Singapore plans to set up more Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) nodes like the Bengaluru one in more cities across India. The Alliance would enable start-ups to develop their businesses to GIA cities worldwide by connecting to mentor networks and appropriate ecosystem players by benefiting from Singaporean tech firms, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). S Iswaran, Singaporean Minister for transport and minister-in-charge of trade relations, told the media while addressing the 28th edition of the Department of Science & Technology-Confederation of Indian Industry (DST-CII) India-Singapore Technology Summit, GIA aims to strengthen connections of Singapore to prominent innovation hubs across the globe by making an exchange of knowledge and ideas to promote innovation. Iswaran informed that compared to 2020, bilateral trade between India and Singapore increased to 35% in 2021, from $19.8 billion to $26.8 billion. He also mentioned three essential areas of future cooperation like the D-Tech utilising artificial intelligence (AI) for Smart cities, joint projects on genome and bioinformatics research, and Clean-Tech for carbon mitigating technologies in aviation and transport industries. Apart from Bengaluru, the cities currently in the GIA network include Paris, Berlin, Munich, Jakarta, Tokyo, Bangkok, Beijing, Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City and San Francisco. S Chandrasekhar, secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), told the media that India took many missions on innovation right from the school level to explore further opportunities. He said that innovations include a high risk for investments. However, rewards are also quite high in this industry. Image Source Also read: LGSF system and its application in residential building construction