Singapore: AstaGuru Launches Indian Art Sale as BJP Eyes Kolkata Street Renames
India's premier online auction house AstaGuru has opened its inaugural Singapore exhibition, showcasing works by four celebrated Indian masters and signalling growing commercial interest in the South Asian art market across Southeast Asia. Simultaneously, political developments in West Bengal are drawing the attention of Singapore's South Asian diaspora, as the BJP's newly elected state government considers renaming Kolkata streets that honour Communist leaders including Lenin, Karl Marx and Ho Chi Minh.
🎬 AstaGuru Opens Singapore's First Indian Art Exhibition with Modern Masters
India's leading online auction house AstaGuru has chosen Singapore as its second international outpost after opening a London office in May, with a US branch planned for the first quarter of 2027. The house, which commands approximately forty per cent of India's auction market, inaugurated its new Somerset offices at Winsland House II with a public exhibition of more than twenty works by four distinguished modern Indian masters: M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza, Krishen Khanna and South Indian artist Thota Vaikuntam. All three of the first artists are key figures in the celebrated Bombay Progressive Artists' Group. For Krishen Khanna, the house has selected his iconic series of bandwallas, or Indian wedding brass-band musicians, rendered without individual faces and with a palpably downcast bearing that invites emotional connection from viewers across cultures. Gallery assistant Sneha Chaudhury notes that Thota Vaikuntam's vividly coloured rural figures, with their intricate hand gestures, richly patterned saris and bold bindis, are immediately familiar to Singaporean audiences because of the large South Indian community that calls the city home. AstaGuru is betting on this combination of cultural resonance and artistic prestige to build a collector base in Singapore ahead of a planned full auction event following the exhibition. [2]
🗳️ BJP West Bengal Considers Renaming Kolkata Streets Honouring Lenin, Marx and Ho Chi Minh
India's newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal is considering renaming several Kolkata streets that received Communist-era names under previous left-wing state administrations. A ten-member committee led by Swami Pradiptananda has received proposals targeting streets named after Lenin, Karl Marx and Ho Chi Minh. Senior committee member Tathagata Roy, a former governor of Tripura and Meghalaya, told AFP that renaming those streets was certain. The streets were originally renamed in the 1970s when West Bengal was governed by the Communist Party. Ho Chi Minh Sarani, once known as Harrington Street after a British colonial official, was renamed to express opposition to the United States, whose consulate is located on the road; Roy suggested it might be renamed in honour of Martin Luther King Jr. Lenin Sarani, formerly Dharmatala Street, was renamed in 1970 to mark the centenary of Lenin's birth, and Roy proposed honouring mathematician Debaprasad Ghosh instead. Karl Marx Sarani could be renamed after the nineteenth-century Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt. The BJP won power in West Bengal for the first time in May, ending fifteen years of Trinamool Congress rule and positioning the party to reshape the symbolic landscape of Kolkata's streets in line with its Hindu-nationalist agenda. [1]
🏢 Indian Travellers Gain UPI Payment Access at Singapore's Resorts World Sentosa
Indian travellers visiting Singapore can now use the Unified Payments Interface to book and pay online for attractions and experiences at Resorts World Sentosa, one of the island's premier integrated resort destinations. The expanded UPI acceptance covers popular venues including Universal Studios Singapore, offering a significant convenience boost for Indian visitors who rely on the widely used domestic payment platform. The development reflects a broader trend of Singapore tourism operators adapting their payment infrastructure to accommodate the needs of Indian visitors, who represent one of the most important and rapidly growing source markets for the city-state. UPI, operated by the National Payments Corporation of India, enables users to transfer funds instantly between bank accounts using a mobile application, and its international acceptance has been spreading across Southeast Asia in recent years. For Indian tourists, the ability to use a familiar domestic payment method removes a key logistical hurdle at one of Singapore's most visited leisure destinations. The integration at Resorts World Sentosa is a commercial signal of the growing recognition of India's digital payment ecosystem and the spending power of Indian travellers in Singapore's tourism sector, further strengthening the financial and hospitality ties between the two countries. [5]
🤝 Singapore Courts Jail Indian National for Elaborate Chinatown Diamond Heist
A Singapore court has sentenced Serasiya Milan Ramnikbhai, a 30-year-old Indian national, to 26 months and two weeks in prison for his role in a diamond heist in the Chinatown area of the city-state. Ramnikbhai had concealed a custom-made fake gemstone in his mouth, entered a jewellery business, and covertly swapped the replica for a genuine diamond valued at approximately US$154,000 before hiding the real stone in his own mouth as he departed the premises. He and an accomplice were apprehended at Singapore's airport as they attempted to leave the country following the theft. Ramnikbhai pleaded guilty to a charge of theft with common intention. The case attracted wide attention because of the elaborate method employed: the fake diamond had to be crafted with sufficient precision to evade immediate detection by the jeweller during the transaction. Singapore courts have a well-established record of applying firm custodial sentences for property crime regardless of the nationality of the accused, and the verdict reflects the city-state's consistent approach to law enforcement. The case also prompted broader discussion about security practices at jewellery retailers in Singapore and the risks posed by sophisticated substitution techniques to high-value gem traders operating in the market. [6]
Sources: [2] The Straits Times · [1] Yahoo News Singapore · [5] ET TravelWorld · [6] South China Morning Post