A pioneer of SIAC’s initiatives in India, Ganesh Chandru, has left Singapore Big Four firm Rajah & Tann to join Steven Lim – an arbitration specialist who recently left Baker Botts to join Clyde’s international arbitration team in Singapore.
Admitted to practice in England, Singapore and India, Chandru will focus on international arbitration and ADR work. Prior to joining Clyde & Co,he practiced with Rajah & Tann as a senior associate focussing on international arbitration and litigation. Between 2002 and 2007, Chandru supervised the administration of approximately 500 arbitrations during a five-year stint at SIAC, and also pioneered SIAC’s initiatives in India and coordinated the set up of an arbitration centre in New Delhi, the Construction Industry Arbitration Association (now renamed as the Construction Industry Arbitration Council – a joint initiative of the Construction Industry Development Council, India (CIDC) and the SIAC).
“India is of particular interest to us,” Lim told ALB in an exclusive interview. “Parties from India have been the largest users of the SIAC in 2009; and certainly there is a lot of emphasis in promoting Singapore as the arbitral venue for India. India is one of the major growing economies in Asia. We expect to see continued growth of work coming from India,” Lim said.
Of the 160 cases heard at SIAC last year (a 60% increase on the year before), almost 20% related to India, the highest share for any one country.
In recent months, SIAC has lobbied Indian parties to include SIAC arbitration clauses in their contracts – driving expectations of future growth of arbitrations involving Indian parties to take place in Singapore in the coming years.
The most recent roadshows by SIAC involved senior government officials such as the Singapore minister for law, K Shanmugan, honourable minister for law & justice, Government of India, Dr M Veerappa Moily and Singapore supreme court justice VK Rajah (also one of the original founding partners of Rajah & Tann).
Clyde & Co has an association with ALMT – an Indian law firm with offices in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi.ALB
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