Tharman Shanmugaratnam joins growing list of Indian-origin leaders dominating world politics
AMN / WEB DESK
Indian-origin Economist and Former Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has registered a landslide victory in Singapore’s Presidential election. The results were announced at past midnight on Friday. The Minister won over 70 percent of votes in the country’s first contested presidential polls since 2011.
Sixty-six-year-old Tharman Shanmugaratnam had served as Singapore’s Deputy prime minister from 2011 to 2019. He joined politics in 2001. He has also worked in the public sector and held ministerial positions.
Tharman will be Singapore’s third Indian-origin President after Sellapan Ramanathan and Chengara Veetil Devan Nair. Earlier, the polls ended with over 2.7 million voters casting their ballots. Singaporeans voted in large numbers on Friday in the country’s first contested presidential election in more than a decade.
According to the 2021 Indiaspora Government Leaders List, more than 200 leaders of Indian heritage have ascended to the highest echelons of public service in 15 countries across the globe, with over 60 of them holding Cabinet positions.
With more than 32 million people of Indian origin (PIOs) globally, according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Indians are the largest community population in the world