6th AGM – INDIA CLUB

I am writing on behalf of India Club to give notice of its 6th Annual General Meeting (AGM), to be held as follows.

Date : Sunday, 23rd May 2010

Time : From 13:30 to 15:30

Venue : Raffles Room at The Tanglin Club, 5 Stevens Road, Singapore
(Car parking is not available at the Tanglin Club. You may use public parking along Claymore Hill vicinity e.g. Shaw Centre / House, International Building etc)

Programme : 13:30 – 14:30 Registration for AGM & Lunch
14:30 – 15:30 AGM

Agenda for AGM

1. President’s Report
2. Presentation of Annual Accounts for period 1 Dec 2008 – 30 Nov 2009 for approval (annual accounts attached herewith)
3. Presentation of Minutes of the 5th AGM held on 10 May 2009 ( minutes attached herewith)
4. Secretary’s Report
5. Election of office-bearers and committee
6. Other matters

In case you were an India Club member in 2009 and haven’t renewed your membership yet, we have extended the renewal deadline for the calendar year 2010 to the date of the AGM. Any enrollment as a member after that date will be at a fee of $150.

You are requested to attend the AGM. The AGM will be held in conjunction with an India Club event featuring Sunanda Datta-Ray (from 11:30am to 1:30pm), for which a separate notice has been sent out.

Yours truly,
Aarti Mehra
Secretary
India Club

The India Club, Singapore

welcomes you to a Book Reading and Discussion with

SUNANDA DATTA-RAY, author of

“Looking East to Look West: Lee Kuan Yew’s Mission India".

Singapore’s “India Fever” has long been attributed to then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, and the bonhomie he established with Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh. Datta-Ray’s audacious new book delves further into the history of India-Singapore engagement, showing how central India always was to Lee Kuan Yew’s vision for Asia – and how ardently he worked to deepen ties with India in Singapore’s formative years. Singapore’s founding PM always believed that “Asia would submerge if India did not emerge". LKY was awe-struck by Nehru’s institution-building, and visited him often in Delhi (including a few weeks before his death). Among the startling revelations in the book is that LKY wrote to Shastri (and Nasser) seeking military assistance on the very day of Singapore’s separation from Malaysia.

Full of wonderful nuggets about personal engagement, deep historical insights and strategic analysis, Datta-Ray’s book begins with Suvarnabhumi (the name for SE Asia in the Indian epics, which found echoes in Srivijiya, Majapahit, Champa and other Hindu kingdoms across Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos), explores the romance of the 1950s, the estrangement in the Indira years, LKY’s disillusionment with India’s descent into autarky (and institutional decay) in the 1970s and 1980s, followed by the flowering of a mutually beneficial relationship encompassing economics, defence and societal links in the past twenty years. As the review in “India Today” remarked, Datta-Ray’s book explores “why LKY believe(d) in India long before Indians began to believe in themselves", delving dispassionately into both the highs and lows of the Singapore-India story.

Sunanda Datta-Ray was editor of Calcutta’s leading daily, The Statesman, in that newspaper’s heyday in the 1990s (when it was also a leading Delhi daily), and subsequently spent several years in Singapore as editorial consultant at the Straits Times. During this time, he was also affiliated with the Institute of South-east Asian Studies (ISEAS), and wrote the fascinating book that will be the focus of our program. It was based on 8 extensive conversations with Singapore’s founding Prime Minister (now Minister Mentor) Lee Kuan Yew, and is destined to become the definitive work on the history and evolution of India-Singapore relations.

Apart from his ever-stimulating columns in a variety of newspapers in India, the US, UK, Singapore and elsewhere, Mr. Datta-Ray is the author of several other books, including the seminal “Waiting for America". If there is time, we will open the discussion up for questions about that book as well.

Venue: Raffles Room, Tanglin Club
Date: Sunday, May 23rd 2010
Time: 11:30am-2pm (light lunch will be served afterwards).
Entrance: $35 for non-members; free for India Club members.
Copies of the book, “Looking East to Look West” will be available for purchase.

Travel sponsors: Jet Airways

RSVP: office@indiaclub.org.sg

INDIA CLUB is a not-for-profit society with the aim of showcasing the best of contemporary India. It is an association mainly of Indian professionals and Indian corporates but opens its events to all regardless of citizenship or nationality. INDIA CLUB organizes events, mainly talks and interactive sessions, with eminent Indian and India-related personalities. Events are held at Tanglin Club and the Arts House. INDIA CLUB also holds networking events periodically. To be able to participate in INDIA CLUB events free of charge you could become a member ( please visit www.indiaclub.org.sg for the application form) or request to be put on the mailing list by sending your personal contact details to office@indiaclub.org.sg and attend as a non-member by paying a per-event fee. INDIA CLUB is run by full time professionals who contribute their time and resources on a voluntary and strictly pro-bono basis.

To wrap up 2009, INDIA CLUB is holding a gala networking evening – to give all of you a chance to meet each other over a glass of wine and canapés. In addition to the stimulating conversation, there will be the visual delight of an exhibition of vibrant paintings by T Vaikuntham. Please come and bring along friends you wish to introduce to INDIA CLUB. And do RSVP.

Event : INDIA CLUB Gala Annual Networking evening
Date & Time : Friday, 11th December from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Venue : Indigo Blue Art Gallery, 33 Neil Road, Singapore
Closest car-parking at Duxton Hill Rd & Kreta Ayer Rd
Entry Fee: Members - free, Spouse of member - $15, All others - $ 30 per person
Programme: 8:00 p.m. Presentation by Suman Aggarwal, Director Indigo Blue
8:15 p.m. Short presentation by “Akanksha”, an NGO devoted to the education of underprivileged children
Special Offer: A free autographed book by celebrated writer, MJ Akbar for the first 7 individuals who sign up for INDIA CLUB membership @ $150 each
Payments: By cash and local cheques only
RSVP: Office Manager :email office@indiaclub.org.sg; phone 9227 0957

Look forward to seeing you at the INDIA CLUB party! Don’t forget to RSVP so we can make sufficient catering arrangements.

Best regards
Aarti Mehra
Secretary, INDIA CLUB

The INDIA CLUB, Singapore

is delighted to present

the Singapore launch of Gurcharan Das’ magnum opus,

“The Difficulty of Being Good: On the subtle art of Dharma“

(A book that explores the “Mahabharata” as a moral compass for the
contemporary world).

Date : Friday, October 23rd 2009
Venue : Tanglin Club (Raffles room), 5 Stevens Road, Singapore.(No car parking at Tanglin Club. Nearest public parking at Shaw Centre, Hotel Royal Plaza on Scotts, International Building etc)
Time : 7-10pm (registration begins at 6:45pm). Light dinner will be served.
RSVP : office@indiaclub.org.sg or call 9227 0957 to register
Fees : Free for members of the India Club; $40 for non-members, $20 for
Students ( valid ID required).Payment of fees by cash or local cheque at the door

The inimitable Gurcharan Das is one of India’s leading public intellectuals, former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India (and MD of P&G Worldwide – Strategic Planning), celebrated author of the path-breaking books, “India Unbound” and the “Elephant Paradigm", as well as several award-winning plays and a novel ("A Fine Family"), columnist in the Times of India and at least 7 other Indian newspapers, and occasional guest writer in numerous other publications, including the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, Time and the Wall Street Journal.

As a young student at Harvard, Gurcharan studied moral philosophy. After a successful career as a corporate executive and an even more successful one as a writer (largely examining the classical aim of “artha", or material well-being), he has returned to his intellectual roots – delving into that classic Asian epic, the “Mahabharata” to examine the goal of “dharma", or moral well-being. He turns to the epic to answer that quintessential question – “why be good?” – and emerges with lessons of “dharma” that can be applied to many of the dilemmas that bedevil our world today, from political strategies to business decisions and beyond. The INDIA CLUB is delighted to welcome Gurcharan Das back to Singapore, to launch this magnificent book (autographed copies of which will be available for purchase after the event).

INDIA CLUB is a not-for-profit society with the aim of showcasing the best of contemporary India. It is an association mainly of Indian professionals and Indian corporates but opens its events to all regardless of citizenship or nationality. INDIA CLUB organizes events, mainly talks and interactive sessions, with eminent Indian and India-related personalities. Events are held at Tanglin Club and the Arts House. INDIA CLUB also holds networking events periodically. To be able to participate in INDIA CLUB events free of charge you could become a member ( please visit www.indiaclub.org.sg for the application form) or request to be put on the mailing list by sending your personal contact details to office@indiaclub.org.sg and attend as a non-member by paying a per-event fee. INDIA CLUB is run by full time professionals who contribute their time and resources on a voluntary and strictly pro-bono basis.