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DEVAN, Janadas

DEVAN, Janadas

DEVAN, Janadas
贾纳达斯蒂凡

Director, Institute of Policy Studies

Janadas Devan, Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, was educated at the National University of Singapore and Cornell University in the United States. He taught English in various institutions in Singapore and the US, and later wrote for various publications in the region, before joining The Straits Times in 1997.

He served as the paper’s leader writer for many years, writing unsigned editorials on a wide variety of subjects; wrote a weekly column on politics and economics, in which he covered international and domestic developments; and a column on language for The Sunday Times. In 2008, he became the editor of the paper’s opinion pages, and in 2010, became the paper’s Associate Editor. He also did a weekly radio broadcast, “Call from America”, for Radio Singapore International, from 2000 to 2008, on American life and society. 

He left The Straits Times in July 2012 on being appointed the Government’s Chief of Communications at the Ministry of Communications and Information. 

He relinquished his role as Government’s Chief of Communications in March 2023. He remains Deputy Secretary (Prime Minister’s Office) and Senior Advisor (Government Communications) in MCI. He was also appointed Chairman of the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) with effect from April 2023.

Publications

  • Devan, J. (2008). Why the Western media dominates. In C. George (Ed.),  Free markets free media?: Reflections on the political economy of the press in Asia.  Singapore: Asian Media, Information and Communication Centre and Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University.
  • Devan, J. (2007). Odd man in. In K. P. Tan (Ed.),  Renaissance Singapore? Economy, culture, and politics (pp.37—44) Singapore: NUS Press.

Op-eds/Commentaries

Speeches

Awards

  • The Public Administration Medal, Gold (2017). National Day Awards.
  • Clark Distinguished Teaching Award (1988). Awarded by Cornell University.

Committees/Directorships

  • Director, Institute of Policy Studies (2011- Present)