This year and next, India will be the fastest-growing large economy in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund. By the early 2020s, it is also set to become the world’s most populous country, with an average age of 30, compared to 40 for China and 50 for Japan.

By 2030, Mumbai’s economy alone is expected to be bigger than Malaysia’s today.

The Indian Government has allocated USD1.2 billion to build almost 100 new smart cities and develop satellite towns around existing cities. It has also been actively promoting manufacturing in India through programmes such as ‘Make in India’, and needs investment to improve the country’s infrastructure.

This creates significant opportunities for Asian companies. Take Singapore.

While more than 8,500 Indian companies are operating in Singapore, with many using the country as a base into the rest of Southeast Asia, businesses in Singapore tend not to look to India as part of their expansion plans, focusing more on the ASEAN region and China.

The relationship between Singapore and India dates back hundreds of years and is underlined by historical, commercial and cultural ties.

Recently, there has been fresh momentum with the India-Singapore Strategic Partnership which provided a blueprint for cooperation in defence, trade and investment, skills development and smart cities.

A close connection should also exist amongst the business communities in the two countries.

More than 40 companies from Singapore recently visited Delhi and Mumbai to understand the landscape and network, and establish the right contacts in order to make the leap. Other Singaporean businesses would benefit from doing the same, as India has the potential to be the perfect market for scaling up.

The challenge for any business looking to explore India is making sense of the varying sets of rules and regulations that apply to each of the 29 Indian states. It makes sense to start with a single state in mind before moving on to another.

The rules and strategy that you apply to one state may be very different to what works in another.

However, once the challenges are understood and managed, there are mutual benefits to doing business in and with India, and it’s time companies in the rest of Asia, including Singapore, grasped the opportunity.

Kanwal is Regional CEO, ASEAN and South Asia, Standard Chartered Bank