Tharman Shanmugaratnam, an Indian-origin Singapore-born economist has registered a landslide victory in Singapore’s presidential election.

He won over 70 per cent of votes in the country’s first contested presidential polls since 2011.

The 66-year-old former senior minister bagged 70.4 per cent (1,746,427 votes) of the 2.48 million votes cast, while his Chinese-origin rivals Ng Kok Song and Tan Kin Lian received 15.72 per cent and 13.88 per cent respectively, the Elections Department said, PTI reported.

The result was announced by Returning Officer Tan Meng Dui at past midnight, making Tharman Singapore’s third Indian-origin president.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong congratulated Tharman, who served as Singapore’s Deputy prime minister from 2011 to 2019, on winning the presidential election.

“Singaporeans have chosen Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam to be our next president by a decisive margin. As head of state, he will represent us at home and abroad, and exercise custodial powers, including over the reserves and key appointments,” he said.

Lee noted that in Friday’s election, both voters and candidates showed a greater understanding of the roles and duties of the president, which bodes well for Singapore.

“I have every confidence that he will carry out his duties as president with distinction,” he said.

Earlier speaking at Taman Jurong Food Centre where his supporters had gathered, Tharman said he is “truly humbled by the strong endorsement” Singaporeans have given him.

“I’m humbled by this vote – it is not just a vote for me, it is a vote for Singapore’s future, a future of optimism and solidarity. That’s what it really is. My campaign was one of optimism and solidarity, and I believe that’s what Singaporeans want,” he said.

“I will honour the trust that Singaporeans have placed in me and respect all Singaporeans including those who did not vote for me,” Tharman said.

Prime Minister Lee’s People’s Action Party (PAP) had backed Tharman in the election.

Lee said he congratulated Tharman for his resounding victory to assure him of his government’s full cooperation.

“Tharman has also declared his intention to work closely with the Government. As head of state, the president has to be a unifying figure that all Singaporeans can look up to and identify with,” Lee said.

Tharman formally launched his presidential campaign in July with a pledge to evolve the country’s culture to keep it a “shining spot” in the world.

He joined politics in 2001 and has served in the public sector and ministerial positions with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) for over two decades.

Over 2.7 million voters cast their ballots. The voters started casting their ballots at 8 AM when polling stations opened. The polls closed at 8 PM (local time).

Incumbent President Madam Halimah Yacob’s six-year term will end on September 13. She is the country’s eighth and first female president.

This was Singapore’s first contested presidential election since 2011.

Singapore in the past has had two Indian-origin presidents.

Sellapan Ramanathan, popularly known as S R Nathan, a Singaporean politician and civil servant of Tamil descent served as the president of Singapore. In 2009, Nathan defeated Benjamin Sheares to become Singapore’s longest-serving president.

Chengara Veetil Devan Nair, better known as Devan Nair, served as the third president of Singapore from 1981 until his resignation in 1985. Born in 1923 in Malacca, Malaysia, Nair was the son of a rubber plantation clerk, who was originally from Thalassery, Kerala.

source/content: outlookindia.com (headline edited)

The post office is located right on the edge of Pak-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) where the LoC divides the anxious nations.

The first post office in India, which was, until recently, referred to as the last post office, is located on the banks of the Kishenganga River near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Keran sector of Jammu and Kashmir. 

The post office, bearing PIN code 193224, is run by a postmaster and three mail runners. It was known as the last post office of the country until recently. Now the signboard near it describes it as the “First Post Office of India”.

The post office is located right on the edge of Pak-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) where the LoC divides the anxious nations. A stream passes between, known as Kishenganga River on one side of the LoC and Neelum River on the other. On the Indian bank of the river, stands the post office.

With the border ceasefire between India and Pakistan troops undisturbed in the past two years, the postmaster Shakir Bhat and three mail runners are distributing the mail with significant ease, without the fear of being caught in a border fire-fight or shelling.

Earlier, mail runners were hesitant in delivering mail to the army posted at the LoC and to the local population out of the fear of the barrage of bullets that were exchanged across the border occasionally.
The thawing of ice between India and Pakistan, with decreasing cross-border hostilities between the two nations, has made the life of the locals relatively easier. Those working at the post office echoed a similar relief.

It is a historic post office, being operational even before the two countries were divided in hate in 1947. The post office did not refrain from its duties towards the people and troops even as the hostilities between Indian and Pakistan forces reached their peak in 1965, 1971 and 1998 Kargil wars between the two nuclear-armed neighbouring states. 

The post office has been functioning out of the house of postmaster Shakir ever since 1993 when the post office was washed away in the flash floods. A local Tufail Ahmed Bhat said that the post office mostly received mail and speed posts for and from army personnel posted at the LoC.

It takes three days for speed posts to reach the Keran post office, from where postmaster Shakir and the three mail runners take them to their destination without fail. He said the post office has recently become an attraction for tourists, who are visiting Keran after the border area was relatively demilitarized and opened to visitors last year.

After the improvement in the ground situation in J&K and the cessation of India-Pakistan hostilities at the LoC, the authorities have thrown open many border areas including Keran, Karnah, Uri, Gurez, etc to visitors. Earlier, these border areas used to be completely inaccessible to outsiders and even for the local population.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

Decision comes amid increasing cyber and malware attacks on defence as well as critical infrastructure across the country.

n the face of increasing cyber and malware attacks on defence as well as critical infrastructure across the country, the Defence Ministry has decided to replace the Microsoft Operating System (OS) in all computers connected to the Internet with a new OS, Maya, based on open-source Ubuntu developed locally.

“Maya has the interface and all functionality like Windows and users will not feel much difference as they transition to it. To begin with, the direction is to install Maya on all computers connected to the Internet in South Block before August 15,” one official involved in the process said. In addition, an ‘end point detection and protection system’, Chakravyuh, is also being installed in these systems.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

Gulf, UAE and Saudi Arabia were aggressively seeking ways to expand relations with India.

India is emerging as a “major power” in the Middle East, and it is time to take New Delhi’s projection of power in the region seriously, read an article in Foreign Policy, a US-based magazine on global affairs.

The author, Steven A Cook, cited one of his previous visits to India after which he said he was sceptical about a future Indian role in the Middle East.

“India and Middle Eastern countries were already intertwined in various ways, of course. There were budding military and technology ties between India and Israel. One could not travel in the Persian Gulf region without noticing that guest workers from the Indian state of Kerala provided the labour that made many of the Gulf countries run. India also imported a lot of oil from the Middle East. Yet after my conversations with officials, diplomats, generals, and analysts, it struck me that Indians did not want to play a larger role in the Middle East,” he wrote in the piece.

However, he said he believed that things have changed now and India was emerging as a major player in the Middle East.

“In the 10 years since my trip, however, things have changed. While US officials and analysts are obsessed with every diplomatic move Beijing makes and eye Chinese investment in the Middle East with suspicion, Washington is overlooking one of the most interesting geopolitical developments in the region in years: the emergence of India as a major player in the Middle East,” Cook stated.

He added that India-Israel ties are, perhaps, the most well-developed when it comes to New Delhi’s relations in the region.

Although India recognised Israel in 1950, the two countries did not establish normal diplomatic ties until 1992. Since then, especially in recent years, they have deepened their ties. In 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first Indian leader to visit Israel, which was followed by his Israeli counterpart travelling to India the following year.

“Beyond the pomp of these visits, India-Israel ties have rapidly developed in a variety of fields, notably high-tech and defence,” he said.

Citing Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Cook stated that Israel was among India’s top three arms suppliers in 2021, and recent Indian news reports indicate that the two countries are exploring the coproduction of weapons systems.

Also in the past, India’s business community shied away from investing in Israel, given the country’s small market and controversial politics (to many in India), but that may be changing, he added.

“In 2022, the Adani Group and an Israeli partner won a tender for Haifa Port for 1.2 billion USD. There are also ongoing negotiations for an India-Israel Free Trade Agreement. Of course, the India-Israel relationship is complicated. India remains steadfast in its support for the Palestinians; has friendly ties with Iran, from which New Delhi has purchased significant amounts of oil; and Indian elites tend to see Israel through the prism of their country’s own colonial experience,” he added.

Cook further stated that the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were aggressively seeking ways to expand relations with India, which is a significant shift because both countries, but particularly the latter, have long aligned with Pakistan.

“The pivot to India stems in part from a common interest in containing Islamist extremism, but much of the pull is economic. The Emiratis and Saudis see opportunities in a country of 1.4 billion people that is less than a four-hour flight away. So far, the results are positive. In the first 11 months of the UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which entered into force in May 2022, non-oil trade between the two countries reached 45 billion USD, which was an almost 7 per cent increase above the previous year,” Cook stated in his piece.

The ties between India and UAE propelled through I2U2–a grouping of Israel, India, the UAE, and the United States–which seeks to leverage the combined technological know-how and private capital to address alternative energy, agriculture, trade, infrastructure development, and more, he noted.

Saudi Arabia, which is India’s second-largest supplier of oil and gas, also wants to augment the energy relationship further by adding renewables into the mix.

“In April, the Indian new site Siasat.com reported that Riyadh and New Delhi were discussing a plan to link India’s energy grid to the kingdom (and the UAE) via undersea cables. It is unclear whether such an ambitious project will ever come to fruition, but those talks indicate that the Indian and Saudi governments are looking for ways to add to the existing 43 billion USD in trade between the two countries,” he stated in his piece in Foreign Policy.

Citing PM Modi’s recent state visit to Egypt, the author called it an episode in the ongoing Egyptian-Indian love fest, which came about six months after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi being the guest of honour at India’s 74th Republic Day celebration–his third visit to New Delhi since assuming power.

“Unlike with Israel, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, trade between India and Egypt is relatively modest, worth about 6 billion USD. The Egyptian authorities, whose economic mismanagement has created a debt crisis and 30 per cent inflation, are seeking help from India. There is also talk of trade in rupees because the Egyptians are short of dollars,” the piece added.

However, Cook said Egypt’s multiple economic difficulties are not the only issues driving the burgeoning relationship, and India also regards Egypt as a gateway through which to send their goods to Africa and Europe.

“It is tempting for US policymakers and analysts to view India’s growing role in the region through the prism of great-power competition with China. At a level of abstraction, playing the “India card” seems like a wise move in the new great game,” he stated in his piece.

Citing the long enmity, border disputes, and even armed conflicts between India and China, the author said additional counterweight to Beijing in the Middle East would be helpful as the Biden administration shifts from de-emphasizing the region to regarding it as an area of opportunity to contain China.

“And Modi’s visit to Washington in late June was also a love fest, including a state dinner and address to a joint session of Congress,” he added.

However, the author stated that it is “unlikely” that New Delhi wants to be the strategic partner that Washington imagines, keeping in mind India’s closeness with Russia in the past, and even its recent stand during Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“New Delhi has condemned the Russian invasion but has not voted to condemn Moscow in the United Nations and is a prodigious procurer of Russian arms and oil,” he wrote.

He stated further that India diverges sharply from the US and Israel on Iran, adding that Washington should temper its expectations about what the expansion of India’s economic and security ties to the Middle East means.

“It is unlikely that India will line up with the United States, but it is also unlikely that New Delhi will undercut Washington as both Beijing and Moscow have done,” the author stated.

He added, “The evolution of India’s place in the Middle East reflects the changing international order and the willingness–perhaps even eagerness–of countries in the region to benefit from the new multipolarity”.

The author further stated that if the US’ Middle Eastern partners are looking for an alternative to Washington, it is better if New Delhi is among their choices.

“The United States may no longer be the undisputed big dog in the region, but as long as India expands its presence in the Middle East, neither Russia nor China can assume that role,” he added in the piece.

source/content: siasat.com (headline edited)