"THE credibility of the Indian economy has been re-established. The world is predicting that it is India's chance to fly," said Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the country's federal budget for 2015/16 earlier this year.

He indicated that his proposals would lay out the roadmap for accelerating growth, enhancing investment and passing on the benefits of the growth process to the common man, woman, youth and child: those whose quality of life needs to be improved. Whether the budget gave foreign investors, including those based in Singapore, much to really cheer about is something to be proven in the longer term. But for now, there are several announcements that have moved the needle towards greater certainty for investors.

Deferment of General Anti-Avoidance Rule: The General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR), potentially one of the strictest regulations in India, in its refined format was proposed to be effective from April 1, 2015, to challenge tax-avoidance arrangements. In this year's budget, GAAR has again been deferred and will come into effect only on April 1, 2017. Most importantly, all investments made until March 31, 2017, will be "grandfathered", that is, these transactions would not be challenged by the Indian revenue authorities under GAAR. This level of certainty is clearly good news for the investor community. It appears that wisdom prevailed and rightly so.