Indian immigrant- Naraina Pillai

Naraina Pillai was a social entrepreneur and businessman, who spent most of his life in Singapore 

during the colonial period. Of Tamil origins, he greatly contributed to the Tamil community in Singapore. In 1819, he worked in Penang, which was ruled by the British. He met Stamford Raffled, who was a senior official of the British East India Company, who was keen to establish a new trading post at the southern end of the Straits of Malacca. In Penang, Raffles persuaded Pillai to join him and to work at his new settlement. Pillai arrived in Singapore with Raffles in 1819 on the ship " Indiana ", making him one of the first Tamil men to set foot there.He started his career there as a chief clerk at the government Treasury, where he verified the authenticity of currency. However, he soon moved on to become a successful entrepeneur and community leader in his own right.