List of Indians in Singapore

This is a list of prominent Indians in Singapore, who have made significant contributions nationally or internationally in various fields. The list consists primarily of ethnic South Asian Singapore citizens, though it does include some ethnic South Asian Singapore permanent residents as well. (Prominent ethnic South Asian citizens of other countries who have lived in Singapore on a short-term basis may be found listed under the appropriate list of persons from their respective countries.)

Government and politics

Presidents of Singapore

• The late Chengara Veetil Devan Nair (1923–2005) – Singapore's third President (1981–1985) and former head of the National Trades Union Congress, the umbrella body for trades unions in Singapore. Widely seen as the founder of the modern trades union movement in Singapore. During Singapore's brief membership of Malaysia, Nair was the only People's Action Party (PAP) member to win a national seat in the Federal Parliament in Kuala Lumpur. He was from a Malayali Hindu background and married to a South Indian Singaporean Hindu.
• Mr Sellapan Ramanathan (1924– ) – Singapore's sixth President from 1999 to 2011. He was formerly a senior civil servant, serving as Permanent Secretary at the Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs Ministries. He was also Director of the Security and Intelligence Division, The Straits Times newspaper, Singapore Press Holdings and Singapore Mint. From 1990 to 1996, he was Ambassador to the United States, and subsequently an Ambassador-at-Large. He is an Indian Tamil Hindu married to a Bengali Singaporean Hindu.

Cabinet ministers

• The late Sinnathamby Rajaratnam (1915–2006) – Singapore's first Foreign Minister, Culture Minister and Senior Minister, as well as a former Labour Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Widely regarded as one of the core members of the "old guard", or the founding fathers of Modern Singapore, he cofounded the People's Action Party as well as ASEAN. In the wake of the 1964 Race Riots in Singapore, he wrote the Singapore National Pledge, which enshrines the ideals of the nation. He was from a Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu background and was married to a Hungarian woman. Both were secular agnostics.

• Mr Suppiah Dhanabalan (1937– ) – Current Chairman of DBS Bank and Temasek Holdings. former Minister of Trade and Industry, National Development, Foreign Affairs, Culture and Community Development in the 1980s and 1990s. He was publicly mentioned by Singapore's first Prime Minister as one of the four men he considered as his successor, but he decided against Dhanabalan as he felt Singapore was 'not ready' for a non-Chinese Prime Minister. He is an Indian Tamil Baptist married to a Chinese Singaporean Baptist.
• Prof Shunmugam Jayakumar (1939– ) – Co-ordinating Minister for National Security. Former Minister of Law, Labour, Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs. Member of the ASEAN Eminent Persons Group, tasked with drafting an ASEAN Charter. Previously Dean of the Law School at the National University of Singapore and Ambassador to the UN (1971–1974). He is an Indian Tamil Hindu married to an Indian Tamil Hindu.
• Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam – Currently Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Shanmugaratnam was Singapore's first Indian Minister for Education and later Minister for Finance. He is a Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu married to a Japanese Singaporean.
• Dr Vivian Balakrishnan (1961– ) – Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports. He was the former CEO of Singapore General Hospital. He is a Chindian, or son of a Telugu Singaporean father and Chinese Singaporean mother. His wife is Chinese Singaporean and they are Christians.
• Mr K Shanmugam – Minister of Law and Minister for Foreign Affairs. Mr Shanmugam was a four-term backbench member of parliament was a lawyer in private practice. He had been one of the youngest persons to have been appointed a Senior Counsel in Singapore, as was widely seen as one of the nation's top litigators. He is an Indian Tamil Hindu Singaporean.
• Mr S Iswaran (1962– ) – Minister, Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for Home Affairs and Second Minister for Trade and Industry. He was formerly a Colombo Plan scholar and the CEO of Singapore Indian Development Association, the Indian community self-help group as well as managing director of Temasek Holdings. He was born in Madras and is a naturalised Indian Tamil Hindu Singaporean.

Junior Ministers

• Dr Balaji Sadasivan (1955–2010) – He was Senior Minister of State at the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Information, Communications and the Arts. He was formerly a neurosurgeon at Gleneagles Hospital. He was a South Indian Hindu.

Opposition leaders

James Gomez

• Mr Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam (1926–2008) – the first opposition politician to break the PAP monopoly on parliament when he won a by election in 1984. In the 1980s, he was the leader of the Workers' Party and was seen as the de facto leader of the Singapore opposition. He served several terms in Parliament as an MP before he was bankrupted by government lawsuits and disqualified from being an MP. He was a former magistrate and is currently a lawyer in private practice. He was from a Sri Lankan Tamil Christian background, and he married an Englishwoman.
• Dr Vincent Wijeysingha – prominent opposition politician
• Dr James Gomez (1965– ) – is a prominent opposition politician and academic. He contested in Singapore's 2006 General Elections at Ajlunied GRC polling 44% as part of the Workers' Party, Singapore team. Prior to entering politics, he founded in 1999 Think Centre a non-government organisation dedicated to promoting human rights, democracy and more open political discourse in Singapore. He is a South Indian Catholic Singaporean of Goan or Portuguese-Indian descent. He is presently Lecturer at Monash University, Australia.

Other members of parliament

PAP Backbench MPs

• Mr S Ramaswamy – Legislative Assembly & 1st – 2nd Parliament
• Mr S V Lingam – Legislative Assembly & 1st Parliament
• Mdm Dhanam Avadai – 1st Parliament
• Mr S Rajoo – 1st Parliament
• Mr S T Bani – 1st Parliament
• Mr P Coomaraswamy – 1st – 2nd Parliament
• Mr P Govindaswamy – 1st – 4th Parliament
• Mr P Selvadurai – 1st – 5th Parliament
• Mr N Govindasamy – 2nd – 4th Parliament
• Mr S Chandra Das – (manager) 5th – 8th Parliament
• Dr S Vasoo – (academic) 6th – 9th Parliament
• Mr Davinder Singh – (lawyer) 7th – 10th Parliament
• Mr R Sinnakaruppan – 8th – 9th Parliament
• Mr Ravindran s/o Ramasamy – 9th – 10th Parliament
• Mr Inderjit Singh – (entrepreneur) 9th – 11th Parliament
• Ms Indranee Rajah – (lawyer) 10th – 11th Parliament (Deputy Speaker of Parliament)
• Mr Hri Kumar – (lawyer) 11th Parliament

Nominated MPs

• Dr Kanwaljit Soin – Neurosurgeon & activist (8th Parliament); First female NMP in Singapore
• Ms Braema Mathi – Journalist & activist (9th Parliament)
• Mr Chandra Mohan K Nair – Lawyer (9th Parliament)
• Mr Thomas Thomas – Unionist (9th Parliament)
• Mr Shriniwas Rai – Lawyer (9th Parliament)
• Mr A Nithiah Nandan – Unionist (10th Parliament)
• Prof Kalyani Mehta – Academic (11th Parliament)
• Mr Gautam Banerjee – Chairman, PricewaterhouseCoopers (11th Parliament)

Arts and culture

Bharatnatyam, a form of classical Indian dance.

Dance

• Santha Bhaskar – Indian classical dance choreographer, and 1990 Cultural Medallion winner
• Madhavi Krishnan – 1979 Cultural Medallion winner
• Neila Sathyalingam – Indian classical dance choreographer, and 1989 Cultural Medallion winner

Literature

• M. Balakrishnan – Tamil writer, and 2005 Cultural Medallion winner
• Gopal Baratham – English language novelist (and neurosurgeon). He was a Tamil Hindu Singaporean.
• Philip Jeyaretnam – English language novelist and short story writer (and lawyer)
• Rama Kannabiran – Tamil writer, and 1998 Cultural Medallion winner
• N. Palanivelu – Tamil theatre practitioner, and 1986 Cultural Medallion winner
• Thamizhavel G. Sarangapani – Tamil writer, social reformer and founder of the Tamil Murasu newspaper.
• Haresh Sharma – English language playwright and dramaturge. He is a North Indian Hindu Singaporean.
• Kirpal Singh – English language writer and literature professor. He is a Punjabi Sikh Singaporean.
• Edwin Thumboo – English language poet and literature professor, and 1979 Cultural Medallion winner. He is a Chindian Christian Singaporean.
• S Varathan – Tamil theatre practitioner, and 1984 Cultural Medallion winner

Music

• Alex Abisheganaden – 1988 Cultural Medallion winner. He is a classical guitarist, double-bassist, stage actor and singer in operas and musicals. He has been called "the father of the guitar in Singapore." He is a Tamil Christian Singaporean.
• Jacintha Abisheganaden – songwriter and jazz singer. She has released 13 albums. She is a Chindian Singaporean Christian.
• Paul Abisheganaden – 1986 Cultural Medallion winner. He has been called "the doyen of orchestral music in Singapore". He is a Tamil Christian Singaporean.
• Michelle Saram – Popular actress who have appeared in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong television series. She is a Chindian Singaporean Christian.

Visual arts and architecture

• Chandrasekaran – sculptor, installation and performance artist. He won the National Arts Council Young Artist Award in 1993. He is a Singaporean Indian Tamil Hindu.^[1]
• Vikas Gore – project director of the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay performing arts centre. He is a Director at DP Architects Pte Ltd, a major architectural practice in Singapore. An American citizen, he lived in India till 1977 and has since been based in Singapore.
• Dr Nirmal Kishnani- Green building design expert, sustainability advocate and educator (Dept of Architecture, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore). He is author of several books on architecture, also chief editor of FuturArc Journal. He is a Sindhi Hindu.
• Ketna Patel – visual artist (formerly an architect). She is a Uganda-born Gujerati Hindu, a British national and Singapore PR.

Business and entrepreneurship

• Mr. Ravin Rajiv Golani, managing director
• P Govindasamy Pillay
• Naraina Pillai
• Selvaraj Stephen
• Sunny George Verghese
• JY Pillay – Joseph Yubaraj Manuel Pillay (b. 30 March 1934, Klang, Malaya), also known as J. Y. Pillay, served 34 years till 1995 as a top-ranking civil servant and an entrepreneur. He is one of the pioneers who helped build the Singapore economy after its separation from Malaysia in 1965. His single most significant contribution is in building Singapore Airlines (SIA) into a leading world-class carrier. One of the few highest-ranked Civil Service officers (Staff Grade III), he is also known as a visionary and a brilliant bureaucrat. He was the Chairman of the Singapore Exchange between 1999 and 2010.^[2] In 2012, NUS set up two professorships to honour him for his contributions.^[3]
• Sudhir Gupta – At age 47 and with a personal fortune estimated at $320 million, he was ranked by Forbes as the 13th richest person/family in Singapore in 2006. He is also the second richest ethnic Singapore Indian on that list. He was born in India, and moved to Russia to get a PhD in agricultural chemistry. he started a tyre company in Moscow and acquired a Dutch company to form Amtel-Vredestein. He listed the tyre maker on the London Stock Exchange last year. He escaped an assassination attempt in Moscow 4 years ago, and now shuttles between that city and Singapore, where he's a citizen.
• Murli Kewalram Chanrai – Heads Kewalram Chanrai Group, one of 5 companies spun off from 150-year-old Chanrai family empire. KCG has interests in textiles, commodities, real estate. Its Olam International, the world's largest trader of cashews and second-largest trader of cocoa, debuted on the Singapore stock exchange last year. Aged 83, and with a personal fortune valued at $880 million, Forbes estimated in 2006 that he was the 7th wealthiest person in Singapore, and the city-state's wealthiest ethnic Indian. He is a North Indian of Sindhi origin.
• Kartar Singh Thakral – Joined family's trading business in 1949, built family empire; it now includes Singapore-listed Thakral Corp., which distributes tech gear such as iPods in China and India, and Australian property group Thakral Holdings. Son Inderbethal helps run business. Forbes rankes him as the 25th richest person in Singpore in 2006, with a fortune of $175million.
• Mustaq Ahmad – Runs Mustafa Centre, a 24-hour store in Little India, Singapore. First opened in 1971 by Mustaq's father, an Indian immigrant, and his uncle. Father died in 2001. Shares ownership of the $200 million (sales) store with his wife and uncle. Forbes ranks him the 27th richest person in Singapore in 2006.

Civil Service

• Prof. Satkunanantham Kandiah, Director of Medical Services, Ministry of Health, Singapore
• Mr. Bilahari Kausikan, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
• Mr. Manohar Khiatani, CEO, JTC Corporation
• Mr. Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore
• Mr. R. Puniamoorthy, Senior Assistant Commissioner, Singapore Civil Defence Force
• Ms. Juthika Ramanathan, Chief Executive, Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority
• Major General Ravinder Singh, Chief of Army, Singapore Armed Forces
• Mr. Vijakumar Sethuraj, Deputy Director, Central Narcotics Bureau
• Dr. N. Varaprasad, Chief Executive, National Library Board
• Mr. Aaron Sharil Yusoff Maniam, Head, Centre for Strategic Futures

Diplomacy and foreign relations

• Gopinath Pillai – Ambassador at Large
• K V Venu Gopala Menon – Permanent Representative to the UN in New York
• Burhan Gafoor – Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva
• V K Rajan – Former Ambassador
• T Jasudasen – High Commissioners to Malaysia
• M P H Rubin – High Commissioners to South Africa
• Anil Kumar s/o N T Nayar – Ambassadors to Belgium (de facto representative to the European Union)
• A Selverajah – Ambassadors to Germany
• Ashok Kumar Mirpuri – Ambassadors to US
• Hirubalan V P – Ambassadors to Saudi Arabia

Education and higher learning

• Dr A Vijiaratnam – First Pro-Chancellor, NTU, 1992–2005; Olympian, 1956; Only person to have represented Singapore in four sports – hockey, football, cricket and rugby
• Arun Mahizhnan – Acting Director, Institute of Policy Studies
• J. Mohan Rao – Director, Institute of South Asian Studies
• K. Kesavapany – Director, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
• Kishore Mahbubani – Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS
• Arcot Desai Narasimhalu – Director, Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, SMU
• Dr Navin Rajagobal – Deputy Director, Centre for International Law, NUS
• Smriti - Student, NUS

Law and the judiciary

• Choor Singh – Former judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore, nicknamed "The Hanging Judge"
• Philip Jeyaretnam – Immediate past President of the Law Society of Singapore
• Justice V.K. Rajah – Judge of Appeal (one of Singapore's top three judges, including the Chief Justice)
• Sundaresh Menon – Chief Justice of Singapore as of November 2012

Science and medicine

• The late Dr Shan Ratnam – Emeritus Professor Sittampalam Shanmugaratnam (1928–2001) was head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the National University Hospital of Singapore. He was widely recognised as a world leader in human reproduction research. He was a Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu Singaporean.
• Prof Ariff Bongso – Dr Ariff Bongso holds several patents and has 430 research publications in internationally refereed journals, conference papers and chapters in books. He was one of the founder scientists of Embryonic Stem Cell International (ESI), a Singapore registered Biotechnology Company. He is currently Research Professor and Scientific Director of the Assisted Reproductive Technology programme at the NUS Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He is also Principal Investigator for in Vitro Fertilization and human embryonic stem cell research at the NUS National University Hospital. He is a Sri Lankan Muslim.^[4]

Sports

• Nadesan Ganesan - Prominent criminal lawyer, and former President of Football Association of Singapore. Brought Malaysia Cup back to Singapore in 1977 and 1980, after last winning it in 1965.
• George Suppiah – Singapore's first Football World Cup referee
• V Sundramoorthy – Former national footballer
• Stacey Muruthi – Former national cricket captain
• Rajesh Sreenivasan – technology lawyer
• Fazrul Nawaz and Hariss Harun - current national footballers of Indian Tamil Muslim ancestry

Notes

1. Chandrasekaran
2. "J Y Pillay to step down as SGX chairman at year-end". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
3. "NUS honours J Y Pillay". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
4. Stem Cell Research > People – Group Leader Details