Balakrishnan, Vivian

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan (b. 1961) has been a Member of Parliament for nearly 25 years and a Cabinet Minister for more than 20 years, following a distinguished medical career as a leading ophthalmologist and the CEO of Singapore General Hospital. 

Balakrishnan was born in Singapore to a Tamil father and a Chinese mother. He was educated at the Anglo-Chinese School and National Junior College. He was awarded the President's Scholarship in 1980 to study medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS). At NUS, he served as the President of the NUS Student Union and later as the Chairman of the Union Council.He pursued post-graduate specialist training in Ophthalmology and was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1991.

Balakrishnan entered politics during the 2001 General Election as part of the five-member People’s Action Party team that won the Holland–Bukit Panjang Group Representation Constituency uncontested. He was appointed Minister of State for National Development, and Chairman of the Remaking Singapore Committee in 2002, followed by his appointment as Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry in 2004.

His career then progressed through a series of ministerial appointments in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Throughout his political career, Balakrishnan has championed many key initiatives and policies. In environmental management, he substantially increased the capacity for desalination and NEWater production. To enhance food accessibility and support local hawkers' livelihoods, he revived the construction of new hawker centres after a 26-year pause.

In the social sector, he introduced the Progressive Wage Model for cleaners, pioneering better wages and employment terms for those workers. He also established the ComCare system to provide comprehensive social assistance for Singaporeans in need. He also led the redevelopment of the National Stadium in 2010 and the implementation of the National Broadband Fibre Network, which brought high-speed, affordable fibre broadband to Singapore's households and businesses. 

At the 2018 launch of The Tamil Community and Making of Modern Singapore, co-authored by Soundaranayaki Vairavan and A P Raman, Balakrishnan shared glimpses of his own family’s journey from India to Singapore and the making of his ethnic identity. “I am a fourth generation Singaporean. My great-grandfather left India in the late nineteenth century. We moved to Singapore more than a century ago. My grandfather worked in the Government Printing Press,” he revealed, adding that his father later became a Tamil teacher. 

Reflecting on his Indian heritage during visits to Rashtrapati Bhawan, the President’s official residence in India, the Foreign Minister noted, “Every time I go there, I am also struck by the fact that my great-grandfather would have never imagined that his great-grandson would get a chance to visit the Rashtrapati Bhawan as a guest of the Indian government.”

Emphasising the importance of preserving Tamil heritage in Singapore, Balakrishnan urged the community, “Let’s continue onto this journey, let’s continue to document this journey, let’s continue to celebrate Tamil. After all, Tamil is one of the oldest classical languages that has maintained its continuity over 4,000 to 5,000 years. That’s something worth celebrating.”



For more information
“CV.” Vivian Balakrishnan. Accessed on 1 August 2025. https://vivian.balakrishnan.sg/about-2/ 
“Vivian Balakrishnan.” Wikipedia. Accessed on 1 August 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Balakrishnan
Jamal, Ashraf. “How Tamils helped Singapore scale highs.” Connected to India, 17 May 2018. https://www.connectedtoindia.com/we-need-to-appreciate-the-sacrifices-of-our-ancestors-vivian-balakrishnan/
“Dr Vivian BALAKRISHNAN.” Prime Minister’s Office Singapore. Accessed on 1 August 2025. https://www.pmo.gov.sg/The-Cabinet/Dr-Vivian-BALAKRISHNAN 

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The information in this article is valid as of August 2025 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. If you have any feedback on this article, please submit here.