The Adani Group, founded by GautamAdani,recently opened its regional headquarters office in Singapore and Tata Steel invested around USD 1 billion in its wholly-owned subsidiary in the country amidst government’s efforts to ‘bring in sparkle’ into India-Singapore partnership

Earlier in February, during a keynote address at India-Singapore CEO Forum, Union MinisterPiyushGoyal urged businesses from both the countries to come together to strengthen the partnership between India and Singapore. Among private sector giants is the Adani Group founded by GautamAdani that recently opened its regional headquarters in Singapore. Likewise,Tata Steel too has ramped up investments in the city-state.

According to the recent survey by KPMG, Singapore topped the tech hub rank this year from seventh place in the previous year, backed by a strong government support, robust IT infrastructure, etc. Such strategic interventions re-positioning Singapore to the world have attracted players such as the Adani Group.

“Our business has already had a presence in Singapore for 20 years, so we know first-hand that Singapore supports innovation and entrepreneurship and therefore is a perfect location for Adani’s global ambition in this region,” said Adani Singapore Country Head Jeyakumar Janakaraj. The new regional headquarters office of the Adani Group led by Gautam Adani, will focus on energy, infrastructure and technology portfolios.

On the investment side of things, many Indian entrepreneurs have been looking beyond borders to invest in foreign markets with favourable entrepreneurial ecosystem.Data from the Reserve Bank revealed that India Inc’s foreign investment has surged to around USD 2.51 billion in the first month of the current fiscal. Among the major investors is Tata Steel that has invested over USD 1 billion in its wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore. With the steel industry at its peak, the company said that it will focus on running its businesses in Thailand and Singapore that have earlier been classified as assets ‘held for sale’, while continuing to explore opportunities in its home country.

A number of cross-border collaborations are also underway one of which is the recent partnership between Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) and Start-up Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) of IIT-Kanpur. Their goal is to boost entrepreneurial ecosystem by identifying sustainable tech-based businesses that will provide local employment opportunities, and encourage them to tap into Singapore-India trade and technology corridor.

Thus, whether it is such cross-border initiatives or participation from private players like GautamAdani’s Group and Tata Steel, these endeavours definitely hint that theIndia-Singapore relationship is heading towards the right direction. India has had a longstanding bilateral trade relationship with Singapore and the initiatives like these will undoubtedly help in consolidating it.