With the number of settlers from India almost doubling in the past two years, every fourth person in Singapore is now from the Indian community, a media report said.
The city has a population of 1.79 million, including expatriates, and of them 400,000 are of Indian origin - a 100 per cent increase in the community size in two years.
According to The Straits Times, the number of Indians setting up companies here has also doubled to 3,000 from the 2006 level of 1,500. Businesses chiefly revolve around information technology, finance, trade and food.
"The city's friendly environment, and Tamil being the official fourth language after English, Chinese and Malay, are the major attractions for the expatriates who mainly hail from southern Indian states," Nikhilesh Gupta, president of the Bengali Association Singapore, was quoted as saying to the daily.
Top professionals from India are moving into the engineering, information technology and finance sectors, while the non-skilled and semi-skilled workers are getting opportunities in construction and marine industries, the daily said.
In sports, the Singapore Cricket Association said its domestic league has grown to 90 teams from 36 teams in 2007. Over the weekends, cricket stumps are as common as football goal posts on Singapore playing fields, it reported.
Source http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article524874.ece?homepage=true
No comments:
Post a Comment