SINDA ANNOUNCES A BOLD NEW OUTREACH PROGRAMME TO TAP ON EXPERTISE OF TOP INDIAN BUSINESS LEADERS IN SINGAPORE
SINGAPORE 7 February 2011 – The Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA), the self-help group for Indians, runs a wide array of programmes to uplift the educational performance of Indian students and the social status of less fortunate ethnic Indians. SINDA has established a new high powered group – the Indian Business leaders Roundtable (IBR), consisting of top Indian Business Leaders and Professionals based in Singapore as part of its outreach programme. Over the last decade, many highly qualified Indian professionals have made Singapore their home base. They have taken up senior positions in government related organisations and private enterprises many of which are multi-national companies. The rapid growth of Asia/Singapore & the attractions of Singapore as a place to live & bring up a family has been a major reason. Singapore benefits by having such a talented base of senior globally experienced professional managers and entrepreneurs anchored here. It is this base of senior Indians who need to be formally engaged in issues affecting the Singaporean Indian community-especially those less fortunate.
The objectives of the programme are three-fold:
- To engage with high net worth Indians business leaders based in Singapore who are in the top echelons of businesses in Singapore – especially newly arrived ones.
- To create a suitable platform which allows for networking & sharing of ideas among top Indian & Singaporean business leaders on a regular basis.
- To enable SINDA to benefit from their advice, leverage on their connections and generally support SINDA in its wider mission.
Hailed as the first initiative of its kind, the IBR will be governed by a high powered Managing Council chaired by Mr Girija Pande (Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services APAC) and will organize meetings, gatherings and activities for top Indian business leaders and professionals to take advantage of their experience, connections and ideas.
Other members of the Managing Council are:
| Council Members | |
| Mr Sat Pal Khattar | SINDA Life Trustee & Chairman, Singapore Business Federation |
| Mr Gautam Banerjee | SINDA Term Trustee & Executive Chairman of PWC Asia |
| Mr Gopinath Pillai | Ambassador-at-Large & Executive Chairman, Savant Infocomm |
| Mr Piyush Gupta | CEO, DBS Group Holdings & DBS Bank |
| Mr Harish Manwani | President, Unilever Asia, Africa, Central & Eastern Europe |
| Mr Pradeep Pant | President, Asia Pacific, Kraft Foods |
| Mr Sunny Verghese | CEO, Olam International |
| Mr. Atul Temurnikar | Trustee and Chairman, Global Indian Foundation |
| Mr R Narayanamohan | Chairman, Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry |
| Executive Director & Head | |
| Dr V Anantha Nageswaran | Chief Investment Officer, Bank Julius Baer, Singapore |
| Director & Assistant Head | |
| Ms Aarti Mehra | Senior Vice President, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ |
Note: The Council Members hold several other key appointments in addition to those mentioned above
IBR will be launched in two phases. Phase I will see the roll-out of an 18-month programme in which some 30 to 40 high net worth business leaders (newly arrived Indians) will be invited to be part of the new group. They will play the steering role in establishing the IBR as a credible partner for SINDA. Phase 2 will commence after the initial 18-month period, whereby, membership will be extended to a larger group of senior Indian businessmen and professionals residing in Singapore.
IBR is the first formal forum through which newly arrived senior Indian business leaders and professionals based in Singapore are being brought together to benefit from their experiences, connections & advice. This platform will additionally be seen as one of the vehicles to integrate the newly arrived Indian professionals into mainstream Singaporean Indian issues.
