The Prince of Wales was greeted with a rock star welcome at the Jewel Changi Airport, where crowds cheered and waved homemade signs and Union Jack flags. The heir to the British throne arrived in Singapore for the third annual Earthshot Prize ceremony, a competition he launched to encourage inventors and entrepreneurs to develop technologies to combat climate change. During his four-day trip, he will meet with local groups that have developed solutions to environmental problems.
The award, announced on Tuesday, will recognize the most promising start-ups whose innovations show that hope is still possible as the world struggles with climate change. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Singapore, which Britain’s Prince William chose because of its role as a hub for cutting-edge innovation and entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia.
Among the companies to receive the award are an Indian maker of solar-powered dryers, a soil carbon marketplace and groups that help make electric car batteries cleaner and restore Andean forests. The winners also include an international non-profit that helps bolster enforcement to deter illegal fishing and a global platform that connects investors with socially conscious projects.
Other books on the shortlist of the 2021 NUS Singapore History Prize, which was curated by historian Kishore Mahbubani, include Seven Hundred Years: A History Of Singapore (2019) by Kwa Chong Guan and Tan Tai Yong; State Of Emergency (2017) by Jeremy Tiang; Sembawang (2020) by Kamaladevi Aravindan; and Home Is Where We Are (2021) by Meira Chand. The citation for Leluhur: Singapore Kampong Glam, which was awarded to writer Hidayah Amin, said that the book is both a synthesis of research and a primary source because it draws heavily from Ms Hidayah’s personal inputs.
Ms Hidayah, who grew up in the Gedung Kuning area of Kampong Glam, spent five years working on her book. The NUS prize committee, which included eminent historians and archaeologists, described her work as “elegantly crafted” and “well-researched”. The prize was first mooted by Professor Mahbubani in a 2014 column for The Straits Times. He hoped that it would “increase public awareness of Singapore’s rich and complex past.”