeed play this role. The Bridge Organizations The exponential growth of trade and business between Singapore and India in recent years has seen the growth of a large number of “bridge” organizations. I use the term simply because the common stated objective of each of these organization is to foster a better understanding between Singaporean and Indian companies. Some of these organizations are founded and funded by government agencies. Others are private ventures. Regardless of their ownership and roots, these agencies are doing a tremendous job in terms of enabling Singapore companies access the Indian markets and vice versa. Mr Girija Pande is a charismatic personality and a leader of Indian business interests in Singapore. He has spent a quarter of a century in the banking industry with the ANZ Grindlays Banking Group. Currently, he is the Chairman of TCS Asia Pacific Pte Ltd — a Singapore registered holding company which has IHQ status awarded by the Economic Development Board of Singapore. In this role, he oversees TCS business in thirteen Asia Pacific countries including Greater China, Japan, ASEAN, South Korea and Australia/ New Zealand. He is also the Vice Chairman of TCS’ joint venture subsidiary in China with the Chinese government and Microsoft. Girija Pande has an obvious interest in the

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quality of interaction between India and Singapore and also in the success of Singapore’s objective of serving as a gateway for Indian companies into China and other parts of the world. Despite his remarkable achievements and obvious influence, Girija still manages to surprise people by his simplicity and his sense of the practical. Apart from his considerable professional pursuits, Girija Pande is also a driving force behind Network India. Network India is a premier networking platform that fosters connections and business linkages between companies that have an interest in the India market. It was launched on 18 October, 2002 and is tasked with cultivating a fraternity of Singapore-based companies and entrepreneurs interested in business opportunities in India. It also serves as a channel of feedback to Indian or Singapore policy-makers on opportunities and challenges faced by businesses in India and in Singapore. Network India also offers itself as a sounding board for policy makers when they formulate new government-to-government initiatives. Amongst its Steering Committee members, Network India counts leaders of industry such as Mr Karan Singh Thakral, Mr Gopinath Pillai and Mr Rajan Raju amongst others. The Singapore India Business Association is another bridging organization of note. SIBA is a joint initiative of Contact Singapore and International Enterprise, Singapore (formerly Trade Development Board) aimed at promoting business relations between business enterprises in India and Singapore as well as with other foreign business entities and business associations. It organises regular networking events for its members with other business entities, business associations and competent authorities. The fundamental

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aim of this Association is to bring business in India and Singapore closer and to identify and provide opportunities for Singapore companies to find markets and partners in India. A bridging organization with a more academic perspective is the Singapore India Partnership Foundation. The SIPF was launched in 2006 as a joint initiative by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to strengthen economic linkages, government relations, academic interaction and cultural understanding between the two countries. The Foundation grants exchange and visiting fellowships, and post-graduate scholarships to outstanding Singapore or Indian nationals from all disciplines, including the private and government sectors, academia and media. These awards are given to outstanding individuals who can contribute to developing better understanding and closer relations between Singapore and India. Amongst the many prominent donors to the foundations are Indian business houses like the Godrej Group, the Hero Group and the Bharti Enterprises Group of Sunil Mittal. Amongst the private initiatives in promoting SingaporeIndia trade and commercial relations, the Global Indian Business Network is prominent. The company, founded by former SICCI Chief Executive, Mr George Abraham, is involved in promoting trade and investment between India and the South East Asian region. Besides consultancy to Singapore companies setting up businesses and offices in India, the company also takes focused delegations of Singapore businesses to select Indian cities and states. The most recent was a delegation of 23 Singapore SMEs in

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diverse manufacturing and service sectors who visited Kolkata (West Bengal) for briefings and one-to-one business matching activities for business development. These and other government or industry sponsored organizations as well as privately run agencies have been the catalyst for the phenomenal upswing in business between Singapore and India. Support As can be seen, there is excellent support infrastructure for Indian professionals in Singapore at all levels of society and business. The extremely high visibility that India enjoys in Singapore coupled with the strong network of alumni, cultural, regional and social organizations that are active ensures that the new Indian professional feels really at home in Singapore. At the most basic level, they provide for an easy fit for the family into Singapore through the network of schools, cultural and regional organizations. They bring to the family those facilities and conveniences that they would miss most being away from home — the connection with other people who speak the same language, eat the same food and celebrate the same festivals. The Indian schools provide the all important educational guarantee — should the new Indian professional feel like returning home, the kids have no need to go through a torturous shift in their school syllabus and education structure. The pan Indian social organizations like the India Club provide a more formal means for the new Indian professional to interact with other Indian professionals across industries

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and regional boundaries. These interactions are both intellectually fulfilling as well as professionally valuable. The business organizations like SICCI and the various bridge agencies work at a more structural level. They make sure that the healthy level of business relationships that already exist between the two countries is propelled to grow into the next level of maturity and even branch out to other areas of common interest. And together, these organizations provide a means for the Indian professional to interact with and learn from the ones who came before them, including those who came here as part of the first wave of Indians. This network of social and business organizations performs an important role from a sociological perspective as well. Since none of these organizations caters exclusively to the new Indian, together they provide a set of excellent platforms for this new group of Indians to interact with native Singaporean Indians. Especially important in this perspective are the regional social organizations where family based interactions between the new Indians and those that came as part of the first wave take place in a happy ambience created by the commonalities of traditions, customs, culture and cuisine. They also create opportunities for the children of the new generation of Indians (who may be going to Indian International Schools) to observe and understand that there are Singaporeans who are very similar to themselves and their families. When families bond in this manner, they create opportunities for the creation of more meaningful linkages and a deeper level of understanding. No less important of course are the interactions that happen in the business space. Organizations like SICCI and

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Network India are a rich confluence of the native Singaporean Indian and the newly arrived generation. Both the leadership teams of these organizations and their membership base are a mix of Indians representing the two waves of Indians in Singapore. These business organizations thus provide for a platform for valuable interaction and collaboration on bread and butter matters. In a subsequent discussion, the need for and the role of these organizations in bridging the gulf between the new Indian professional and the local Singaporean Indian will perhaps become more clear.

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Silence speaks. It speaks most eloquently. Silence is not still. Silence leads. It leads most perfectly. Sri Chinmoy

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7 Silence The growing population of the so called “new Indian” professionals in Singapore and their perceived difference from the local Singapore-born Indian has sparked discussion and debate in Singapore. The issue was discussed early last year (2007) at no less a forum than the Parliament itself! The fact that there is a discussion of this type is both natural and healthy. On one hand, the discussion, by its very fact, acknowledges that the new Indian community has achieved a critical mass of sorts. It also highlights that this generation of Indians coming into Singapore are in some manner, quite different from those who came in preceding generations. The discussion is also indicative of the fact that the new Indian community is already a fairly visible section of Singapore society. Who is this new Indian and how or why is he different from the local Singapore born Indian? Is there really a conflict or are we going thru a natural process of “question and answer” in the lead up to a gradual assimilation. To start with, let me recount an anecdote. One of the early mysteries of my stay in Singapore has been the Bengali phenomenon. When I said that I was from Calcutta in West Bengal, my colleague asked me why I chose not to wear my turban. Taken aback by such a question, I wanted to know why I would be expected to do so.

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Apparently, Bengalis in Singapore all wore turbans. This left me vastly confused and as I dug into the roots of the matter, it emerged that the Sikh soldiers who came into Singapore in colonial times were called Bengalis since they were a part of the Bengal Regiment. Rather than explain the difference between Punjab and Bengal to a population that recognized Indians largely as Tamil speakers, the Sikhs happily accepted the label. In any case, there were not too many Bengalis in Singapore those days. The First Coming In 1819, Naraina (Narayana) Pillai (Pillay) became the first Indian to set foot on Singapore. He arrived in Singapore in June 1819 on the Indiana with Stamford Raffles, persuaded by Raffles’ ideals of Singapore. On the same ship, were a number of Indian soldiers who had also accompanied the founder of Singapore. Over the next few decades, Naraina rose from chief clerk at the Treasury to being the first building contractor in Singapore with the Sri Mariamman Temple on South Bridge Road to his credit. There have always been Indians in Singapore. The first census of Singapore in 1824 counted 756 Indians, One of the earliest to arrive were the Chettiars — to take advantage of the opportunities opened up by Sir Stamford Raffles establishing Singapore as a trading post in 1819. The Chettiars established their business mainly in Market Street and Chulia Street which today are part of the Raffles Place area. The Chettiar Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1928 and they dominated Market Street all the way till 1970, when the area was acquired for urban

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renewal. Even now, their contributions are remembered with a number of streets like Chettiar Road, Arunasalam Chetty Road and Narayanan Chetty Road being named after the distinguished Chettiars. Over the next few decades, the British relocated a large number of Indian convicts to the Straits Settlements including Singapore, where the rate of growth was phenomenal. These early Indians were given freedom in Singapore and subsequently made significant contributions to the development of Singapore. A majority of these Indians were from the Malabar Coast (Kerala) and from Tamil Nadu. In another parallel flow, Indians were encouraged to move to Singapore as workers on the rubber plantations in Malaya and from there they percolated to Singapore. But also, Indians from various parts of India and representing various communities arrived in Singapore for a large number of other reasons. For examples, the Sindhis and Gujaratis came here to trade and pursue commercial activities; the Sikhs from Punjab came as soldiers; the Gurkhas from Nepal came as soldiers as well and today the Gurkha Contingent forms an integral part of the Singapore Police Force. As a result of the first coming, persons of Indian origin today comprise approximately 8% of the population and Tamil is one of the four recognized languages (along with Chinese, Malay and of course English). Most of the Indians whose families were part of the first coming retain a link with their original homeland only in the form of their cultural and religious traditions. A large number of them have never actually been to India and are proud Singaporeans only.

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Mr Muthunathan is an office worker and a Singaporean of Indian origin. He was born in Singapore and speaks Tamil. One idyllic weekend afternoon, over a cup of coffee in a typical Singapore coffee-shop; I asked Muthunathan who he would support in a hypothetical football game between Singapore and India (a game both countries follow with great vigour and play with an equally great lack of achievement). Pat came the reply, “Singapore, of course!” Still, the Indian community in Singapore does take considerable pride in the rise of India as a power in the global economic world order. “It makes me feel good”, said Muthunathan. And that simple cultural umbilical link unites Muthu with Arvind Kumar, who came to Singapore in 1999 as part of a second wave of Indian immigrants in Singapore. The Second Coming Since the late 1980s, a growing number of Indian IT professionals have been making California their home. Over a period of time, as the flow turned from a trickle to a flood, the educated Indian middle class started looking for opportunities elsewhere as well. From that moment on, Singapore has always been a favored port of call. Over the last fifteen years, several thousand Indian professionals have chosen Singapore as their choice of place to live and work. This deluge has included not only professionals in the areas of information technology but also in banking, finance, manufacturing and services. Today, one cannot walk across Raffles Place without noticing the very high

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percentage of Indian white collar workers in Singapore’s prime office district. Not just men, one actually notices a large number of Indian ladies as well. The city center boasts of more than a dozen Indian restaurants of various types including fine dining options and purely vegetarian options. I myself came to Singapore in 1997 at the height (maybe “depth” is a more appropriate adjective) of the Asian financial crisis. In those days, it was fairly difficult to get chapattis in a restaurant, unless it was a fine-dining option. We tended to visit Little India often, shore up on ingredients from Mustafa’s and generally cook at home. In sharp contrast, today I know of literally dozens of mid-range eating houses that serve chapattis and dal (another north Indian palate essential). Within the Central Business District Area itself, I could count a dozen such establishments. I could do a review of these for readers, but that could be the subject of another effort. Incidentally, these are patronized by Indians and non-Indians alike, in almost equal measure. The last few Bollywood films I have seen have been at GV Theatres and not in an India specific movie theater like Jade. Things have changed. The new Indian is a very distinct aspect of Singapore’s landscape today. He is so surprisingly different from the Indian stereotype that most Singaporeans have carried over decades that his presence becomes even more of a talking point. He even looks different. Typically, he is very well educated, speaks impeccable English, is a white collar worker, earns a lot, spends a lot, sends his children to Indian or other International schools and generally has a lot of confidence in himself and his abilities. Some call him the “Orchard Road Indian”.

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The new Indian is a typical white collar worker. He works both for local companies as well as in the 8,000 multinationals operating in Singapore. Typically, he is a mid-level manager moving up the corporate ladder at great speed. Even apart from the professionals, who are the most conspicuous and numerous of the new Indians; there are other sections that are significant. One big segment is the number of students coming into Singapore from India. Increasingly, Indian students are choosing Singapore as the place where they would like to do their graduation and their masters. Singapore conducts education fairs in major Indian cities to attract students and are they responding in large numbers. There are about 6,000 Indian students in Singapore and they stand fourth in number amongst the foreign student population. The NUS is very well regarded and is the preferred institution but one can find Indian students in several other institutes like the Singapore Management University, the Singapore Institute of Management, the LaSalle College of Arts and the Tourism Management Institute of Singapore. Many of these students, in fact, do stay back and work in Singapore after their studies are over. Aveg Agarwal is an IIT graduate who subsequently became an officer in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and was serving at the Indian High Commission in Peru. Today, he is pursuing his MBA at the INSEAD campus in Singapore. With his pedigree, Aveg could easily have aspired to make it to the IIMs in India. He did consider it, but in the end he chose INSEAD and Singapore because he felt that INSEAD and Singapore together could open up a whole new world for him.

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It is estimated that there are about 100,000 Indian professionals living here today who would qualify to be a part of the second coming. A number of them are on their way to some other place (usually the USA), some aim to go back home to work; others are happy to stay here as Permanent Residents or Employment Pass holders. But, increasingly, many are making the “big” choice and taking up Singapore citizenship. Last weekend, at a dinner gathering (a must-have-every-weekend for the new Indian) I noticed that two of six families present had actually become Singapore citizens. This count is not a flash in the pan and actually represents the general tendency. The Debate With the creation of a critical mass of the new professional Indian in Singapore over the last two decades or more, a lack of symmetry has become visible. This has been accompanied by the rise of India as a global economic player and its positioning as a leader in knowledge based services. The education levels as well as the self confidence that the new Indian professional displays is in sharp contrast with the profile of local Indian Singaporeans. This disparity has giving rise to a need for a greater degree of interaction and understanding. However, there has not really been a great degree of interaction between the Indians of the first coming and those who have arrived more recently. This lack of communication has raised quite a few eyebrows, caused concern amongst many circles, consumed countless newspaper columns and inspired some controversial debates on the internet. Though no longer a very hot topic of discussion, it is still interesting

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to go a bit deeper and understand the reasons leading to and the potential outcomes of such a debate. One of the potential reasons for this lack of communication is that the need itself has hardly been noted till recently. Overall, it has been assumed that the new Indians would somehow be automatically integrated with their predecessors. However, that assumption has turned out to be incorrect and it is clear now that dialogue has to be sponsored, given direction and arranged. It is not too late, really, for the new Indians are only now getting to acquire some critical mass and discovering some of their own identities. But, first of all, let us recognize some truths, however inconvenient they may be. Most first wave Indians came to Singapore to escape poverty. Whatever Singapore (or Malaya) may or not have done for them, it did provide enough means to acquire food, shelter and clothing. While there were many exceptions like the traders and the soldiers, the majority were illiterate and what they brought to the table was physical labor. Also, most of them came from Tamil Nadu and spoke the Tamil language. While they do retain their cultural identities as Indian; that is limited to language, customs and to a large extend food habits. In all other senses, they are unable to identify themselves with India, whether it be the politics, sport, entertainment or even the sentiment. Many Singapore born Indians have never been to India and would feel rather out of place if they did. More importantly, there was never any prospect or intention to consider “going back”. And in most cases, not

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much prospect of moving out of Singapore to any other country either. Till recently, there was also a firm (and accurate) belief that they were surely better off in comparison to their cousins back home. In sharp contrast, the new Indian professional is in Singapore as a matter of choice, not chance. It is very likely that if not Singapore, he would be in another foreign land. Increasingly, the Indian professional in Singapore has also the assurance of comparable choices in India as well — in terms of salaries and definitely in terms of opportunities. This is a combined result of salaries in India going up in the technology sector and upper management levels and the explosion of opportunity that the opening up of the Indian economy has caused. The new Indian professional displays a sense of confidence and a degree of pride. This can be easily confused to be an attitude of arrogance, and possibly, in some cases it may even be true. The line between pride and arrogance is blurred and is dependant both on an understanding of body language and its interpretation. Understandably as well, the new Indian is also very connected to India in every sense of the term. He has, in most cases, grown up in India, has family back home and carries an Indian passport. It is quite obvious that India occupies major mind-share. These factors between the old and the new, create a set of differences that are fundamental to the manner in which the two groups think, emote and act.

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Natural Reactions As a result of the advent of the new Indian professional in Singapore and India’s gradual awakening; it is a natural response for the local Singaporean to have to re-validate his thought processes. The erstwhile “poor cousins” are no longer poor. More importantly, they are right here in Singapore — within the comfort zone. Also, they are not all from Tamil Nadu. What are the Hindi speaking and the Gujrati speaking Indians doing here? We are the Indians who have contributed to the building and success of Singapore, so why is the government laying out the red carpet to attract and welcome these guys? These and other similar thought processes are a natural extension of the foreign talent debate. Except that they occur within the community itself.

The Impact of the Shell In one of the previous chapters, I have examined the phenomenon of the shell in which the new Indian profession is increasingly ensconcing himself. Let me take that thought process further. Firstly, it is natural for communities to create support structures for themselves. All communities do. The Americans and the British and the Japanese do it. Even the local Indian community has its own support structures, some of them overlapping with those of the new Indians especially in areas connected to food, religion and culture. Secondly, even as the new Indian assimilates into Singapore taking up Permanent Residence or even

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citizenship; there is little requirement or need to get too deep into the community. Singapore is a young country and as yet, there is no clear definition of a set of Singaporean values. This issues related to the definition of “Singaporeanness” are frequently debated in the press and across various forums. Surely over a period of time and as a result of these intense debates, a more clearly identifiable set of Singaporean values will emerge. However, till that time, new Singaporeans will tend to retain the value systems that they would have inherited. What is happening of course is that the new Singaporeans, including the new Indians at the mature end of the Decision Tree are adopting the Singapore lifestyle which is far more pronounced and visible than the Singaporean value system. These include the more visible aspects like Singlish, the love of the material, the love of food in general and of eating out in particular as well as the more fundamental tenets like respect for diversity, for other races and languages and for peaceful co-existence. However, it is important to note that a common Singaporean lifestyle is a different concept compared to a Singaporean value-system. It is far more superficial and consequentially easier to adopt. This ability to peacefully co-exist in a multi-lingual and multi-racial environment comes easily to the new Indian. In fact, it is actually part of his DNA itself and he is well practiced in not understanding or adopting the lifestyle choices of his colleagues and neighbors; but yet having no complaints and living rather peacefully with the diversity. By nature and as a result of historical reasons, Indians are able to adapt to diversity extremely calmly and to be at peace with contradictions. This ability makes them blend very easily into a Singapore society that advocates peaceful

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co-existence and harmony above all else. Mixing, understanding and debating across communities are considered healthy activities as long as there is no disruption of harmony. This is extremely valuable because as a result, Singapore has seen no major communal disturbances for years. (And, may it never see such events.) The new Indian is comfortable here. He is able to be a good Singaporean and to adopt the Singaporean lifestyle and to be proud of his Singapore without really having to re-validate his fundamental value systems. Even the USA, the most welcoming of lands requires a fundamental revalidation of value systems of each of its new citizens to be able to comfortably fit in. Thus, it is entirely possible for the new Indian to be a good Singaporean without really having to go out and fit into a value-set common to all Singaporeans. Since there is no such value-set at all. The Lack of Communication At an individual level, there is little in common between the Singaporeans of Indian origin and the current breed of Indians arriving into Singapore. They largely live in their own separate worlds with only a minimal interaction. It is only on the weekly trip to Little India or to the temple that the new Indian comes across his brethren whose forefathers had made Singapore their home. There is also a clear sense of economic disparity between the two groups that makes interaction even more difficult. One fundamental question that needs to be asked is why would we expect the new Indian to specifically go out of his

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way and establish communication with the local Indian Singaporean. This is a difficult question to answer and there are really not too many motivations that come to mind. The new Indian professional is primarily career-oriented and would naturally gravitate towards other professionals and towards corporate associations in the time that he has away from work and family. It would have to be a very curious and historical minded new Indian professional who would go out of his way to develop an understanding of the local Singaporean Indian community. The Sounds in the Silence Having looked at the reasons for the lack of communication that does exist between the new Indian professionals and the local Indian Singaporeans; it is still instructive to listen into the beginnings of the communications that are taking place. These are great indications for the future and signal a narrowing of the perception gap in the years to come. The new Indian community has been around for a couple decades at least and there is a lot of awareness of the need for dialogue. The seniors without exception urge the newcomers to come out of their shells and interact with Singapore society at large and with Singaporean Indians in particular. Some organizations are taking the lead. Prominent amongst them is the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Over the years, SICCI has taken several steps to reach out to the local Indian population.

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SICCI has a natural advantage. As a focal organization for Indian business, SICCI counts both local Singapore Indians and the new Indian professionals as its members. Thus, it has the potential to be a forum for interaction at the highest level. Even at a grassroots level, SICCI has a fairly comprehensive program of activities that tend to increase interaction. It runs Hindi language classes and the good news is that there is an increasing number of local Singaporean Indians signing up to learn Hindi. It also encourages local Singaporean Indians to consider entrepreneurship. To this purpose, SICCI guides and mentors entrepreneurs from the local community. SICCI has a youth sub-committee that interacts with the grassroots as well. At a recent event, several hundred local Singaporean Indians turned up to listen to talks on entrepreneurship and to participate in business plan competitions. SICCI also has MOUs with tertiary educational institutions like the Singapore Polytechnic to arrange for internships for Singaporean students with major Indian companies. Such interactions at a student level have great potential to help narrow the gaps. The local Indian community itself is reaching out. The Singapore Indian Association is an organization that is in the process of re-inventing itself to sponsor dialogue with the new Indian community and to attempt to bring them under its fold. Its leaders like its Chairman, Ambassador Kesavapany are reaching out to the leaders amongst the new Indian community to invite them to participate in the activities of the Indian communities at large. Such broad based initiatives will go a long way in fostering understanding and encouraging interaction between the communities.

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A number of other fora exist as well and there are several initiatives in place that encourage interaction, understanding and enrichment. So, while there is silence, it is not a pin-drop silence. There are voices in the silence that are being increasing heard as well as understood. It is but a matter of time for the new to become an accepted part of the old. Perhaps, by then we would have the next generation of the new. Who knows?

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Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. Henry Ward Beecher

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8 Tipping Point Has the impact of the new Indian in Singapore reached a peak? Or, are we in a period of continual growth of this influence? To appreciate and understand the phase of this relationship, it may be interesting to start with an understanding of the geo-economic and political factors underlying the relationship. In the chapter on the impact on business, I had mentioned India’s Look East policy and the initiatives of then Prime Minister Goh as key factors that sparked of the recent upturn in business relationships. Here, I outline two completely unrelated factors that have had a critical bearing on the synergy between Singapore and India. Services and the Knowledge Economy Due to its small size and lack of natural resources, Singapore has modeled itself as a “knowledge” and services based economy. Singapore’s position in the world of business and trade are defined by its natural location as a hub for the movement of products (due to its location and its efficient sea and air ports) and also as a hub for the provision of services. To be able to achieve a leadership position as a great hub for the movement of products, services and commerce; Singapore has also created one of the most efficient and open business environments in the world.

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India, in stark contrast, is a predominantly agricultural country rich in natural resources. It also has a long tradition in manufacturing with the large Indian business houses having manufacturing legacies stretching back to more than a century. In the early years of independence, India had also laid its bets on the development of heavy industry in the form of steel plants and other state-run large manufacturing enterprises as the engines of India’s drive out of poverty. These manufacturing giants were christened the “temples of modern India”. However, when India made its debut into the world of global business and finally made its mark; it was through services. The initial contributions were through the impact of Indian computer engineers making a mark for themselves in Silicon Valley in the eighties. Their brilliance led to the recognition of Indian talent in information technology and that ripple has now grown to include other knowledge and services industries like banking as well. The Indian experience has thus been very different from those of most other Asian economies that made their mark through manufacturing — like Japan, Korea, Taiwan and most recently (and most impressively) China. The focus of Indian growth through knowledge-based services has dovetailed well with Singapore’s traditional focus on these areas and made Singapore a natural choice for the flow of Indian talent into Singapore. The Geo-political Platform For several decades, the Cold War and Indian’s perceived tilt towards the Soviet bloc (combined with Singapore’s

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perceived tilt towards the West) represented a practical impediment to the growth of relationships between Singapore and India. By the time the balance of payments crisis struck in the early 1990s, the fact that the Cold War had already ended allowed India to evaluate a larger range of economic options than otherwise. Dr. Jaishankar, India’s High Commissioner to Singapore, took time off to explain these choices. The options were either to look West towards the US and Europe, or maybe towards the Gulf, or even east to Japan. Or closer home, towards the Tiger economies of South East Asia. The US and Europe were far too developed for India to consider them to be role models. The Gulf was powered by oil-money. Japan was too alien in language and culture. The South East Asian economies had been following an export driven path out of Third World poverty towards development. Also, the model that they had chosen was not that of a hundred percent capitalist market-driven model but was tempered by the principles of social efficiency. To India, the model seemed to be one that it could identify with more easily than any of the others. The Look East policy was actually an easy choice for India to make. In that period of churn, Singapore was able to spot the opportunity. It made the first moves — proposals to partner with India in many areas including the build-up of infrastructure in India. It was through these initial exchanges that Prime Minister Goh’s successes were established and the term “Mild India Fever” was coined.

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Also, there were very few contradictions. Singapore is an open economy based on free trade. It has no agriculture or indigenous industry to protect. There were not too many complications to the signing of the CECA between Singapore and India. In fact, Singapore remains the only country with which India has such a treaty in place. From an overall perspective, the platform created by the political alignment between Singapore and India combined with the synergy generated by both countries’ focus on knowledge based services to create to a full fledged “India Fever” in Singapore. So What’s Next? So, where will this positive lead us? Over a period of time, India has started figuring out where it wants to go and the road it needs to take to reach there. This increasing maturity shapes India’s relationships with the rest of the world. At the same time, India now has a large number of suitors in almost every area ranging from investment into India, trade relationships and competition for Indian talent. Currently, it is expected that the next big thing for the Indian economy will be manufacturing; similar to China’s growing focus on services. In the areas of manufacturing, there is limited direct synergy that Indian businesses would have with Singapore. Having said that, there remain several domains where there is scope for continuity and growth of this relationship. All said and done, India is at an early stage of its growth cycle. It still houses the largest number of “poor” and the

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“illiterate” in the world. India’s economic development model is largely based on the trickle down effect. What that means is that the Indian market for virtually everything is almost destined to keep growing for at least the next few generations. The middle class will continue to grow both in depth and number as well as in spending power. The need for infrastructure, facilities and services will likewise continue to expand. And, Indian businesses will continue in their quest to become meaningful and substantial players on a global scale. All of these represent great opportunities for Singapore. A good example is banking. While Indian companies have established themselves as substantial players in the global IT services market, the banks are yet to do so. This is despite the fact that India now produces a large number of very successful banking professionals. However, India does have a number of very efficient banks that operate primarily within India and aspire to a more global reach. For the entire Indian banking sector, Singapore represents a great place to start the global journey. With it’s open environment allowing for the flow of capital, as well as the presence of all the global banking majors; Singapore is the first natural port of call for Indian banks planning to grow outside India. Even in the manufacturing space, there are multiple types of opportunities. As Indian manufacturers aim to attain global scale of manufacturing, they increasingly realize that acquisition is probably the way to go, unless they choose the slow organic route. Increasingly over the last few years, we hear of Indian companies acquiring manufacturing facilities and brands across the globe. Almost every Indian

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business house has an acquisition roadmap. And Singapore as a hub for global commerce has important contributions to make in this globalisation process. The other area where Singapore plays a very meaningful role is in those industries like the bio-medical sciences where both Singapore and India have focus and aspire to global leadership positions. These industries are high valueadd, knowledge-based sunrise industries where businesses from both countries can collaborate to great mutual benefit. Even apart from manufacturing and services, there are opportunities. One fact that Singaporean leaders never tire of emphasizing to Indian business is Singapore’s potential to serve as India’s businesses gateway to the world. This is in fact, Singapore’s core competence of sorts. While Indian companies are already comfortable in working with the American market and the Middle East, they still need help with other parts of the world like China, Japan and the other countries of South East Asia. And, Singapore is already intimately connected to each of these markets. As a result, the number of Indian companies coming to set-up shop in Singapore will continue to grow in large numbers over the next few years and even decades. From a macro-economic perspective, Singapore and India are really at the early stages of their relationship. The relationship is mature but there are huge opportunities for the further development of this relationship. The People Perspective On the ground as well, the New Indian will continue to prosper in Singapore. In terms of numbers, at some time he

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may even overtake the descendants of the Indians who came here as part of the first wave. However, the evolution of societies is achieved over generations and rarely follows clearly defined boundaries or milestones. Except for some Malays, every Singaporean has a forefather who was either a new Chinese or a new Indian or a new Caucasian at some point. There is always a degree of tension between the “now old” and the new “new” of every community. That is a natural and not necessarily unhealthy reaction. Over time however, these distinct identities get blurred as assimilation takes place and the “new” becomes part of the “now old” and a “newer new” takes its place. We are already seeing a greater interaction between the new Indian community and the local Singaporean community at large. If we go back to the concept of the Decision Tree outlined in the first essay of this series, we do see a growing number of new Indians adopting Singapore as their first home (compared to second home) and taking up citizenship. These new Indian Singaporeans form the foundations of the gradual assimilation of the new Indian community into Singapore. Dr. Gautam Banerjee, who went to school in Mumbai, is one of the most influential business leaders in Singapore and an expatriate-turned-citizen. He is also a Member of the current Singapore Parliament. Dr. Banerjee, in many senses represents the best face of the new Indian community in Singapore. He has taken a lead in and made contributions to the assimilation of the new Indians into the Singapore local context and has also been very effective in representing Singapore at various fora in India as well.

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Fairly significant numbers of new Indians are taking up Singapore citizenship for a variety of reasons. Harish Nim, who did so a few years ago, told me that his primary emotion in embracing Singapore citizenship was that it was Singapore that gave him the opportunities to achieve what he was really capable of. Perhaps it was an expression of appreciation and gratitude. Others may do so for more practical reasons. Regardless of the underlying reasons, for these are very private motivations; the fact that an increasing number of new Indians is actually embracing Singapore citizenship portents well for this country. We can see a maturing of the processes of the Decision Tree and the second generation especially plays a huge role in that assimilation. The Impact of the Second Generation Let me take the example of my daughter and the children of my close friends. This is a generation that was either born here or arrived in Singapore at a very early age. My daughter came to Singapore when she was all of three years old. She is a permanent resident and still holds an Indian passport. But, her entire schooling experience has been at a local Singapore school and she counts a number of local Singaporeans as her best friends. So what does Singapore represent to her as compared to India? To her, Singapore is HOME, in big block letters. This is the comfort zone for her, with her life revolving around her room in our apartment, her school two kilometers away, her extra-curricular activities and her friends. She

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loves home food, but she identifies, appreciates and adores local Chinese delights as only a person who has grown up here can. Long back, at her childcare centre, she was introduced to chicken rice in a very matter of fact manner. Laksa happened to her at the school canteen. None of it is exotic to her natural upbringing, as it may be to me. It is a part of her natural upbringing. So, what about India? India, too, is an integral part of her. She has many Indian friends (refer to the Shell in which we tend to live), loves Indian food, follows the Indian cricket team (to a measure) and Bollywood and stays in touch with her cousins in India. India is in her DNA and will unlikely go away. Having said all that, she does not view India as home, but rather as a favorite place to go to and as a place of unlimited love from her grandparents, her uncles and aunts and her cousins. So, in a practical sense, she is really a Singaporean of Indian origin. The second generation of the new Indian tends to respond more organically to the realities of their place in the world. Their value systems and lifestyle choices tend to be more Singaporean. The differences in personality and mental make-up between them and their cousins back home are real and can be quite easily observed. More importantly, they themselves are able to observe and recognize this. As this generation grows up and reaches maturity, it also carries a more global outlook in terms of its preferences of food, music and lifestyle. In many areas, their choices are quite intrinsically Singaporean in nature. Very often, they may carry an Indian passport but in fact, that is an inheritance of sorts and not a complete definition of identity. While they stay close to their parents and their value-systems; they are

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unlikely to be able to have as deep an emotional bond with India as their parents — simply because their growing up years were not spent there. Their generation and the generations that come after them will seek and find their identity and more likely than otherwise, that identity will be a Singaporean identity. This generation, then, is the greatest catalyst to the assimilation of the new Indian professional with the country that he has chosen to live and work in. What’s Next? There is nothing dramatic coming up next. There is neither deluge nor fracture on the cards. But there is positive growth and there is reason to be optimistic. The new Indian will continue to arrive. And he will continue to arrive as a migratory bird. Some will move onto other shores sooner, others later. But some will stay back and make Singapore their second home. Some will even make Singapore their first home. And all will contribute to the growth and development of this country. Indian businesses will continue to reach out to Singapore as well. Over a period of time, the motivations may change. But they will certainly continue to reach out. There is too much synergy as well as momentum already built up for that not to happen. As a result of the new Indian professionals and businesses coming in, Singapore will also continue to be a favored vacation location for growing numbers of the Indian upper and middle classes. The integrated resorts will reap the benefits. As will Singapore as a whole.

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The second generation of the new Indian will imbibe a Singaporean identity and provide a broader representation of India in the multi-racial diversities of Singapore. And make it richer and more vibrant. Overall, India Fever in all its multifarious dimensions will add yet another thread to the exquisite multi-cultural tapestry that is Singapore.

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Epilogue: CECA A lot of credit for the flourishing India-Singapore relationship, including the large number of Indian expatriates living and working in Singapore goes to the CECA — Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement — between the two countries. It is good for the reader of this book to know something about the CECA and to be able to appreciate the significance and impact of this landmark agreement. On 29 June 2005, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh of India and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore signed the CECA to pave the way for greater India-Singapore collaboration on several fronts. While Singapore already had similar Free Trace Agreements with several countries, it was a first for India. Speaking at a lunch forum the next day, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, “Bilaterally, CECA will create many opportunities for businesses and individuals on both sides. But more importantly, it is a significant step towards an India-ASEAN FTA, and deeper engagement between India and Southeast Asia.” The CECA addressed several issues relating to business relationships between India and Singapore. It includes provisions to facilitate trade in goods as well as services. The CECA also allows for easier investment flows and provides for mutual investment protection between the two countries. At an individual level, the CECA also includes provisions to take care of double taxation related issues. All

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of these allow for a smoother flow of goods, services and human resources between the two countries. But CECA has broader strategic implications as well for both countries. Singapore companies gain an entry into the Indian market. This is also a part of the Singapore plan to strengthen its economic ties with many different centres of prosperity and growth. A strong relationship with India complements its flourishing linkages with China, and help Singapore achieve its objective of participating in the economic resurgence of the two emerging economic giants. India, on the other hand, stands to receive substantial investment in infrastructure building from Singapore companies as a result of the CECA. For India’s growing services offerings, the CECA opens up new opportunities in Singapore as well as in the region. From a strategic perspective, CECA consolidates India’s position in Southeast Asia and ensures that India has access to opportunities across ASEAN. Within a year of CECA being concluded, trade between India and Singapore grew by more than 20 per cent. Investments into India by Singapore companies also saw significant increase. In subsequent years, these benefits increased even further as more companies and businesses started taking advantage of the agreement. In fact, the CECA is one of the most utilized Free Trade Agreements that Singapore has signed with any country. That underlines both the results and the potential of the landmark agreement. Currently, the CECA is undergoing a review to make it more effective with some specific objectives. These include some objectives not completely realized from the first round like the recognition of Indian degrees by Singapore professional bodies.

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Of course, the second phase will include further tariff reductions for a larger group of products and services. Apart from this, the business objective is to double bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2012. One of the key initiatives is to study the Indo-Singapore trade patterns in comparison with Singapore-China flows, in order to identify opportunities for growth. One other area that will receive a lot of attention will be tourism. It is hoped that the second phase of CECA will lead to closer co-operation between Singapore and India to facilitate the flow of tourists, businessmen and professionals between the two countries. On 26 March 2008, the State Bank of India (SBI) got the approval of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for a qualified full banking license (QFB) with privileges to establish up to 25 outlets, including Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and offer the full range of financial services. In parallel, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted licenses to two Singapore banks — Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) and United Overseas Bank (UOB) to open additional branches in India. This achieved one of the key objectives envisioned by CECA in its first phase and bodes well for further progress in the second phase as well. The official launch of the second review of CECA is targeted to be in the first half of 2009.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Amrit Barman was born in Kolkata, India and graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. After working as an engineer for a while, he became a part of India’s information technology army in 1995 and has remained a loyal soldier ever since. He arrived in Singapore in 1997 and currently works for Cisco Systems in Singapore. India Fever is his first book.

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The new Indian professional is a regular feature of the Central Business District. Here a group of new Indian professionals share a light moment at Raffles Place. Source: Vishal Garg

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Holi is the traditional north Indian harvest festival, celebrated with colour, song, dance and good food. Here, Holi festivities are in full swing at the East Coast Park. Source: IIT Alumni Association, Singapore

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Rupee Room, the Bollywood themed nightclub pulls in the crowds. They partnered with Zee Television recently to organize the Bollywood Dance Show and Academy. Source: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd

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The regional associations play an important role in the social lives. Here the Bengali Association celebrates Durga Puja with traditional pomp, gaiety and grandeur. Source: Bengali Association

Below, a scene from a dance drama performed by the members of the Bengali Association. Source: Bengali Association

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Cricket is in the DNA of the new Indian professional in Singapore. Source: IIT Alumni Association of Singapore

Singapore is fast becoming a favourite holiday destination for Indian tourists. Source: Amrit Barman

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Indian international schools like the Global Indian International School provide a first line of support to the new Indian professional. Source: Global Indian International School

Indian businesses are increasingly discovering the virtues of Singapore as an attractive business location. Polaris is one of these companies in the information technology sector. The Polaris office in Singapore is a beehive of activity. Source: Polaris Software Lab Pte Ltd

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Capt. Sanjiv Pendyala and his wife on a morning walk at East Coast Park — a favourite hang-out of the new Indian professional. Source: Amrit Barman

Chinese Indian Food for the Indian soul. Chinese immigrants to India settled at Tangra in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata. Chinese cuisine takes a detour through Tangra and finally reaches Singapore. Source: Deepali Ray

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Top Bollywood stars and singers perform regularly in Singapore. Here Shahrukh Khan regales audiences at the Zee Carnival 2008. Source: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd Indian professionals find their own niche in the arts as well. The play, “The Verdict” was performed by a group of theatre enthusiasts in 2008. Source: Nikhilesh Gupta

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