Great, CECA here to build our homes. Daft Sinkies, please welcome them okay.
-
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SG is opening the doors for thousands of CECA talent
- Thread starter LITTLEREDDOT
- Start date
We got trouble.
Singapore to hire about 4,000 new nurses by end-2023
The increase, which will begin from the middle of 2023, represents about 10 per cent of the current number of nurses here. PHOTO: ST FILE
Zhaki Abdullah
Nov 21, 2022
SINGAPORE - As part of efforts to enhance Singapore’s nursing workforce, the Republic expects to employ almost 4,000 new nurses by end-2023, Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung said on Monday.
This increase, which will begin from the middle of 2023, represents about 10 per cent of the current number of nurses here, said Mr Ong, adding that it is about 700 more than the number of new nurses in 2021.
Foreign nurses will make up about 60 per cent of the new nurses, to make up for the slowdown in foreign nurse recruitment during the Covid-19 pandemic, he said.
“Even whilst we ramp up foreign recruitment to bolster our nursing workforce, the large majority of our nursing workforce will continue to be local and contributed through our nursing school intakes and mid-career training programmes,” he added.
Tackling the manpower shortage will help lighten the workload of nurses, said Mr Ong, noting the country had lost many experienced foreign nurses as a result of the competition for nurses from other countries during the pandemic.
In August, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health Rahayu Mahzam said the proportion of nurses in public hospitals who resigned reached a five-year high in 2021, with 7.4 per cent of local nurses and 14.8 per cent of foreign nurses leaving their jobs.
In July, Mr Ong announced that more than 25,000 nurses in the public sector would receive a special payment of between 1.7 and 2.1 months of their base salary in 2022, as part of efforts to attract and retain nursing talent.
Though the crunch at hospitals has made headlines recently, bed occupancies, emergency department (ED) attendances and bed wait times have improved with the wave of infections caused by the XBB Covid-19 sub-variant having subsided, Mr Ong said.
He added that hospitals have reported that the number of non-urgent emergency department patients waiting for beds has halved from the peak of the XBB wave, while patients who require urgent care have always been admitted immediately.
The median wait times at EDs have fallen from seven hours two weeks ago to about four hours, Mr Ong noted.
He added that the authorities are working to further reduce bed occupancies by removing the ringfencing of beds for Covid-19 patients as well as expanding the number of transitional care facilities.
Such facilities admit medically stable patients from public hospitals while they wait for their transfers to intermediate and long-term care facilities or for their discharge plans to be finalised.
Mr Ong noted the newest such transitional care facility, Crawfurd Hospital, which opened on Nov 4, has 43 beds for transitional patients, of which about 15 are now occupied.
This has helped relieve the inpatient load for Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which it is partnered with, he said.
The Health Ministry is now working with Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan Hospital to act as a partner facility for Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, he added.
Mr Ong was speaking during the Tan Chin Tuan Nursing Award for Enrolled Nurses ceremony, held at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University.
The shift to preventative healthcare under the Healthier SG initiative means the role of enrolled nurses will evolve further, he said.
Enrolled nurses – who typically support registered nurses and are responsible for providing bedside care and monitoring a patient’s condition – can play a key role in supporting patients, by educating them on their recommended health screenings and lifestyle adjustments prescribed within care protocols., said Mr Ong.
These changes are currently under deliberation, he said, adding he hoped to engage enrolled nurses in these discussions.
“We will engage you in our conversations, and look forward to your continued contribution in transforming our healthcare system,” said Mr Ong, addressing the enrolled nurses at the event.
More Malaysians likely to seek greener pastures in Singapore in coming months
Roti canai makers with at least five years of working experience are paid about S$80 (RM264) daily working in Singapore. PHOTO: TNP FILE
UPDATED
JAN 3, 2023
JOHOR BAHRU - More Johoreans and Malaysians from other states are expected to seek employment in Singapore in the coming months.
Johor Indian Muslim Entrepreneurs Association (Perusim) secretary Hussein Ibrahim said the strong Singapore currency was the main factor.
“Roti canai makers with at least five years of working experience are paid about S$80 (RM264) daily while those with less experience can easily command S$50 (RM165) daily for a 12-hour shift,’’ he said of those choosing to work in Singapore.
“Feedback from our members showed 80 per cent of their roti canai makers are now working at Indian restaurants in Singapore,” said Mr Hussein.
He added that most of them got their jobs through referrals from their Malaysian friends already working there.
Mr Hussein hoped that the new Federal Government would allow Indian Muslim eateries in Johor Bahru to hire workers from India and Indonesia.
“Without these workers, many restaurants might cease operations,’’ he said.
Johor South small and medium-sized enterprise adviser Teh Kee Sin said many Singaporeans shun 3D (dirty, dangerous and difficult) jobs, adding that the Singapore government would continue to rely on foreign workers for certain industries to keep its economy going.
He said skilled workers, especially Malaysians, were sought after by manufacturing companies in Singapore.
Mr Teh said most of them would work in Johor Bahru for a few years to gain the required skills before going to Singapore.
“Johor’s severe labour shortage has been going on for many years,’’ he said.
Johor Trucking Association president Novan Hing said the shortage of lorry drivers was also a long-term issue.
“During the pandemic, lorry drivers who were out of jobs switched to driving buses and also delivering parcels and food and many have not returned.
“Experienced drivers in Singapore can earn from S$3,000 monthly (RM9,900),” he added.
They were commenting on a report by Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower in December, which stated that 93.7 per cent of third-quarter employment growth involved non-residents.
The report stated that out of the 75,900 new jobs created in Q3 2022, 71,100 were attributed to non-residents and 4,800 to residents – Singaporeans and permanent residents.
Employment for residents was in financial and professional services as well as information and communications technology.
The majority of non-residents were employed in manufacturing and construction, food and beverage services as well as arts, entertainment and recreation. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
T1 is already an Indian airport terminal.
Singapore to hire about 4,000 new nurses by end-2023
The increase, which will begin from the middle of 2023, represents about 10 per cent of the current number of nurses here. PHOTO: ST FILE
Zhaki Abdullah
Nov 21, 2022
SINGAPORE - As part of efforts to enhance Singapore’s nursing workforce, the Republic expects to employ almost 4,000 new nurses by end-2023, Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung said on Monday.
This increase, which will begin from the middle of 2023, represents about 10 per cent of the current number of nurses here, said Mr Ong, adding that it is about 700 more than the number of new nurses in 2021.
Foreign nurses will make up about 60 per cent of the new nurses, to make up for the slowdown in foreign nurse recruitment during the Covid-19 pandemic, he said.
“Even whilst we ramp up foreign recruitment to bolster our nursing workforce, the large majority of our nursing workforce will continue to be local and contributed through our nursing school intakes and mid-career training programmes,” he added.
Tackling the manpower shortage will help lighten the workload of nurses, said Mr Ong, noting the country had lost many experienced foreign nurses as a result of the competition for nurses from other countries during the pandemic.
In August, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health Rahayu Mahzam said the proportion of nurses in public hospitals who resigned reached a five-year high in 2021, with 7.4 per cent of local nurses and 14.8 per cent of foreign nurses leaving their jobs.
In July, Mr Ong announced that more than 25,000 nurses in the public sector would receive a special payment of between 1.7 and 2.1 months of their base salary in 2022, as part of efforts to attract and retain nursing talent.
Though the crunch at hospitals has made headlines recently, bed occupancies, emergency department (ED) attendances and bed wait times have improved with the wave of infections caused by the XBB Covid-19 sub-variant having subsided, Mr Ong said.
He added that hospitals have reported that the number of non-urgent emergency department patients waiting for beds has halved from the peak of the XBB wave, while patients who require urgent care have always been admitted immediately.
The median wait times at EDs have fallen from seven hours two weeks ago to about four hours, Mr Ong noted.
He added that the authorities are working to further reduce bed occupancies by removing the ringfencing of beds for Covid-19 patients as well as expanding the number of transitional care facilities.
Such facilities admit medically stable patients from public hospitals while they wait for their transfers to intermediate and long-term care facilities or for their discharge plans to be finalised.
Mr Ong noted the newest such transitional care facility, Crawfurd Hospital, which opened on Nov 4, has 43 beds for transitional patients, of which about 15 are now occupied.
This has helped relieve the inpatient load for Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which it is partnered with, he said.
The Health Ministry is now working with Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan Hospital to act as a partner facility for Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, he added.
Mr Ong was speaking during the Tan Chin Tuan Nursing Award for Enrolled Nurses ceremony, held at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University.
The shift to preventative healthcare under the Healthier SG initiative means the role of enrolled nurses will evolve further, he said.
Enrolled nurses – who typically support registered nurses and are responsible for providing bedside care and monitoring a patient’s condition – can play a key role in supporting patients, by educating them on their recommended health screenings and lifestyle adjustments prescribed within care protocols., said Mr Ong.
These changes are currently under deliberation, he said, adding he hoped to engage enrolled nurses in these discussions.
“We will engage you in our conversations, and look forward to your continued contribution in transforming our healthcare system,” said Mr Ong, addressing the enrolled nurses at the event.
Nurses are most welcome. Jiakliaobee mid -level office "executives" - not so much.
Local IT grads can’t find jobs while engineers constantly transferred from India to work in SG under CECA
by Correspondent05 Feb 2023
It was reported in the local media on Saturday (4 Feb 2023) that IT graduates from the local universities are having a hard time finding tech jobs.
James Looi, a promising IT graduate from the Singapore Management Univerity (SMU) was good enough to have earned the coveted internships at GovTech, Grab and Shopee.
But five months ahead of his graduation last December, Mr Looi did not get any interviews despite applying for 20 tech jobs.
The only company that granted him interviews was tech company TikTok. Still, after seven rounds of interviews with the company, he was unceremoniously dropped.
Mr Looi said, “I was shocked, disappointed and helpless. I never considered the possibility I would graduate and be unable to find a (tech) job.”
Another graduate, who only gave his name as Mr Tan, was also disappointed. He graduated last December with a digital business degree and applied to several prominent tech companies but did not get any replies.
Mr Tan said, “My first choice would definitely be a career in tech, but the industry would need some time to rebound. I am now looking for jobs in banking and marketing, and hope to get back to tech after one to two years.”
Local graduates like Mr Looi and Mr Tan are among a slew of IT graduates fighting for jobs in the current tech downturn. Many tech companies, including Shopee, Facebook and Twitter, have been laying off people in recent times.
The present slowdown in the tech job market has certainly surprised many IT graduates, who had a 97.8 per cent overall employment rate back in 2021.
When contacted by the local media, the local universities said that they have career coaches to prepare students and graduates for their job search through mentoring and workshops.
Majority of team members from India
Meanwhile, a source in the IT company, Cognizant Singapore, has told TOC that a number of IT staff were successfully transferred from India to the Singapore’s branch last year.They were all given work passes by the Manpower Ministry to work here. TOC emailed Cognizant last November for a response, but to date, there has been no reply.
Indian IT engineers and managers were said to have been transferred to Singapore to work on projects which Cognizant has secured from clients in Singapore.
Under the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), intra-corporate transferees can be transferred from one country to another and work in that country for up to as long as 8 years.
Also, CECA gives preferential access for Singapore service providers and investors in the various sectors of interest: including engineering, banking, telecommunications and real estate development. Such access gives them more opportunities to expand beyond Singapore, MTI said.
In any case, it’s not known if the other India-based IT companies like Wipro, Infosys, TCS, etc are doing the same by constantly transferring Indian IT people to their Singapore’s branches to work here.
The source also confirmed with TOC that the majority of people in project teams are from India and that he is not impressed with the quality of those transferred from India to work here. In meetings, they tend to speak in Hindi among themselves, oblivious to the other non-Indian people inside the meeting, the source told TOC.
Indeed, according to a study in India, it has been said that 95% of engineers in India are unfit for software development jobs. And according to Quacquarelli Symonds’ (QS) ranking of universities in the world, the top 5 universities in India were ranked more than 150th:
- Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (World ranking 155)
- Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), Mumbai (World ranking 172)
- Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), New Delhi (World ranking 174)
- Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), Chennai (World ranking 250)
- Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), Kharagpur (World ranking 270)
Good news! Import more to fark the jiakliaobee Sinkies.
Aroma.
So the Ministry of Manpower has not been verifying the education qualifications of EP holders all along!!??
The move coincides with the launch of a new points-based framework for new Employment Pass applications. PHOTO: ST FILE
Tay Hong Yi
Mar 1, 2023
SINGAPORE – To ensure that Employment Pass (EP) applicants are not granted work passes based on fake qualifications, employers will need to provide third-party verification of their diploma and higher qualifications from Sept 1, 2023.
The move coincides with the Sept 1 launch of a new points-based framework for new EP applications called Complementarity Assessment (Compass).
This is because an EP applicant’s qualifications will contribute to his Compass score, which will determine whether he is awarded the work pass, said Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng during the debate for the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) budget on Wednesday.
Under Compass, an EP application is scored based on four “foundational criteria” and two “bonus criteria”, covering both an applicant’s and his employer’s attributes. The worker’s qualifications are one of the foundational criteria.
The Government, which has consulted industry associations, employers and the labour movement about the verification process, will share more details in due course, said Dr Tan, who is also Second Minister for Trade and Industry. For EP renewals, Compass and the verifying of qualifications will apply from 2024.
“Rest assured that we will ensure smooth implementation and minimise disruptions to employers’ hiring process,” the minister said.
The move is poised to add another safeguard against fake qualifications, even though employers are already responsible for ensuring the authenticity of an applicant’s credentials, and MOM conducts its own checks. But employers that do not wish to rely on applicants’ qualifications to add points under Compass do not have to submit the verification.
Dr Tan did not elaborate on whether the added verification could affect the time it takes to process EP applications. Online applications currently take 10 business days.
He added that further details on Compass’ bonus criteria, which pertain to skills held by the applicant that are in shortage in Singapore, and the employer’s contribution to the Republic’s strategic economic goals, will be revealed later in March.
The bonus points will cover a targeted minority of strategic EP applications, as the Government expects most applications to obtain a passing score on Compass on the basis of the foundational requirements.
He also announced on Wednesday that employers in services and manufacturing can hire only up to 8 per cent of their total workforce under the Non-traditional Source (NTS) Occupation List, and have to pay these work permit holders at least $2,000 a month.
The occupation list, which was revealed in 2022 but kicks in from Sept 1, stipulates seven rank-and-file roles, such as those of cooks in Indian restaurants, for which employers can hire work permit holders – instead of S Pass holders – from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Typically, employers in the service and manufacturing sectors can hire work permit holders only from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan.
Dr Tan said the quota guards against over-reliance on workers from NTS countries and regions, and ensures that employers diversify their workforce. The minimum salary safeguards against sourcing just the cheapest talent and encourages employers to hire higher-skilled or more experienced workers, he added.
Dr Tan on Wednesday also announced CareersFinder, a new feature on the MyCareersFuture online portal that recommends local residents jobs based on their expressed interests, the skills required and the training pathways available.
The artificial intelligence-driven tool will cut out the hassle of figuring what skills one needs for a job posting, and then the separate hunt for training courses.
A beta version is set for launch in the third quarter of 2023, and registration of interest can be made via the Workforce Singapore website.
“It will become more powerful as the data grows. We will continue to enhance it over time, to make it more responsive to job seekers’ needs,” said Dr Tan.
As borders reopen after the pandemic and foreign investments flow in, local workers are increasingly coming under heat to both compete with international talent and step up to jobs brought in by multinational enterprises.
Dr Tan urged workers to take charge of their own “career health” by tracking their own job marketability, charting their own development, and being resilient against setbacks.
In return, the ministry will support them “every step of the way”, he said.
Continuing the ministry’s years of work to raise working conditions for female workers, elderly workers, workers with disabilities and former offenders, Dr Tan briefed the House on various schemes and their results in securing fair opportunities for these groups.
These include flexible work arrangement guidelines; wage subsidies for employers that hire the elderly, former offenders and workers with disabilities; and progress towards a workplace fairness Bill.
Another group that has drawn the Government’s attention are skilled essential trade workers such as plumbers and electricians.
“Our society has traditionally valued ‘head’ work much more over ‘hands-on’ and ‘heart’ work, contributing to occupational wage disparity. But ‘hands-on’ work – the craft required to make something well, to fix a complex machine – is just as important for our society to function,” he said.
MOM and the National Trades Union Congress are studying ways to make these jobs pay better and offer clearer career and skill progression, with more details to come after the Forward Singapore consultation exercise concludes later in 2023.
This comes after the labour movement mooted in February a new framework to create clear career ladders for essential skilled tradesmen, dubbed the Career Progression Model.
Said Dr Tan: “Over time, if we are able to shift the prospects and perceptions of such jobs and offer attractive career pathways for skilled trades, we will be able to increase the number of locals in these roles in a sustainable way.”
Employers must verify education qualifications of EP applicants from Sept 1
The move coincides with the launch of a new points-based framework for new Employment Pass applications. PHOTO: ST FILE
Tay Hong Yi
Mar 1, 2023
SINGAPORE – To ensure that Employment Pass (EP) applicants are not granted work passes based on fake qualifications, employers will need to provide third-party verification of their diploma and higher qualifications from Sept 1, 2023.
The move coincides with the Sept 1 launch of a new points-based framework for new EP applications called Complementarity Assessment (Compass).
This is because an EP applicant’s qualifications will contribute to his Compass score, which will determine whether he is awarded the work pass, said Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng during the debate for the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) budget on Wednesday.
Under Compass, an EP application is scored based on four “foundational criteria” and two “bonus criteria”, covering both an applicant’s and his employer’s attributes. The worker’s qualifications are one of the foundational criteria.
The Government, which has consulted industry associations, employers and the labour movement about the verification process, will share more details in due course, said Dr Tan, who is also Second Minister for Trade and Industry. For EP renewals, Compass and the verifying of qualifications will apply from 2024.
“Rest assured that we will ensure smooth implementation and minimise disruptions to employers’ hiring process,” the minister said.
The move is poised to add another safeguard against fake qualifications, even though employers are already responsible for ensuring the authenticity of an applicant’s credentials, and MOM conducts its own checks. But employers that do not wish to rely on applicants’ qualifications to add points under Compass do not have to submit the verification.
Dr Tan did not elaborate on whether the added verification could affect the time it takes to process EP applications. Online applications currently take 10 business days.
He added that further details on Compass’ bonus criteria, which pertain to skills held by the applicant that are in shortage in Singapore, and the employer’s contribution to the Republic’s strategic economic goals, will be revealed later in March.
The bonus points will cover a targeted minority of strategic EP applications, as the Government expects most applications to obtain a passing score on Compass on the basis of the foundational requirements.
He also announced on Wednesday that employers in services and manufacturing can hire only up to 8 per cent of their total workforce under the Non-traditional Source (NTS) Occupation List, and have to pay these work permit holders at least $2,000 a month.
The occupation list, which was revealed in 2022 but kicks in from Sept 1, stipulates seven rank-and-file roles, such as those of cooks in Indian restaurants, for which employers can hire work permit holders – instead of S Pass holders – from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Typically, employers in the service and manufacturing sectors can hire work permit holders only from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan.
Dr Tan said the quota guards against over-reliance on workers from NTS countries and regions, and ensures that employers diversify their workforce. The minimum salary safeguards against sourcing just the cheapest talent and encourages employers to hire higher-skilled or more experienced workers, he added.
Dr Tan on Wednesday also announced CareersFinder, a new feature on the MyCareersFuture online portal that recommends local residents jobs based on their expressed interests, the skills required and the training pathways available.
The artificial intelligence-driven tool will cut out the hassle of figuring what skills one needs for a job posting, and then the separate hunt for training courses.
A beta version is set for launch in the third quarter of 2023, and registration of interest can be made via the Workforce Singapore website.
“It will become more powerful as the data grows. We will continue to enhance it over time, to make it more responsive to job seekers’ needs,” said Dr Tan.
As borders reopen after the pandemic and foreign investments flow in, local workers are increasingly coming under heat to both compete with international talent and step up to jobs brought in by multinational enterprises.
Dr Tan urged workers to take charge of their own “career health” by tracking their own job marketability, charting their own development, and being resilient against setbacks.
In return, the ministry will support them “every step of the way”, he said.
Continuing the ministry’s years of work to raise working conditions for female workers, elderly workers, workers with disabilities and former offenders, Dr Tan briefed the House on various schemes and their results in securing fair opportunities for these groups.
These include flexible work arrangement guidelines; wage subsidies for employers that hire the elderly, former offenders and workers with disabilities; and progress towards a workplace fairness Bill.
Another group that has drawn the Government’s attention are skilled essential trade workers such as plumbers and electricians.
“Our society has traditionally valued ‘head’ work much more over ‘hands-on’ and ‘heart’ work, contributing to occupational wage disparity. But ‘hands-on’ work – the craft required to make something well, to fix a complex machine – is just as important for our society to function,” he said.
MOM and the National Trades Union Congress are studying ways to make these jobs pay better and offer clearer career and skill progression, with more details to come after the Forward Singapore consultation exercise concludes later in 2023.
This comes after the labour movement mooted in February a new framework to create clear career ladders for essential skilled tradesmen, dubbed the Career Progression Model.
Said Dr Tan: “Over time, if we are able to shift the prospects and perceptions of such jobs and offer attractive career pathways for skilled trades, we will be able to increase the number of locals in these roles in a sustainable way.”
One little, two little, three little Indians
Four little, five little, six little Indians
Seven little, eight little, nine little Indians
Ten little Indian FTs.
Apr 4, 2023
Standard Chartered's digibank venture in Singapore, Trust Bank, has been growing at a significant pace. The fintech has over 500k customers in just seven months.
It probably helps that the bank has been built on a foundation of staff drawn from Standard Chartered itself. Collectively, they have over a centry of experience in both traditional finance and technology.
These are some of the top Standard Chartered alumni working at Trust Bank Singapore today.
One of the more recent senior appointments, Vishnu Thilak was appointed head of product management at Trust Bank this month.
Prior to this, Thilak spent over 13 years at Standard Chartered.
Trust Bank's CEO has spent over two decades in banking, starting with Standard Chartered in India before leaving for a brief nine month stint at Citi.
Upon returning to Standard Chartered, Sadhu headed various divisions for the bank in Singapore and South East Asia.
Trust Bank's head of financial planning and analysis, Bhavik Savla, was at Standard Chartered for less than six year and previously worked at both Deutsche Bank and Citi.
In those six years, however, he had a number of noteworthy positions including director of finance for the Hong Kong virtual bank and director of growth strategy of the retail banking division.
One of the top technologists at Trust Bank previously spent five years with Visa, where he was the global information security leader for the AP CEMEA region.
One of the multiple high ranking Trust Bank members to have started out in India, Lalit Lohia spent 13 years working for Citi and six at Barclays before spending eight years at Standard Chartered.
His three decades of banking experience make him perhaps the most experienced finance professional in the company.
Since moving to Standard Chartered in 1999, Fredy Aga has s been a global head of finance for various divisions in Singapore.
In addition to technology and innovation, he was a head of finance for consumer banking for over a year, and a head of finance for risk and compliance for over five years.
Harvard graduate Natalia Goh has spent the last 14 years working for Standard Chartered.
Her area of speciality appears to be credit cards, having been an executive director and head of product for credit cards prior to her managing director role.
Another senior member with lots of experience outside Standard Chartered, Kartikay Doval began his career at Citi for 6 years before jumping around banks including Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, Citi again and Standard Chartered a second time.
Doval spent nearly six years at Standard Chartered in his second stint but perhaps a more impressive role was his previous one: delivery & deployment head for Citibank Online in Asia and Australia.
Sandesh Hegde spent more time at one company than anyone else at Trust Bank. He spent over 25 years at Standard Chartered before assuming his role there.
The position in which he spent the most time was head of process controls & systems - risk operations, He spent five years in the role following his move from Botswana to Singapore.
Originally based out of London, Nick Woodruff spent six years at Barclays before moving to PR firm FGS Global.
Woodruff then moved to Singapore and joined Standard Chartered in 2010 and worked there for over a decade. In addition to his chief of staff role, he also spent three months simultaneously acting as chief product officer.
A risk specialist, Rajit Maiti has spent over 18 years at Standard Chartered and acted as a head of risk for a variety of departments.
Amongst those are the retail banking, retail distribution and brand and marketing teams in Singapore.
Four little, five little, six little Indians
Seven little, eight little, nine little Indians
Ten little Indian FTs.
Singapore fintech execs spent a century at Standard Chartered
by Alex McMurrayApr 4, 2023
Standard Chartered's digibank venture in Singapore, Trust Bank, has been growing at a significant pace. The fintech has over 500k customers in just seven months.
It probably helps that the bank has been built on a foundation of staff drawn from Standard Chartered itself. Collectively, they have over a centry of experience in both traditional finance and technology.
These are some of the top Standard Chartered alumni working at Trust Bank Singapore today.
Vishnu Thilak - Head of Product Management
Previous Role: Credit decisions system manager at Standard CharteredOne of the more recent senior appointments, Vishnu Thilak was appointed head of product management at Trust Bank this month.
Prior to this, Thilak spent over 13 years at Standard Chartered.
Dwaipayan Sadhu - CEO
Previous Role: Managing Director: Head of Consumer Private and Business banking at Standard CharteredTrust Bank's CEO has spent over two decades in banking, starting with Standard Chartered in India before leaving for a brief nine month stint at Citi.
Upon returning to Standard Chartered, Sadhu headed various divisions for the bank in Singapore and South East Asia.
Bhavik Savla - Head of FP&A
Previous Role: Interim CFO, Digital Venture by Standard Chartered BankTrust Bank's head of financial planning and analysis, Bhavik Savla, was at Standard Chartered for less than six year and previously worked at both Deutsche Bank and Citi.
In those six years, however, he had a number of noteworthy positions including director of finance for the Hong Kong virtual bank and director of growth strategy of the retail banking division.
Ramesh Dharma - Interim Head of Technology Risk
Previous Role: Executive Director -Head Information Security Risk Officer ASEAN & South AsiaOne of the top technologists at Trust Bank previously spent five years with Visa, where he was the global information security leader for the AP CEMEA region.
Lalit Lohia - Chief Risk Officer
Previous Role: Managing Director - Chief Credit Officer ASEAN at Standard CharteredOne of the multiple high ranking Trust Bank members to have started out in India, Lalit Lohia spent 13 years working for Citi and six at Barclays before spending eight years at Standard Chartered.
His three decades of banking experience make him perhaps the most experienced finance professional in the company.
Fredy Aga - Chief Financial Officer
Previous Role: Global head of finance - technology and innovation at Standard CharteredSince moving to Standard Chartered in 1999, Fredy Aga has s been a global head of finance for various divisions in Singapore.
In addition to technology and innovation, he was a head of finance for consumer banking for over a year, and a head of finance for risk and compliance for over five years.
Natalia Goh - Chief Operating Officer
Previous Role: Managing Director, Head of Credit Cards and Unsecured Lending, SingaporeHarvard graduate Natalia Goh has spent the last 14 years working for Standard Chartered.
Her area of speciality appears to be credit cards, having been an executive director and head of product for credit cards prior to her managing director role.
Kartikay Doval - Head of Project Management
Previous Role: Director, Digital Payments & MultiCurrency solutions at Standard CharteredAnother senior member with lots of experience outside Standard Chartered, Kartikay Doval began his career at Citi for 6 years before jumping around banks including Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, Citi again and Standard Chartered a second time.
Doval spent nearly six years at Standard Chartered in his second stint but perhaps a more impressive role was his previous one: delivery & deployment head for Citibank Online in Asia and Australia.
Sandesh Hegde - Head of Risk and Core Operations
Previous Role: Regional Head- ASA Risk Operation and Head Process Controls and Systems at Standard CharteredSandesh Hegde spent more time at one company than anyone else at Trust Bank. He spent over 25 years at Standard Chartered before assuming his role there.
The position in which he spent the most time was head of process controls & systems - risk operations, He spent five years in the role following his move from Botswana to Singapore.
Nick Woodruff - Chief of Staff
Previous Role: Global chief of staff - treasury at Standard CharteredOriginally based out of London, Nick Woodruff spent six years at Barclays before moving to PR firm FGS Global.
Woodruff then moved to Singapore and joined Standard Chartered in 2010 and worked there for over a decade. In addition to his chief of staff role, he also spent three months simultaneously acting as chief product officer.
Rajit Maiti - Head Of Operational & Fraud Risk
Previous Role: Executive Director & Head of operational risk - Consumer, Private and Business BankingA risk specialist, Rajit Maiti has spent over 18 years at Standard Chartered and acted as a head of risk for a variety of departments.
Amongst those are the retail banking, retail distribution and brand and marketing teams in Singapore.
Another wave of CECA "talent" coming: this time in AI and data science.
Companies in almost every field are staffing up on AI talent to avoid getting blindsided by shifts in their industries. PHOTO: REUTERS
May 4, 2023
NEW DELHI – Mr Aditya Chopra is not looking for a new job, but recruiters keep calling him anyway. The 36-year-old data-science specialist works in artificial intelligence, perhaps the most coveted experience on the planet after OpenAI demonstrated the breakthroughs of ChatGPT.
Mr Chopra, who works outside of New Delhi, sees friends in the field get pay hikes of 35 per cent to 50 per cent each time they switch jobs. “There’s a real shortage of data and AI talent,” he said.
An AI hiring frenzy is ricocheting around the world, from Silicon Valley to Europe, Asia and beyond.
While tech giants like Google and Baidu dangle top-notch packages for the engineers to build their own AI engines, companies in almost every other field – from healthcare and finance to entertainment – are staffing up too, to avoid getting blindsided by shifts in their industries.
India, perhaps more than any other country, illustrates how the rush for talent is outstripping supply. The country of 1.4 billion people has long been the back office for the tech industry, a source of reinforcements for any emergency.
But now even the world’s most populous nation is running out of the data scientists, machine-learning specialists and skilled engineers that companies are looking for.
There is an “insatiable need for talent”, said Mr Rahul Shah, co-founder of WalkWater Talent Advisors, a headhunter for top-level workers. “AI can’t be outsourced, it’s core to the organisation.”
Recruitment stories verge on the absurd. In one search Mr Shah’s firm just handled, the new employer more than doubled a candidate’s pay. Mr Freedom Dumlao, chief technology officer of Flexcar, interviewed one engineer who said a rival suitor had offered him a BMW motorcycle as a sign-on bonus.
“That’s a line I’m not comfortable approaching,” Mr Dumlao said.
India’s tech industry is built on a plentiful supply of affordable workers. Companies like Tata Consultancy Services invented the model for modern outsourcing, in which Western companies tap engineers halfway around the world to handle support, services and software, typically at a fraction of the cost of local workers.
There are now more than five million people employed in tech services in India, according to the trade group Nasscom.
Powerhouses like Google, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com set up their own operations in India, hiring locals by the thousands. Google, now part of Alphabet, started with five employees in the country in 2004 and now employs nearly 10,000.
But this seemingly endless supply of labour is running short in critical fields. There are about 416,000 people working in AI and data science in the country – and demand for another 213,000, according to Nasscom’s estimates.
“The proportion of unfilled job roles is approximately 51 per cent of the current installed talent base,” it said in a February report, flagging the crunch as a risk to growth.
It is likely to get worse. India added 66 tech innovation centres, so-called global capability centres (GCC) or captives, last year taking the total to nearly 1,600.
These GCCs that used to handle tasks like IT support and customer support have morphed into in-house centres for business-critical technology – like AI.
In the first three months of 2023, asset manager AllianceBernstein Holding, car rental company Avis Budget Group, entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros Discovery and aircraft engine maker Pratt & Whitney set up research and development hubs in Bangalore, joining the likes of Goldman Sachs Group and Walmart.
“ChatGPT has driven the larger domain of artificial intelligence out of stealth mode,” said Mr Vikram Ahuja, co-founder of ANSR Consulting, which helps design and establish technology centres for corporations.
Last year, Dallas-headquartered ANSR set up 18 such captives in India; Mr Ahuja expects that number to hit 25 this year. “Many enterprises which have India captives are accelerating their AI road map to derive a competitive edge.”
Companies large and small are trying to figure out how AI will affect their fates. Can ChatGPT predict future demand with newfound accuracy? Will deep learning technologies prove better at medical diagnosis than any doctor today? Could trading algorithms be fine-tuned to the point finance companies with the best technologies will drive their rivals out of business?
“The talent crunch is going to worsen in the next year or two,” said Mr Biswajeet Mahapatra, principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc.
India has the second-largest pool of highly skilled AI, machine learning and big data talent, according to the February report by Nasscom, after the United States. It produces 16 per cent of the world’s AI talent pool, placing it among the top three talent markets with the US and China.
Mr Dumlao of Flexcar, a Boston-based car subscription startup, says that is not enough. He has been hunkering down in Bangalore for the past three months trying to assemble a team of data engineers and computer-vision specialists for the start-up’s data science hub in the city.
Flexcar’s team of 60 engineers helps build AI applications to automatically detect damage when vehicles are returned. The start-up has embraced ChatGPT and is piloting a chatbot to help technicians diagnose and fix vehicles by querying trained bots.
“Bangalore has incredible data engineering talent and the AI talent hunt is only going to intensify,” said Mr Dumlao. The tricky thing is to persuade prized engineers that his start-up is their most attractive option. “The freshest ideas and the newest innovations will sprout wherever there’s a concentration of talent,” he said.
Mr Dumlao’s competitors come in all shapes and sizes. Chilean retailer Falabella SA is the first Latin American company to open a captive in India for data analytics, AI and machine learning. “We have to compete with the best of the best,” said Mr Ashish Grover, its Santiago-based chief information officer.
The efforts are paying off: a personalised customer platform now accounts for over half the incremental sales from digital targeting. An AI-fuelled recommendation engine has driven three times more conversions on its mobile app.
Home improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos’ captive tech centre in Bangalore helps embed AI into its products, and all its technology will be built “AI first,” said Mr Ankur Mittal, managing director of Lowe’s India. For instance, the team’s predictive algorithms help decide pricing, and fine-tune search features on Lowes.com.
The Bangalore hub’s AI-powered computer vision uses videos and imagery from store cameras to help address shoplifting and analyse store footfalls.
This being India, many workers are trying to retrain themselves to land a coveted job in AI. Data engineer Deepak Kapoor, who works for a start-up called Thinkbumblebee Analytics, is studying up on computer vision and large language models to move into deep learning, where job opportunities are plentiful. He thinks he could easily double his salary in a city like Bangalore.
Mr Mahapatra, Forrester’s adviser to global chief information officers, anticipates years of rising demand for skilled workers. India is certain to benefit from the rush to high employees who understand this new world.
“We haven’t even touched the tip of the AI iceberg,” he says. BLOOMBERG
Fierce AI talent war shifts to India with salaries being doubled
Companies in almost every field are staffing up on AI talent to avoid getting blindsided by shifts in their industries. PHOTO: REUTERS
May 4, 2023
NEW DELHI – Mr Aditya Chopra is not looking for a new job, but recruiters keep calling him anyway. The 36-year-old data-science specialist works in artificial intelligence, perhaps the most coveted experience on the planet after OpenAI demonstrated the breakthroughs of ChatGPT.
Mr Chopra, who works outside of New Delhi, sees friends in the field get pay hikes of 35 per cent to 50 per cent each time they switch jobs. “There’s a real shortage of data and AI talent,” he said.
An AI hiring frenzy is ricocheting around the world, from Silicon Valley to Europe, Asia and beyond.
While tech giants like Google and Baidu dangle top-notch packages for the engineers to build their own AI engines, companies in almost every other field – from healthcare and finance to entertainment – are staffing up too, to avoid getting blindsided by shifts in their industries.
India, perhaps more than any other country, illustrates how the rush for talent is outstripping supply. The country of 1.4 billion people has long been the back office for the tech industry, a source of reinforcements for any emergency.
But now even the world’s most populous nation is running out of the data scientists, machine-learning specialists and skilled engineers that companies are looking for.
There is an “insatiable need for talent”, said Mr Rahul Shah, co-founder of WalkWater Talent Advisors, a headhunter for top-level workers. “AI can’t be outsourced, it’s core to the organisation.”
Recruitment stories verge on the absurd. In one search Mr Shah’s firm just handled, the new employer more than doubled a candidate’s pay. Mr Freedom Dumlao, chief technology officer of Flexcar, interviewed one engineer who said a rival suitor had offered him a BMW motorcycle as a sign-on bonus.
“That’s a line I’m not comfortable approaching,” Mr Dumlao said.
India’s tech industry is built on a plentiful supply of affordable workers. Companies like Tata Consultancy Services invented the model for modern outsourcing, in which Western companies tap engineers halfway around the world to handle support, services and software, typically at a fraction of the cost of local workers.
There are now more than five million people employed in tech services in India, according to the trade group Nasscom.
Powerhouses like Google, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com set up their own operations in India, hiring locals by the thousands. Google, now part of Alphabet, started with five employees in the country in 2004 and now employs nearly 10,000.
But this seemingly endless supply of labour is running short in critical fields. There are about 416,000 people working in AI and data science in the country – and demand for another 213,000, according to Nasscom’s estimates.
“The proportion of unfilled job roles is approximately 51 per cent of the current installed talent base,” it said in a February report, flagging the crunch as a risk to growth.
It is likely to get worse. India added 66 tech innovation centres, so-called global capability centres (GCC) or captives, last year taking the total to nearly 1,600.
These GCCs that used to handle tasks like IT support and customer support have morphed into in-house centres for business-critical technology – like AI.
In the first three months of 2023, asset manager AllianceBernstein Holding, car rental company Avis Budget Group, entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros Discovery and aircraft engine maker Pratt & Whitney set up research and development hubs in Bangalore, joining the likes of Goldman Sachs Group and Walmart.
“ChatGPT has driven the larger domain of artificial intelligence out of stealth mode,” said Mr Vikram Ahuja, co-founder of ANSR Consulting, which helps design and establish technology centres for corporations.
Last year, Dallas-headquartered ANSR set up 18 such captives in India; Mr Ahuja expects that number to hit 25 this year. “Many enterprises which have India captives are accelerating their AI road map to derive a competitive edge.”
Companies large and small are trying to figure out how AI will affect their fates. Can ChatGPT predict future demand with newfound accuracy? Will deep learning technologies prove better at medical diagnosis than any doctor today? Could trading algorithms be fine-tuned to the point finance companies with the best technologies will drive their rivals out of business?
“The talent crunch is going to worsen in the next year or two,” said Mr Biswajeet Mahapatra, principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc.
India has the second-largest pool of highly skilled AI, machine learning and big data talent, according to the February report by Nasscom, after the United States. It produces 16 per cent of the world’s AI talent pool, placing it among the top three talent markets with the US and China.
Mr Dumlao of Flexcar, a Boston-based car subscription startup, says that is not enough. He has been hunkering down in Bangalore for the past three months trying to assemble a team of data engineers and computer-vision specialists for the start-up’s data science hub in the city.
Flexcar’s team of 60 engineers helps build AI applications to automatically detect damage when vehicles are returned. The start-up has embraced ChatGPT and is piloting a chatbot to help technicians diagnose and fix vehicles by querying trained bots.
“Bangalore has incredible data engineering talent and the AI talent hunt is only going to intensify,” said Mr Dumlao. The tricky thing is to persuade prized engineers that his start-up is their most attractive option. “The freshest ideas and the newest innovations will sprout wherever there’s a concentration of talent,” he said.
Mr Dumlao’s competitors come in all shapes and sizes. Chilean retailer Falabella SA is the first Latin American company to open a captive in India for data analytics, AI and machine learning. “We have to compete with the best of the best,” said Mr Ashish Grover, its Santiago-based chief information officer.
The efforts are paying off: a personalised customer platform now accounts for over half the incremental sales from digital targeting. An AI-fuelled recommendation engine has driven three times more conversions on its mobile app.
Home improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos’ captive tech centre in Bangalore helps embed AI into its products, and all its technology will be built “AI first,” said Mr Ankur Mittal, managing director of Lowe’s India. For instance, the team’s predictive algorithms help decide pricing, and fine-tune search features on Lowes.com.
The Bangalore hub’s AI-powered computer vision uses videos and imagery from store cameras to help address shoplifting and analyse store footfalls.
This being India, many workers are trying to retrain themselves to land a coveted job in AI. Data engineer Deepak Kapoor, who works for a start-up called Thinkbumblebee Analytics, is studying up on computer vision and large language models to move into deep learning, where job opportunities are plentiful. He thinks he could easily double his salary in a city like Bangalore.
Mr Mahapatra, Forrester’s adviser to global chief information officers, anticipates years of rising demand for skilled workers. India is certain to benefit from the rush to high employees who understand this new world.
“We haven’t even touched the tip of the AI iceberg,” he says. BLOOMBERG
CECA Indians only good in stirring shits, making a big mess in a company
Whistleblower calls out alleged unfair hiring practices in Singapore banking industry
ByTerry Xu
-
May 19, 2023
167
An anonymous whistleblower, working in the banking sector, has voiced serious concerns over senior staff appointments within Citibank’s Singapore branch from India, suggesting that the bank may be overlooking potentially viable local candidates.
The whistleblower, who chose to stay anonymous due to job security concerns in her present local bank, detailed alleged instances of favoritism at Citibank. She drew inspiration from a GRAB delivery rider who openly challenged the issue of foreigners displacing Singaporeans in the job market. Despite disagreeing with his approach, she commended his determination in confronting such biases.
According to her source, the Global Functions head, operating from Citibank’s Changi Business Park, had recruited two Senior Vice Presidents (SVPs) from India. She noted that these SVPs continued to recruit more India-based staff, to work in India for the Global Functions Head in Singapore.
“This cronyism needs to stop. Singaporeans need to start reporting on these abuses of power,” the whistleblower stressed.
Her contact’s concern heightened when one of the Indian SVPs, having served Citibank India for two years and 11 months – of which eight months was as SVP, was transferred to Singapore in February 2023, which incurred significantly higher costs than their original salary in India.
The bank, however, did not advertise the position or interview any local candidates, which seemed contradictory – to the whistleblower – to the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP)’s recommendations.
She highlighted, “The salary of a typical SVP in Singapore is around 20,000 SGD p/mth. This transfer is blatant cronyism in its simplest form.”
However, under current regulations, a company does not have to advertise the position if it is an intra-company transfer from overseas. Such transfers also do not affect the company’s quota for foreign staff.
It should also be noted that the fixed monthly salary of the job position is more than S$20,000, it too will be exempted from the requirement to advertise job vacancies on the Singapore jobs search portal MyCareersFuture.sg.
Despite her attempts to escalate these issues through Citibank’s Ethics website, she was disappointed by the lack of substantial response. Her concerns over anonymity were also heightened as she was directed to reach out to a specific Citibank representative for more details.
“All of the CEOs in the companies pretend to have a sizeable local demographic of permanent staff when there is also a sizeable foreign demographic of contract staff. I have been in both banking and non-banking companies and heard many stories from friends in especially the banking sector,” said the whistleblower.
“Changi Business Park is the worst case because about 3/4 of the employees there are not local. In all celebratory functions, the locals are the minority and it is very visible. For contract staff, who are majority not local, their employment agencies are all from India. Tata Consultancy Services, Virtusa, Larsen and Toubro, Nityo Infotech, HCL, etc.”
“You can see how easy it is for an Indian to come to Singapore and get a job through a contract role and work their way up to a permanent position. If Singaporeans just take an MRT to Expo MRT station in the morning on weekdays and just have a coffee near the bus stop there, your eyes will be opened wide. It is like you are in a different country”
She noted that the influx of foreign talents began in the early 2000s, and two decades later, one would expect that locals, after gaining the requisite skills and experience, would occupy top IT positions and manage these foreign professionals. However, contrary to expectations, it’s the foreign talents who continue to dominate top management positions, overseeing both their foreign peers and local staff.
The whistleblower expressed her deep-rooted concerns about the current situation and the future of the banking sector in Singapore, saying, “If this is the future of Singapore, I’m just biding my time to migrate to another country that values me. Being a PR in this country is sufficient enough to enjoy the fruits of labour of the country’s prosperity and success”
When asked about the possibility of Singaporeans not being able to fill up the position and therefore requiring the intra-transfer, the whistleblower said she does not believe that Singaporeans cannot do the job that the SVP can do.
The whistleblower provided several reasons to support her allegations:
- Firstly, she pointed out that the new Senior Vice President graduated from a university in a third-world country – her Masters degree also from an unrenowned institution. She suggested that it’s implausible that a Singaporean graduate from a top-rated local university couldn’t perform her job for a S$20,000 salary. Particularly considering that the role is a typical project manager position. For perspective, the SVP’s university ranks #521-530 in the QS World University Rankings 2023, whereas the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) occupy the 11th and 19th spots, respectively.
- The whistleblower questioned the true intentions behind her transfer to Singapore. She was able to manage her work remotely from India during the pandemic, however, transferring to Singapore effectively doubled her salary and burdening projects with unnecessary costs when that funding could have been allocated to local support for the projects. Instead, corporate transfers occur seemingly without hindrance, driving up costs such as housing rental and living expenses. These individuals can maintain their cost of living comfortably with a S$20k salary. If she sets a precedent for this department, she warns, it will inevitably lead to similar transfers from the rest of the Indian team under this new Global Functions Head.
- Lastly, she voiced concerns about Singaporeans not being given the opportunity to showcase their capabilities as job positions are not being advertised. The whistleblower shared personal experiences of applying for jobs in banks like Citi, DBS, Standard Chartered only to be told that most of the positions are already filled. She claimed that these banks simply post the positions online on platforms like LinkedIn and MyCareersFuture.sg to comply with regulations, but in her view, this is simply a façade in Singapore’s context. To add to the insult, she claimed, local human resource executives are unwittingly participating in this show. They source local candidates, prompt them to apply for the positions, conduct interviews, only to waste the candidates’ time because the hiring managers have already selected their foreign candidates.
Looking back, then-Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Tharman Shanmugaratnam stressed in 2013 the need for Singaporeans to secure top banking jobs.
Mr Tharman said, “It’s making sure there is a good spread of opportunities for Singaporeans within the different banking functions.”
Even as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) pledged to cultivate a “Singaporean core” in the financial industry, calling for the financial institutions here that they must commit to growing the local talent pool in 2020, the whistleblower argues that the issue persists.
The whistleblower also expresses frustration over the difficulty of broaching this subject in Parliament or the media due to the immediate accusations of racism and xenophobia.
The whistleblower questions, “How can we bring attention to and tackle this matter without being accused of xenophobia or racism?”
Citibank has been approached multiple times by TOC regarding the intra-transfer hire, but the attempts have been met with redirections to different departments and a lack of concrete responses.
The anonymous whistleblower’s concerns highlight the pressing issue of the need for fair and equitable hiring practices within Singapore’s banking sector.
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