SINGAPORE, WEEKEND OF FRIDAY,
JULY
28,
2023
INDIAN ENVOY’S
SINGAPORE TENURE
‘PRODUCTIVE’
PAGE 3
MCI (P)
079/10/2022
INDIAN WIFE GOES TO
PAKISTAN TO MARRY
FACEBOOK FRIEND
PAGE 4
OPPENHEIMER
SLAMMED FOR
GITA SEX SCENE
PAGE 4
REPORT ON PAGE 7
Living their dreams at NDP
Parade Regimental Sergeant Major Pandykumaran Arthiappan (left) and Parade Commander Ragumaran Davindran.
PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES
Page 2
July 28, 2023
tabla
!
INDIA
Women from the Green Brigade
volunteer group planting saplings
by a riverside in Dakshin Durgapur
village, about 140km from Kolkata,
on Wednesday on International
Day for the Conservation of the
Mangrove Ecosystem.
West Bengal, home to about 40
per cent of mangrove forests in
India, announced the setting up of a
Mangrove Cell in the state.
“This will bring certain
continuity to the efforts in
mangrove management. Not only
will the Cell have an annual action
plan for the plantation of
mangroves, it will also look at
maintenance,” said Additional
Chief Secretary and Principal
Secretary to the State’s Forest
Department Vivek Kumar.
About 150 million mangrove
saplings have been planted by the
West Bengal Forest Department
since 2020.
West Bengal starts Mangrove Cell
PHOTO: AFP
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Editor-in-Chief
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Wong Wei Kong
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Modi government faces
no-confidence vote over clashes
India’s parliament on Wednesday
authorised a no-confidence vote
against Mr Narendra Modi’s
government by an alliance of
opposition parties, to force the prime
minister to address the ethnic clashes
in Manipur.
Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party
has a clear majority of 301 members in
the 542-seat lower house of
parliament, so the no-confidence vote
is unlikely to impact its stability.
The opposition instead wants to
trigger a debate on the violence in
Manipur, in which more than 130
people have been killed and 60,000
displaced since it started in May.
Approving the opposition motion,
lower house speaker Om Birla said he
would soon decide when the debate
and vote would take place.
India open to Chinese investment
India is open to Chinese investment
despite border clashes, Deputy
Minister for Information Technology
Rajeev Chandrasekhar told the
Financial Times in a report published
on Wednesday.
“We are open to doing business
with any company anywhere as long as
they are investing and conducting their
business lawfully and are in
compliance with the Indian laws,” said
Mr Chandrasekhar, adding that India
was “open to all investment, including
Chinese”.
New Delhi ramped up scrutiny of
Chinese businesses after a 2020 border
clash, banning more than 300 Chinese
apps, including TikTok. Since then,
India has intensified scrutiny of
investments by Chinese firms.
Cops file case against screeching
mic during Kerala CM’s speech
The Kerala police have registered a
case after a microphone produced a
hissing noise during a speech by Chief
Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday.
The News Minute reported that the
incident occurred during a condolence
meeting organised by the Kerala
Pradesh Congress Committee for late
chief minister Oommen Chandy and
lasted for 16 seconds after which Mr
Vijayan resumed his speech.
The sound system’s operator Renjith
told AsianetNews that he was
questioned. “The howling sound is a
common occurrence. I have not seen
such a case being registered in my 17
years of work.”
Air India likely to replace iconic
Maharajah mascot
Air India is likely to replace the
Maharajah mascot as the airline
undergoes a revamp, according to the
Economic Times.
Design consultancy firm
FutureBrand has been hired to revamp
Air India’s branding strategy, and it is
introducing the airline’s new livery of
red, white and purple.
Foxconn unit in talks for $265m
components plant in Tamil Nadu
A Foxconn subsidiary is in talks with
the Tamil Nadu government to invest
up to US$200 million ($265 million) to
build a new plant for electronic
components in the state, Reuters
reported on Wednesday.
Foxconn Industrial Internet CEO
Brand Cheng and other company
representatives last week met Tamil
Nadu officials including Chief Minister
M.K. Stalin to discuss investments in
the state.
The company has shared a plan with
state officials to initially invest US$180
million to US$200 million in the
facility. Foxconn is the world’s largest
contract electronics manufacturer.
DiCaprio lauds Indian man for
discovering new fish in bucket
An Indian man who discovered a rare
new species of fish almost three years
ago has found renewed fame after
Hollywood superstar Leonardo
DiCaprio praised him online.
Abraham A, a former paramilitary
soldier from Alappuzha district in
Kerala, found the fish called Pathala
Eel Loach in 2020.
He said the discovery was made by
chance. He was taking a bath when he
spotted “a red thread in the bucket”.
Intrigued, he scooped it out to take a
closer look and saw it move. He took it
to researchers at the Kerala University
of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, who
identified the new species.
Death sentence for man who
raped,killed 4-year-old girl
A special court in Meerut, Uttar
Pradesh, has sentenced to death a
35-year-old man for the rape and
murder of a four-year-old girl.
“Such a crime is not only a violation
of law, human and social relations, but
also destroys the social structure. The
person committing such a crime
deserves maximum punishment,” the
court said in its order on Wednesday.
Police officer Shlok Kumar said
Mohammed Faheem had lured the girl
to his house in the Jahagirabad area of
Bulandshahr in April, raped her and
strangled her to death.
Drone survey finds ‘missing’ $16m
of properties in Lucknow
A drone survey in Uttar Pradesh’s
capital Lucknow has found properties
worth Rs100 crore ($16 million) which
were not recorded with the Lucknow
Development Authority (LDA).
It identified a total of 2,440
properties, comprising 1,936 residences
and 504 commercial plots. The
investigations also found two
commercial properties spanning
20,000 sq ft under illegal occupation.
LDA vice-chairman Indramani
Tripathi has instructed officials of the
engineering and planning sections to
conduct a thorough investigation.
Man shot dead for objecting to
loud music
A 45-year-old man was shot dead on
Wednesday after he objected to vulgar
songs being played loudly by some
mining workers at a village in Uttar
Pradesh’s Gorakhpur.
Three people suffered injuries in the
incident while a few vehicles were
torched.
According to the police, trouble
began in Rudrapur Majwa village when
a local, Raj Kishore, 45, objected to the
songs.
An argument ensued and a few
hours later, six mining workers, along
with their contractor Sunil Yadav,
reached Mr Kishore’s house and shot
him dead.
Big-ticket India-Pakistan match
could be rescheduled
The Indian cricket board (BCCI) is
considering moving the most
high-profile match of the World Cup –
India v Pakistan in Ahmedabad – from
Oct 15 to Oct 14.
The reason for the change,
according to ESPNcricinfo, is that Oct
15 is also the first day of the Hindu
festival of Navaratri, and the local
police had told the BCCI that it would
find it difficult to take care of security
on the day.
Women’s cricket team captain
banned for two matches
India’s women’s cricket captain
Harmanpreet Kaur was banned for two
matches by the game’s apex body on
Tuesday for her verbal swipe at
umpires and on-field behaviour against
Bangladesh.
Kaur was also fined 75 per cent of
her match fee by the International
Cricket Council (ICC).
The all-rounder hit the stumps after
being given out on 14 in the one-day
international on Saturday – which
ended in a rare tie – and later called
the umpiring “pathetic”.
She was heard telling her
Bangladeshi counterpart Nigar Sultana
to invite the umpires on stage after the
post-match presentation, forcing the
Bangladesh players to opt out of a joint
photo session.
INDIA
tabla
!
July 28, 2023
Page 3
Former Indian High Commissioner Pe-
riasamy Kumaran has said his three
years in Singapore was “reasonably
productive” despite the “difficult cir-
cumstances” he found himself in on his
arrival in July 2020.
“The situation then was very diffi-
cult, with Covid-19 raging and vaccines
still undeveloped. It was difficult to go
out and meet people,” he told
tabla!
,
adding that he estimated the number of
Indians and Indian Singaporeans here
to be about 700,000.
“I wanted to meet as many of them
as possible to build a rapport for the
next three years but I couldn’t.”
The situation was made worse by in-
cidents such as Delhi Chief Minister Ar-
vind Kejriwal claiming that a “very
dangerous” Covid-19 strain was preva-
lent in Singapore and a Changi airport
Covid-19 cluster wrongly attributed to
a family that arrived from India.
“Those incidents were only small
niggles in the India-Singapore relation-
ship,” said Mr Kumaran,who left Singa-
pore last Saturday to take up the post of
secretary at the Ministry of External Af-
fairs in New Delhi.
“What was more troublesome dur-
ing the pandemic was the restricted
movements. One of the greatest attrac-
tions for the Indian community is the
short distance between India and Singa-
pore and the excellent connectivity.
Once you remove that from the equa-
tion, Singapore becomes less attrac-
tive.”
Mr Kumaran is glad that passenger
loads have returned to pre-Covid levels
and 16 Indian cities are connected to
Singapore by air.
He recalled how ministerial visits
were few and far between during the
first-half of his tenure. “But the situa-
tion changed after the first visit by Ex-
ternal Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in
September 2021,” he said.
“We’ve had several ministerial visits
since then, including Chief Minister
M.K.Stalin coming from Tamil Nadu re-
cently.”
Mr Kumaran, a 1992-batch Indian
Foreign Service officer, described the
India-Singapore ministerial roundtable
in September 2022 as a memorable mil-
estone in which both sides identified
growth engines such as digitalisation
and trade facilitation.
“Digitalisation is the first pillar –
connecting payment systems and facil-
itating data transfer are among the areas
we are working on.
“The second is green economy,
which is very promising with commit-
ments by both sides.India is a big source
of green energy and we are looking to
connect the grids directly between In-
dia and Singapore, as well as with
Asean.
“We also have green hydrogen and
ammonia supply chains. There is a pilot
project whose success will mean we can
scale up in a big way, procuring green
hydrogen and using it in Singapore.”
The third pillar is skills development,
which is an area of interest to India.
“Singapore has been extremely suc-
cessful in setting up an ecosystem for
skills development. It is remarkable
how the syllabus is constantly improved
to deal with new technologies,” said Mr
Kumaran.
“India has a young population and
we need to train them, help them get
jobs, optimise our skills development
ecosystem. Singapore is a very good
partner for that.”
Food security,the fourth pillar under
the ministerial roundtable, is of interest
to Singapore and India, which is one of
the largest food producers in the world,
said Mr Kumaran.
“During the pandemic, some coun-
tries closed their agricultural exports
for fear of internal shortages but India
kept the supply lines open because the
fear of Covid-19 spreading in villages
was far lower.
“So Singapore thinks it will be good
to have a food security partnership or a
food corridor to try and work with In-
dia.But how we are going to lay the plan
for the food corridor is still being
worked on.”
Collaboration between India and
Singapore will continue in “standard ar-
eas”, such as urban solutions, smart ci-
ties, waste management and fintech.
“There is talk about how we can devel-
op new industrial parks in India.The Ta-
mil Nadu government has already
signed an agreement to help redevelop
industrial parks and it wants them to be
redeveloped vertically, like Singapore
does.”
With regard to the locals fearing job
loss due to more work permits being is-
sued for Indians to work in Singapore,
Mr Kumaran stressed that “we should
be sensitive to local sentiments”.
He explained: “At the top end of the
job market, where there is a need for
world-class talent, Singapore will con-
tinue to be an open place. At the lower
end, many jobs do not pay well enough
for Singaporeans, so that is not an area
of contest.It’s only the middle segment,
with both Singaporeans and Indians vy-
ing for the jobs.
“You can’t help but admire the way
things are so well-organised here.Singa-
pore also has one of the best Indian
diasporas in the world – extremely well-
qualified, well-to-do and successful.
“When you go to a high-level discus-
sion, the quality they bring to the table
is exceptional. With about 5,000 Indian
Institutes of Technology and Indian In-
stitutes of Management graduates, Sin-
gapore might have the highest concen-
tration of high-value professionals in
the world.”
Mr Kumaran also found Singapore’s
connectivity with the region “very ex-
citing”. “Unfortunately, my family
(wife Ritu and sons Aditya and Mayank)
and I could not travel much because of
the pandemic and the second-half of my
tenure was busy.”
“We have made many new friends
over the last three years and we plan to
keep in touch with them. We thorough-
ly enjoyed our stay in Singapore,” he
added.
India’s new High Commissioner, Dr
Shilpak Ambule, presented his creden-
tial to President Halimah Yacob on
Tuesday.
“It is going to be an exciting time as
we have a new high commissioner
who’s so close to Foreign Minister Jaish-
ankar,” said Mr Kumaran.
“Dr Ambule is from the 2002 IFS
batch and has done postings in China
and Sri Lanka.He is one of the best Chi-
nese speakers in the foreign ministry
and has been Dr Jaishankar’s staff offi-
cer when Dr Jaishankar was ambassa-
dor in Beijing, later as foreign secretary
and now as foreign minister. They have
worked together for about 10 years.”
➥
Indian envoy’s S’pore tenure ‘productive’
(Top) Mr Periasamy Kumaran at an event in Singapore and (above) with Prime Minister Lee
Hsien Loong.
PHOTOS: PERIASAMY KUMARAN/FACEBOOK
“You can’t help but
admire the way things are
so well-organised here.
Singapore also has one of
the best Indian diasporas
in the world – extremely
well-qualified, well-to-do
and successful.”
– Former Indian High Commissioner
Periasamy Kumaran
V.K. SANTOSH KUMAR
