Indranee Thurai Rajah (; born 12 April 1963) is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who has been serving as Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Finance since 2018 and Second Minister for National Development and Leader of the House since 2020. A member of the governing

People's Action Party The People's Action Party (PAP) is a major Conservatism, conservative political party in Singapore and is the governing contemporary political party represented in the Parliament of Singapore, followed by the opposition Workers' Party of Singap ...

(PAP), she was the Member of Parliament (MP), part of the PAP team, representing the

Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency The Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency is a five-member Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in Central and Western Singapore. The five divisions consists: Buona Vista, Telok Blangah, Moulmein-Cairnhill, Tanjong Pagar- Tiong ...

(GRC) between 2001 and 2025 and then as the MP, part of the PAP team, representing Pasir Ris–Changi GRC (GRC) since 2025. Prior to entering politics, Indranee was a lawyer at

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Freshfields LLP (formerly Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, or FBD) is a British multinational law firm headquartered in London, England, and a member of the so-called " Magic Circle". The firm has 28 offices in 17 jurisdictions across Asia, Europ ...

and Drew & Napier. She was appointed Senior Counsel in January 2003. Indranee made her political debut in the 2001 general election as part of a six-member PAP team contesting in

Tanjong Pagar GRC The Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency is a five-member Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in Central Region, Singapore, Central and West Region, Singapore, Western Singapore. The five divisions consists: Buona Vista, Telok Bl ...

and won. She was subsequently elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Tanglin–Cairnhill ward of Tanjong Pagar GRC. After the death of

Minister Mentor Minister Mentor was a position in the Cabinet of Singapore created in 2004 as part of a transition in political leadership. The only person to hold the post, between 2004 and 2011, was Lee Kuan Yew. Background On 12 August 2004, when Lee Hsien ...

Lee Kuan Yew Lee Kuan Yew (born Harry Lee Kuan Yew; 16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean politician who ruled as the first Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. He is widely recognised ...

on 23 March 2015, Indranee also served as the grassroot advisor for the Tiong Bahru ward until the 2015 general election as no by-elections were called due to it being a group representation constituency.

Education

Indranee attended Marymount Convent Primary School, Marymount Convent Secondary School and

Raffles Institution Raffles Institution (RI) is an independent educational institution in Singapore. Founded in 1823, it is the oldest school in the country. It provides secondary education for boys only from Year 1 to Year 4, and pre-university education for both b ...

before graduating from the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

with a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

with honours degree in 1986.

Law career

Indranee began her legal career in 1987 with

. She joined Drew & Napier in 1988 and became a director of the firm in 1991. She was a litigator and had an active court practice as an advocate and solicitor, specialising in cross-border dispute resolution. She was appointed Senior Counsel by Chief Justice Yong Pung How in January 2003.

Political career

Indranee served as Deputy Speaker of Parliament between 2006 and 2011. On 31 July 2012, Indranee was designated as Senior Minister of State for Law and Senior Minister of State for Education before being appointed on 1 November 2012. Indranee led a 12-member committee in 2013 to provide a strategic direction for the planned third law school in Singapore, including its admissions criteria, curriculum development and educational philosophy. On 16 February 2016, the committee which includes the Ministry of Law and Singapore University of Social Sciences, held a joint press conference to announce the opening of the SUSS School of Law. Indranee relinquished her position as Senior Minister of State for Education, before being appointed as Senior Minister of State for Finance on 1 October 2015. On 9 March 2018, Indranee criticised

Workers' Party Workers' Party is a name used by several political parties throughout the world. The name has been used by both organisations on the left and right of the political spectrum. It is currently used by followers of Marxism, Marxism–Leninism, Maoism ...

Member of Parliament

Sylvia Lim Sylvia Lim Swee Lian (; born 28 March 1965) is a Singaporean politician, lawyer, former police officer and former Temasek Polytechnic law lecturer. She has been the chairperson of the Workers' Party (Singapore), Workers' Party (WP) since 2003 a ...

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

after the latter voiced her suspicion on the government's intention to raise the GST in order to extract an apology. The public criticised Indranee and other PAP members for hounding Lim and being narrow-minded, and supported Lim for asking a legitimate question on behalf of her constituents. On 1 May 2018, Indranee was appointed as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Education. She was succeeded by Edwin Tong as Second Minister for Law on 30 June 2018. On 20 August 2020, Indranee was appointed as Leader of the House for the 14th Parliament. On 21 April 2025, PAP announced Indranee to leave Tanjong Pagar GRC to lead a team comprising Sharael Taha, Desmond Tan and Valerie Lee to contest Pasir Ris–Changi GRC.

Personal life

Indranee is the daughter of A. T. Rajah, a former Deputy Commissioner of Police and former President of the Singapore National Olympic Council. Her father was a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

and her mother, an ethnic Chinese, was

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

, and she was raised in her mother's faith.

References

External links

Indranee Rajah
on Prime Minister's Office
Indranee Rajah
on

Parliament of Singapore The Parliament of Singapore is the unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Singapore, Republic of Singapore, which governs the country alongside the President of Singapore. Largely based upon the Westminster system, the Parliament is made ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Indranee Rajah 1963 births Living people Members of the Parliament of Singapore National University of Singapore alumni People's Action Party politicians Singaporean Anglicans Singaporean politicians of Chinese descent Singaporean people of Cantonese descent Singaporean people of Tamil descent Singaporean Senior Counsel Singaporean women in politics Singaporean politicians of Indian descent Singaporean Tamil politicians Women government ministers of Singapore Members of the Cabinet of Singapore Women legislative deputy speakers 20th-century Singaporean lawyers 20th-century Singaporean women lawyers