Dubai: The Mohammad Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG), a research and teaching institution specialised in public policy in the Arab world, on Tuesday launched a book titled The India Connection.
Based on entrepreneurship, innovation and cultural diversity in the UAE’s labour market and their impact on sustainable economic development, the book highlights the experiences of Indian entrepreneurs in the UAE through case studies and interviews.
The launch was attended by Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of State for Tolerance, Anurag Bhushan, Consul-General of India in Dubai, Dr Ali Sebaa Al Merri, Executive President, MBRSG, and the authors of The India Connection Dr Immanuel Azaad Moonesar, assistant professor at MBRSG, and Dr Melodena Stephens Balakrishnan, associate professor at The University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD).
Among the attendees were a number of leading Indian entrepreneurs whose experiences have served as case studies in the book, and research experts, among others.
Speaking at the event, Shaikha Lubna stressed the importance of academic publications that study the evolution of investment trends across different periods in the UAE’s history.
She said: “Since the establishment of the UAE, our founding father, the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, realised the importance of developing strong foreign relations, especially with countries that have a significant impact — geographically, culturally, economically and politically — on the UAE, such as India. Shaikh Zayed’s visit to India in 1975 helped establish growing and prosperous synergies between our two countries.”
She added: “Today our bilateral relationship has strengthened. The UAE has ratified an increasing number of cooperation agreements with India in the political, cultural, and economic arenas, among others …. I am confident that the UAE’s appealing investment environment — strategically developed over the past few years — as well as its tolerant culture that welcomes all nationalities and provides them with opportunities for success and stability, offer great scope for future studies on similar success stories with regard to other nationalities working and living in the UAE.”
The book is part of a series titled Actions and Insights that discusses Mena affairs. The series is published by the UOWD Dubai in collaboration with the International Business Academy in the Middle East and North Africa.
In compiling The India Connection researchers delved deep into the stories of entrepreneurs from the Indian community who settled and founded successful businesses in the UAE.
Sanjay Verma, former Indian Consul-General in Dubai, said in his introduction to the book that the UAE is home to 77 per cent of India’s exports to the region, with over 26,000 Indian companies registered with Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, including companies registered at free zones across the UAE. The total number of functional Indian companies in Dubai exceeds 50,000.
As a further testament to the strong bilateral relations nd the mutual keenness of the two in developing these synergies, there have been mutual visits between the two countries.
