In 2013, Eastern Health Alliance (EHA) launched the Neighbours for Active Living programme to reduce hospital readmissions among seniors in eastern Singapore. At its core, ‘Neighbours’ addressed the health care and social needs of high-risk residents within their homes, while building social support systems around them through community outreach.

A Korean agricultural biotechnology company spun out from university research is at a crossroads. Using advanced fermentation technology, it has created a string of unique products for consumers and farmers. It now has an opportunity to license and develop a proprietary technology to solve a major social problem: odour from animal waste.

Facing reduced government funding, yet committed to broadening access to its services, Sankara Eye Care, a chain of hospitals in India, was at a crossroads in 2015. Over the years it had developed a lean operational model to provide free care to approximately 80 percent of its non-paying patients (cross-subsidized by paying patients).

Singapore's economic success has come from continually upgrading its business environment. To sustain this, the government is now nurturing knowledge-intensive clusters like biomedical sciences. However, Singapore remains over-dependent on foreign multinationals and talent, and efforts to boost local innovation and entrepreneurship have had mixed success. What should Singapore do next?