This is a list of prominent Indian Singaporeans who have made significant contributions nationally or internationally across various fields. The list primarily includes ethnic South Asians in Singapore and does not include permanent residents of Indian ethnicity. Prominent ethnic South Asian citizens of other countries who have lived in Singapore only on a short-term basis may be found under the relevant list of persons from their respective countries.
Government and politics
Presidents of Singapore
Devan Nair (1923–2005), third president of Singapore (1981–1985) and former head of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), the umbrella body for trade 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 individual to win for the People's Action Party (PAP) a national seat in the Federal Parliament in Kuala Lumpur. S. R. Nathan (1924–2016), sixth president (1999–2011). As a civil servant, he served as Permanent Secretary at the Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs Ministries. He was also Director of the Security and Intelligence Division, The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings and the Singapore Mint. From 1990 to 1996, he was Ambassador to the United States, and subsequently an Ambassador-at-Large. Tharman Shanmugaratnam (born 1957), ninth and current president (since 2023). As a PAP politician, he served as the Minister for Social Policies (Senior), Education, and Finance and Deputy Prime Minister.
Cabinet ministers
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– ) – Former 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. Dr Vivian Balakrishnan (1961– ) – Minister for Foreign Affairs. He is the son of a Tamil ethnic origin Indian Singaporean father and a Foochowese origin Chinese Singaporean mother. His wife is Chinese Singaporean and they are Christians. Mr K Shanmugam (1959-) – Minister of Law and Minister for Home Affairs. Mr Shanmugam was a four-term backbench member 8 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 of Communications and Information. 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. Ms Indranee Rajah (1963– ) – Born to an ethnically Tamil father and a Cantonese origin Chinese Singaporean mother, Ms Indranee is a lawyer by training. She entered politics in 2001 was appointed Minister in the Prime Minister's office in 2018. She follows her mother's Christian faith.
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. Dr Janil Puthucheary (1972-) – Was a paediatric intensivist prior to entering politics. Currently serves as a Senior Minister of State for the Ministries of Transport and Communications and Information. Mr Dinesh Vasu Dash (1974 - ) - After serving SAF for 23 years, he led the COVID-19 in his capacity as the director of its crisis strategy and operations group from June 2020 to October 2023. He resigned in April 2025 to contest for the GE2025 and was appointed Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth & Ministry of Manpower, Mayor, South East District and Member of Parliament for East Coast GRC. He is leading the INEI Committee to refresh the plans for the Indian community.Source Mr Murali Pillai (1967 - ) Mr Murali Pillai was a lawyer before being elected. In 2025, after the elections, he was appointed the Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Law & Ministry of Transport. He is co-leading the INEI Committee with Mr Dinesh Vasu Dash.
Opposition leaders
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 an Indian Catholic Singaporean of Goan descent. He is presently Lecturer at Monash University, Australia. Pritam Singh (1976– ) – Current Secretary-General of the Workers' Party, the largest opposition party in Singapore. He entered politics in 2006, and was elected into Parliament in 2011.
Members of parliament S Ramaswamy – Legislative Assembly & 1st – 2nd Parliament S V Lingam – Legislative Assembly & 1st Parliament Avadai Dhanam Lakshimi – 1st Parliament S Rajoo – 1st Parliament S T Bani – 1st Parliament P Coomaraswamy – 1st – 2nd Parliament Perumal Govindaswamy – 1st – 4th Parliament P Selvadurai – 1st – 5th Parliament N Govindasamy – 2nd – 4th Parliament S Chandra Das – (manager) 5th – 8th Parliament Dr S Vasoo – (academic) 6th – 9th Parliament Davinder Singh – (lawyer) 7th – 10th Parliament R Sinnakaruppan – 8th – 9th Parliament Ravindran s/o Ramasamy – 9th – 10th Parliament Inderjit Singh – (entrepreneur) 9th – 12th Parliament Hri Kumar Nair – (lawyer) 11th-12th Parliament Vikram Nair – (lawyer) 12th Parliament-present Darryl David (media personality/educator) 13th Parliament- present. Mixed parentage of an Indian father and a Chinese mother. SV Lingam - Member of Parliament, 1959–1968 PV Sharma - former Member of Parliament and communist leader Dr Hamid Razak - (doctor) - Member of Parliament, 2025 -
Nominated MPs Dr Kanwaljit Soin – Neurosurgeon & activist (8th Parliament); First female NMP in Singapore Braema Mathi – Journalist & activist (9th Parliament) Chandra Mohan K Nair – Lawyer (9th Parliament) Thomas Thomas – Unionist (9th Parliament) Shriniwas Rai – Lawyer (9th Parliament) A Nithiah Nandan – Unionist (10th Parliament) Prof Kalyani Mehta – Academic (11th Parliament) Gautam Banerjee Chairman, PricewaterhouseCoopers (11th Parliament) Viswa Sadasivan – CEO, Strategic Moves (11th Parliament) R Dhinakaran – Managing director, Jay Gee Melwani Group (12th Parliament) Karthikeyan s/o R. Krishnamurthy – Unionist (12th Parliament) Ganesh Rajaram – Executive vice-president, FremantleMedia International Asia branch (13th Parliament) Mahdev Mohan – Lawyer/Legal Academic (13th Parliament) K Thanaletchmi – Unionist (13th Parliament) Arasu Duraisamy – Unionist (13th Parliament) Abbas Ali Mohamed Irshad – President, Roses for Peace NGO (13th Parliament) Sanjeev Kumar Tiwari – Unionist (15th Parliament) Dr Haresh Singaraju - Family Physician (15th Parliament)
Arts and culture Singapore's first ever Deepavavali Queen contest was organised in Oct 1967 at the Victoria Theatre by Indian Movie News magazine. Singapore's First Deepavavali queen elected was Miss Impaljit Kaur from Jesselton, Sabah.
Source: Indian Movie News Magazine - Dec 1967
Second Deepavavali Queen contest was organised in 1971 also by Indian Movie News mag at the Singapore Conference Hall and Miss Nirmala Rajoo was elected as the (2nd) Deepavavali Queen in Singapore.
Source: Indian Movie News Magazine - Dec 1971
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 Usha Rani Maniam - Indian Classical Dance choreographer
Literature M. Balakrishnan – Tamil writer, and 2005 Cultural Medallion winner Gopal Baratham – English language novelist (and neurosurgeon). He was a Tamil Hindu Singaporean. 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. Edwin Thumboo – English language poet and literature professor, and 1979 Cultural Medallion winner. He is a Chindian Christian Singaporean. SA Nathanji, writer, author, former publisher/managing editor of Indian Movie News magazine. Author of MY MEMOIRS: MY UNBELIEVABLE JOURNEY WITH INDIAN CINEMA launched by former president of Singapore the Hon S R Nathan (2014 & SINGAPORE: NATION BUILDING & INDIANS' LEGACY (2017). S Varathan – Tamil theatre practitioner, and 1984 Cultural Medallion winner MK Bhasi – Poet and social activist who wrote primarily in English and Malayalam.
Music Alex Abisheganaden – 1988 Cultural Medallion winner, a classical guitarist, double-bassist, stage actor and singer in operas and musicals. He is a Tamil Christian Singaporean who has been called "the father of the guitar in Singapore". 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. Shabir – Winner of the first iteration of the Vasantham Star singing competition 2005. He is considered a leader in the Tamil-language contemporary music scene in Singapore, and has also done work composing for the Indian film industry.
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.