Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Dinesh Vasu Dash
Singaporean politician From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Dinesh Vasu Dash (born 11 November 1974)[1] is a Singaporean politician, former civil servant and brigadier-general. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been serving as Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth, Minister of State for Manpower and Mayor of South East District since 2025.
.jpg)
Remove ads
Early life
Dash is a third-generation Singaporean with ancestral roots in Varkala, Kerala. His paternal grandfather ran a small business servicing the British naval base in Sembawang in the 1960s, while his maternal family lived in Malaysia before settling in Singapore.[3]
Dash grew up in a one-room flat at the police quarters in Pearl's Hill. He lived with his parents, brother and grandmother. They later moved to a three-room Housing and Development Board flat along Telok Blangah Rise.[4]
Dinesh's father, a former police officer, had served as the personal security officer to former President Devan Nair and as an alternate officer to former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.[4]
Dash graduated from the Anglo-Chinese Junior College in 1992, and went on to study electrical engineering at the National University of Singapore.[5] He attended the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington, Tamil Nadu for a year between 2006 and 2007.[6][3]
Remove ads
Career
Summarize
Perspective
A member of the People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Bedok division of East Coast GRC since 2025.[7]
Prior to entering politics, he served as the chief executive of the Agency for Integrated Care, Senior Director in the Ministry of Health (Singapore). He oversaw national vaccination operations during the COVID-19 pandemic and the rollout of Healthier SG, a preventive health programme. He served as a Brigadier General commanding 2nd People's Defence Force in the Singapore Armed Forces.[1] During his time in the military, he was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 for eight months. He was the ground commander during the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore in 2018. He also served as the lead coffin bearer, the only Indian, in the state funeral of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 2015.[6] After he retired from the Army, Dash served as CEO of Agency for Integrated Care and served in that role until he resigned in March 2025 to run in that year's general election.[8]
He served as a member of the Advisory Council on Community Relations in Defence (ACCORD). He was also an EXCO member of SINDA and a Board member of the Hindu Advisory Board.[9]
Dash made his political debut in the 2025 general elections where he was fielded in East Coast GRC helmed by Anchor Minister Edwin Tong facing a Workers' Party team led by ex-NCMP Yee Jenn Jong.[10][11][12] His team went on to defeat the WP team with 58.76% of the votes making Dash a MP-elect. He was appointed as Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth, Minister of State for Manpower and Mayor of South East District on 23 May 2025.[13]
Remove ads
Personal life
Dash is married to Rathiga Velaithan, a former cancer researcher in the public sector, and they have three children. He is a fan of heavy metal music and rock music, and plays golf.[9][4]
References
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads