Singapore's STB signs pact with IndiGo to boost tourism and travel
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The Singapore Tourism Board has signed an initial pact with domestic carrier IndiGo to boost tourism and travel between the two countries, a statement said on Thursday.Under the year-long strategic pact, the two partners will promote the island-city nation as a leading leisure and business destination for Indian travellers and boost bookings through the airline's extensive network, it said.India, according to STB, remains one of Singapore's top three tourism source markets, building on its strong performance in 2024.The collaboration is the first memorandum of understanding (MoU) with an Indian airline, and IndiGo's first with a national tourism board.In the first half of 2025, Indian visitor arrivals exceeded 5,00,000, supported by excellent air connectivity, as per STB.More than 270 weekly flights connect Singapore to 15 Indian cities via Changi Airport."As we celebrate 60 years of India-Singapore diplomatic relations in 2025, our expanded collaboration with IndiGo and the launch of the year-long 'Untold Singapore' campaign positions us to harness the potential of India's dynamic travel market," said Melissa Ow, Chief Executive, Singapore Tourism Board.By leveraging IndiGo's extensive network and Singapore's diverse offerings, STB is set to capture the growing demand, she added.The Gurugram-based airline plans to launch its tailor-made business class offering IndiGoStretch on flights connecting Singapore to Delhi and Mumbai, starting August 9, coinciding with Singapore's National Day, the statement said.Additionally, with flights from 9 destinations and seamless connections across its network, IndiGo is well positioned to cater to growing demand on these routes, it added."There is great demand for existing connectivity between the two countries and potential for more. With flights from nine destinations and seamless connections across our network, we are well positioned to cater to growing demand on these routes, With our recent introduction of IndiGoStretch," said Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo, said.
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India has been pinning hope on the US to maintain a 10-20 per cent differential with China, which will help New Delhi tide over some of its structural downsides, namely infrastructural bottlenecks, logistics woes, high interest cost, the cost of doing business, corruption, etc. India is closely tracking the effective duty on Chinese products on a landed basis across US ports, particularly in commodity categories, where Indian producers are reasonably competitive, to identify potential export opportunities. However, US and Chinese officials announced no breakthrough after wrapping up two days of discussions in Stockholm on Tuesday, except Beijing saying that the two sides agreed to push for an extension of a 90-day tariff truce struck in mid-May. It is argued that in the case of the US-India trade deal, indications are that the outer time limit, currently pegged at around October from New Delhi's perspective, could be brought forward, if fresh negotiations are positive from India's point of view. Once the interim deal is clinched, if the final US headline tariff on India ends up between 10 per cent and 15 per cent, the tariff points offered to the UK and Japan, respectively, New Delhi would have reasons to be satisfied. But the advantage starts to taper off once the tariff goes over 15 per cent and inches up closer to 20 per cent, as was offered to Vietnam. A trans-shipment clause, of the kind slapped on Vietnam which levies an additional 20 per cent tariff, could be a problem for India too, given that a lot of Indian exports have inputs and intermediate goods in sectors such as pharma, engineering goods and electronics coming in from outside, including China. In a bid to put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine, Trump threatened an unspecified 'penalty' for India for buying Russian oil and weapons, while slapping a secondary tariff of 100 per cent on its oil buyers. Trump said India has always purchased a significant amount of military equipment and energy products from Russia at a time when everyone wants Moscow to stop the 'killing' in Ukraine. He also registered his pet complaint that although India is America's friend, 'we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their (India) tariffs are far too high…' The US President went to the extent of calling the economies of India and Russia 'dead', and said, 'I don't care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care' — seen as offensive by many. Nonetheless, India rebutted Trump tirade by asserting that its 'bilateral relationships with various countries stand on their own merit and should not be seen from the prism of a third country. India and Russia have a steady and time-tested partnership.' Similarly, on buying Russian defence equipment, India asserted that the sourcing of 'defence requirements is determined solely by our national security imperatives and strategic assessments.' While India does depend on Russia for the defence supplies, much of it is because of the legacy from the Soviet Union era. Although the dependency is about 60 to 70 per cent, India has, in the past few years, steadily diversified its defence purchases from countries including the US. India's energy imports from Russia shot up following the country's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which prompted much of the West to ban Russian crude. In the financial year 2024-25, oil imports from Russia accounted for almost 36 per cent of India's total oil imports. In the meantime, data shows Indian refiners had begun cutting down on Russian oil imports, much before Trump's announcement of tariff 'penalty'. The share of Russian crude in India's oil import basket in July contracted notably to around 33.8 per cent from June's 44.5 per cent. It may be recalled here that New Delhi stopped importing oil from Iran in mid-2019 after sanctions on the Islamic Republic by the Trump administration. As part of its latest 'maximum pressure campaign' action against Iran's energy trade and shipping network, the US this week sanctioned eight India-based companies and five Indian nationals. Frustrated with Russia's intransigence to meet his August 8 deadline to end the war in Ukraine, US President Trump ordered two nuclear submarines to be moved closer to Russia, announced tariffs on its oil buyers, and said details were being hammered out to supply Ukraine with weapons using funds from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Trump's decision to move two Nuclear Submarines closer to Russia came after what he dubbed 'foolish and inflammatory statements' from Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian President and currently deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council. Medvedev told Trump to remember 'how dangerous the fabled 'Dead Hand' can be', a reference to a secretive semi-automated Russian command system designed to launch Moscow's nuclear missiles if its leadership had been taken out in a decapitating strike by a foe. He also called Trump's threat of hitting Russia and buyers of its oil with punitive tariffs 'a game of ultimatums' and a step closer towards a war between Russia and the US, Reuters reported. On Tuesday (July 29), Trump cut short the deadline for Russia, giving it '10 days from today' to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or be hit, along with its oil buyers (of which the biggest are China and India), with tariffs. Meanwhile, the US and NATO are also working on a novel approach to supply Ukraine with weapons using funds from NATO countries to pay for the purchase or transfer of US arms, Reuters reported citing three sources familiar with the matter. Nonetheless, Moscow appears unlikely to comply with the US deadline, and has set out its own terms for peace, which Kyiv says amount to demanding its capitulation. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday (August 1) that Moscow hoped for more peace talks with Ukraine but that the momentum of the war was in its favour, signalling no shift in his stance despite a looming sanctions deadline from Washington. During the last peace talks, Russia rejected Ukraine's offer of an unconditional ceasefire and rather demanded its capitulation to its conditions. Moscow currently controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory and insists Kyiv must relinquish it, envisioning a permanently 'neutral' Ukraine. Kyiv, on the other hand, demands a full Russian withdrawal, alongside NATO membership. Trump deployed the familiar tactic of economic pressure even in Gaza and threatened Canada that signing a US trade deal would now be 'very hard' after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the plan to recognise a Palestinian state. Canada's move came after France and the UK said they will recognise the Palestinian state at September's UN General Assembly meeting. However, such moves demand closer scrutiny, particularly because Israel has faced little restraint in its deadly strike in Gaza, where international experts say a 'worst-case scenario of famine' is playing out. Two historical agreements merit close attention here: the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) and the Balfour Declaration of (1917). The former was a secret agreement between France and Britain involving the division of territories of the Ottoman empire after WWI, while the latter laid the foundation for a 'Jewish national home' in Palestine in exchange for the support of the European Jews for Britain in WWI. It is argued that the creation of an independent State of Israel in May 1948, and its success in fending off five Arab states, meant that the Balfour Declaration's contradictory promises catalysed a conflict that continues to bring devastation to the West Asian region. Over a century later, the UK has said it would move to recognise Palestinian statehood if Israel fails to meet a set of conditions – agreeing to a ceasefire, a two-state solution, and halting its de facto annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank. However, the question remains: if Israel meets all the conditions, will the UK not recognise Palestinian statehood? It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call the chorus from parts of the West more a pressure tactic to push Israel into accepting a ceasefire than a genuine commitment to recognise the state of Palestine. Notably, 147 of 193 UN member states, including India, have formally recognised the State of Palestine. Nonetheless, amid pressure tactics and verbal assurances, the fate of more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza hangs in the balance, with reports of Israel's continued deadly attacks, starvation deaths, and warning of 'worst-case scenario of famine'. In the meantime, US President Trump's Mideast envoy on Friday (August 1) visited a food distribution site in Gaza operated by an Israeli-backed American contractor, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Media reports have highlighted that aid-seeking Palestinians have been attacked nearly-daily at GHF-operated aid sites, prompting severe criticism from the UN and other Arab nations questioning the credibility of the organisation. In a report issued on Friday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said GHF was at the heart of a 'flawed, militarised aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths,' Reuters reported. At least 24 people, including 13 aid seekers, have been killed on Saturday (August 2) in Israeli attacks across Gaza, while two more children and an adult have died due to 'famine and malnutrition', bringing the number of deaths from starvation in the territory to 162, including 92 children, Al Jazeera reported citing the enclave's Health Ministry. Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 60,332 people and wounded 147,643 others. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attack, and more than 200 were taken captive. Send your feedback and ideas to Ashiya Parveen is working as Commissioning Editor for the UPSC Section at The Indian Express. She also writes a weekly round up of global news, The World This Week. Ashiya has more than 10 years of experience in editing and writing spanning media and academics, and has both academic and journalistic publications to her credit. She has previously worked with The Pioneer and Press Trust of India (PTI). She also holds a PhD in international studies from Centre for West Asian Studies, JNU. ... Read More
