Opening Address by Senior Minister of State for Law and Transcport Mr Murali Pillai SC, at the INEI Forum
25 Apr 2026 Posted in Speeches
1. It is heartening to see such a strong turnout. I am told that we have over 600 participants from more than 330 organisations joining us. That is really fantastic. I am really glad to note that we have here leaders and members from across a wide range of sectors in this room, from the arts, business, community and social sectors, to name a few.
2. Your presence here reflects the breadth and the vibrancy of our Indian community. But unfortunately, one person who is no longer with us is the late Mr Ma Anbalagan. He passed away three days ago. You may recall that he was a giant in the Tamil literary circle — a well-known poet who wrote many books, including Beyond the Realm and various collections of Singapore short stories. He will be deeply missed, but his legacy lives on through his books. Mr Naseer Ghani, Chairman of the Tamil Language Council, told me about his passing, so I thank him for letting me know. May I invite everybody to join me in applause to honour his legacy.
3. Please allow me to say a few words about the purpose of INEI. I want to acknowledge the many people whom Dinesh and I met to get input from on what INEI should focus on. SMS Janil was also heavily involved in engaging our community through various focus group discussions. Through the inputs we received, INEI settled on three objectives: first, to better support the vulnerable and the disadvantaged within our Indian community; second, to strengthen the Singapore Indian identity; and third, to develop a pipeline of young Indian leaders.
4. These are the three objectives of INEI. On the structure of INEI — again, we had wide consultation, and I must acknowledge two persons for their valuable inputs. In fact, they may recognise the structure from the feedback they provided. They are Mr R Rajaram and Mr R. Ravindran. Thank you very much for your inputs.
5. The structure is meant to address the current structural challenges. What are they? Firstly, fragmentation across organisations — our organisations operate efficiently, but they are largely in parallel. Secondly, there are limited youth engagement pathways for our youths. Thirdly, and most significantly, there is the absence of an ecosystem-level platform to connect our stakeholders, align our priorities, and coordinate efforts at a greater scale. INEI will therefore be the platform for ecosystem coordination and community activation. It plays the following roles: convener, connector, catalyst, and leadership developer. Through this, we will make a broader strategic shift — from community assistance to community activation, and from institution-led engagement to network-enabled participation. That is a key difference.
6. To enable our work, INEI will be composed as follows. We will have a coordinating committee comprising young Indian leaders with a few seniors to guide them. The decision to involve our young Indian leaders is strategic — it is to groom them and provide them with leadership opportunities, and we will invest in them too. The INEI coordinating committee will be supported by resource panels consisting of senior leaders in our Indian community.
7. INEI will also have action groups, what I refer to as INEI’s “engines”. We envisage that we will have four engines: first, religious; second, socio-economic; third, culture, youth and sports; and finally, language, heritage and arts. These “engines” will comprise the Indian organisations in these relevant spaces, and they will each be led by a coordinating committee member.
8. Allow me now to recount my personal work as the INEI co-chair over the past few months. I had the pleasure of focusing on the religious and socio-economic pillars. On the religious pillar, I had the honour of meeting representatives from 48 Indian religious organisations representing the major faiths in Singapore. We forged an agreement to see how we can focus on further reducing the recidivism of Indian inmates through religion. We identified opportunities to learn from one another. One good result I can share is that we were already able to increase the number of religious volunteers to help these inmates. I saw the volunteers in action and was truly humbled by the effort they put in while counselling the inmates in Changi Prison. It is a long journey for many of them shuttling between their homes and Changi Prison - some have been doing this for years, and in fact, some have been doing it for decades. That is the commitment they have. And when we help these inmates, it is not just helping them individually — we also help their families, and we have a chance to break the cycle of intergenerational offending. So, I thank the religious organisations for coming together on this specific mission.
9. I now turn to the socio-economic pillar. Narpani, at my request and led by Mr Ravi, conducted a survey amongst its 100 Indian Activity Executive Committees (IAECs), geographically distributed across Singapore. Through the survey, we received overwhelming support for every IAEC to be on the lookout for Indian families in distress and to make referrals to SINDA’s Family Service Centre or their grassroots adviser. Narpani Peravai and SINDA will be signing an MOU today to reflect this cooperation. I record my deep appreciation to Mr Ravindren Ganesan, Chairman of Narpani, his team, and all IAEC members — numbering more than 1,000 — for taking on this task to look out for Indian families in distress. Please join me in thanking them.
10. I now turn to the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI), led by Mr Neil Parekh. It is a well-established organisation with more than 600 Indian businesses. I am pleased to announce that SICCI has agreed to offer internship opportunities for children from low-income Indian families and to conduct regular fundraising events to help less advantaged families. SICCI will be signing an MOU with SINDA to record this agreement today. A big thank you to SICCI for this. I must pay personal tribute to Mr Neil Parekh, Chairman of SICCI, the board members, and member companies for their strong support. I remember that the agreement was forged at a fireside chat I attended, and Neil very memorably mentioned that making money for businesses and contributing to the community should be synonymous. I thought that was a very profound statement coming from the Chairman of SICCI.
11. I have explained the structure of the INEI coordinating committee, resource panels and action groups. MCCY will support INEI in its work, and MCCY’s MOS Dinesh will therefore carry and oversee the efforts under the four pillars of action. As for myself, I have decided that I can contribute better in an advisory role. I will join other Indian POHs to support INEI generally and its work groups. I will, in particular, advise the work groups dealing with the initiatives that I have started. I have asked that one or two young Indian leaders be appointed to take charge of these initiatives, and my goal would be to nurture these leaders.
12. Let me conclude by saying that much work has been done, and I must acknowledge the hard work of SINDA, led by Anbu. I was able to do so much within the span of nine months because of SINDA and its network. SINDA is truly an apex organisation for our Indian community. So, thank you very much.
13. But much more work has to be done. What would the end state look like? For me, it would be as follows. First, a core of young Indian leaders who have proven capabilities to take the Indian community forward. Second, a networked approach, galvanising on the strengths of our diverse Indian community to help the less fortunate amongst us. Third, a much more cohesive and united Indian community drawn together for a common cause. I seek your support to materialise this vision, and I wish MOS Dinesh every success in this endeavour. Thank you.
Last updated on 25 April 2026