Strategy for an Unpredictable World.
SATURDAY, 22 AUGUST 2026 | 3:05 PM - 3:40 PM
Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre
Today's business leaders must navigate a world where geopolitics increasingly drives economics. This session examines how Trumpnomics is accelerating shifts in trade, investment, regulation and global alliances. Discover how organisations can build resilient strategies, manage uncertainty and seize emerging opportunities as the world adjusts to a new balance of economic and political power.
Rajiv Biswas is the CEO of Asia-Pacific Economics Pte Ltd, an economics firm which provides geopolitical and macroeconomic analysis and forecasts for the global and Asia-Pacific economies.
Rajiv has extensive experience as a professional economist, including working as Executive Director & Asia-Pacific Chief Economist for IHS Markit/S&P Global Market Intelligence. His experience also includes working as Director for Southeast Asia for The Economist Group and as Executive Director for Asia-Pacific Country Risk for UBS AG. He has also worked as a consultant for the United Nations. His experience also includes working as a Senior Economist for the Commonwealth Secretariat, an international organisation headquartered in London.
Rajiv is a graduate of the London School of Economics, for his B.Sc.Econ. (Hons) and received his M.Sc. and D.I.C. from Imperial College, London University. Rajiv has published widely on a range of economic, trade and investment related topics, with over 100 published articles. He has frequently spoken at international conferences on the global and Asia-Pacific economic outlook, including at World Economic Forum, IATA, OPEC and United Nations conferences. Rajiv has also been a keynote speaker at many conferences for a wide range of industry sectors, including wealth management, banking, insurance, shipping, aviation and energy events. He has often appeared on international TV programs, including for the BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, DW, Channel News Asia, CNN and Al Jazeera TV. Rajiv is also frequently quoted in the international media.
Rajiv is the author of “Future Asia“, “Asian Megatrends” and “Emerging Markets Megatrends“, published by Springer/Palgrave Macmillan.
Assistant Professor of Finance Education, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University; Director of SMU Financial Literacy, Inclusion and Technology (FinLIT) Program and SMU I2XL Immersion Program; Founding Principal Investigator DBS-SKBI Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations Project; Principal Investigator, Deep Tech ERL Project, SMU and SGInnovate. Awarded Most Influential Professor by CMO Asia 2026.
Assistant Professor of Finance Aurobindo Ghosh of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, is the Founding Director of the SMU Financial Literacy, Inclusion and Technology (FinLIT) Program and the Inclusive and Immersive Experiential Learning (I2XL) Program. Dr Ghosh has received Academic Research Grants from MOE (for Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations or SInDEx) and NRF (DeepTech ERL Framework Project with SGInnovate) as Principal Investigator. Dr Ghosh has conducted award-winning research, published papers and business cases in areas of financial economics and co-edited the multidisciplinary volume “Managing Complexity and Covid-19: Life, Liberty, or The Pursuit of Happiness.” Recognizing his contributions, he was awarded the Most Influential Professor by CMO Asia 2026 Excellence in Education.
Dr Ghosh’s expertise spans areas of Financial Economics and Methods, teaching across undergraduate, postgraduate professional, PhD, Executive programs, including business cases in financial inclusion and social entrepreneurship. Dr Ghosh considers educators as social entrepreneurs, raised over S$6 million (USD 4.6 million) for various research/outreach programs to help change lives of over 100,000 young adults, and created an experiential learning environment for students to apply business concepts to real life challenges and empower young adults to pursue financial freedom. Dr Ghosh’s comments are aired and published frequently in areas of financial economics including cost of living, sustainability, financial inclusion, innovation and financial technology.
Dr Ghosh conceptualized and developed indices of Inflation Expectations and consumer sentiment collaborating with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and DBS. As a MasterCard Fellow, he led the research in Financial Inclusion Project in Vietnam for the Lee Kong Chian School of Business. Dr Ghosh was the Founding Program Director for the Master of Science in Financial Economics (MSFE), first multidisciplinary Masters Program at SMU. For his contributions to Education, Dr. Ghosh was invited at the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS 2023) as a Keynote and Panelist on “Educators as Entrepreneurs: Leading Towards Sustainability in Higher Education.”
He has published and won awards for theoretical and applied academic research and Business Case Studies in Financial Economics including in Corporate Governance, Mutual Funds, Empirical Asset Pricing, Macroeconomic Policy, Regulatory Impact on Innovation, Financial Forecasting, Financial Literacy, Financial Technology and Inclusion. He teaches courses Corporate Finance, Advanced Portfolio Theory, Applied Econometric Methods, Advanced Economic and Quantitative Analysis, Empirical Finance, Portfolio Management Workshop for undergraduate, postgraduate professional, DBA, PhD and Executive Education. His has supervised PhD students who are currently in top ranked Universities including NUS in Singapore and Fudan University in China, besides being in the Finance industry. Dr Ghosh was elected by his peers to SMU Faculty Senate EXCO and as Faculty Senate Secretary.
Asst Professor Ghosh is a frequent commentator on financial economic news and inflation and has been featured in various news outlets including leading local and international print and electronic media including The Straits Times, The Business Times, Channel News Asia, Singapore Business Review, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, MSNBC, Dow Jones Newswire, Reuters etc. He has also been featured in television in Channel News Asia, News5, News8, 938Live among others.
Chairman, Tata International Singapore Pte Ltd.
Senior Advisor – BCG Asia
Board Chair / Director / Sr Business Leader.
K. V. Rao is a senior business leader with over 44 years of international experience across more than 40 countries, spanning developed and emerging markets, with a strong focus on Asia. Based in Singapore, he is a seasoned board director and strategic advisor across multiple industries including consumer, industrial, and services sectors. Rao is a thought leader on internationalisation, leadership and global trade.
He served as the Resident Director of Tata Sons in Singapore, leading the Group’s engagement in the ASEAN region. He currently holds several prominent positions: Senior Advisor to BCG Asia, Chairman of Tata International Singapore Pte Ltd and TML Holdings, and Independent Director at India International Insurance Pte Ltd and LIC of India Singapore, among others. He is also a Senior Accredited Director with the Singapore Institute of Directors.
K. V. Rao has held leadership roles in various community and industry platforms. He is Vice Chairman of the South Asia Business Group of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), a Trustee of the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA), and President of the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (SIFAS). He previously served on the Board of Advisors of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), was Advisor to the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SICCI), and Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s India Business Forum (CII-IBF) in Singapore.
President, Fullerton Financial Holdings (I) Pte. Ltd
Anindo Mukherjee currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Fullerton Financial International Holdings, overseeing the company’s operational activities across Asia. In his role, he works closely with portfolio companies to implement business plans, manage risk and governance, develop operational capabilities and enable digital innovation. FFH is a long-term strategic and operating investor in financial services in Emerging Markets committed to building differentiated business models focused on the Mass Market and SME segments.
With over three decades of experience in the financial services industry, Anindo has worked with companies in the Retail, Commercial, Digital Banking, and micro-finance sectors spanning ASEAN, China, South Asia, and the Middle East. Before joining FFH, he held various senior roles including Chief Risk Officer in Fullerton India, Regional Credit Officer for the Consumer Business for South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank & Head of Retail Credit & Risk at HDFC Bank. Anindo started his initial career at Bank of America and ABN Amro Bank.
His Board experience includes being Chairman of a housing finance company, Chairman of Audit and Risk Committees, and member of Nomination and Remuneration, and IT committees.
He has been instrumental in setting up and managing greenfield projects focused on the underbanked and underserved segments in China, India, Cambodia & Myanmar including developing their credit risk models and implementation of digital transformation agenda. He is also a member of the portfolio review committee at a Singapore based Credit Fund.
Outside work, Anindo enjoys mentoring start-ups in Singapore, combining industry experience with a passion for mentoring and teaching. Leveraging a successful track record in startups and turnarounds including in the micro-finance sector, he is passionate about the confluence of sustainability and social entrepreneurship to drive long-lasting change in the business world.
Anindo holds a Bachelor of Commerce and is a Chartered Accountant and a Cost & Management Accountant. He is based in Singapore.