<P> 11.4% of Indians spoke' other languages' at home (including non-Tamil Indian languages). In contrast, 41.7% of Indians were deemed to be non-Tamil Indians in 2000 . Assuming that most Indians who reported speaking' other languages' were referring to their (non-Tamil) ancestral languages, this would imply that up to a quarter of non-Tamil Indians in Singapore use mainly their ancestral language in the home . </P> <P> Interestingly, about half of Indians in Singapore predominantly use a non-Indian language in the home . 39% spoke mainly English, in contrast to 28.1% nationally . This made English the most spoken language in Indian homes, by a small margin . A further 10.6% of Indians reported speaking mainly Malay in their homes . It is likely that most are Indian Muslims married to ethnic Malays . Although they are counted as Indian in official statistics, a substantial number of these people consider themselves to be ethnically and culturally Malay, and many of them may be racially mixed . </P> <P> Tamil is the most spoken Indian language in Singapore and the only Indian language among Singapore's four official languages, alongside Mandarin, (the language of trade) Malay (the national language) and English (the language of administration), and 3.1% of Singapore residents speak Tamil at home . Singapore is one of the three countries in the world to make Tamil an official language, the others being India and Sri Lanka . </P> <P> As part of Singapore's bilingual education policy, Tamil is offered as a second language option in most public schools . As part of a policy to subsidise minority - language television programming, the government subsidises a free - to - air Tamil television channel (Vasantham). Similarly, as part of the policy of the National Library Board, community lending libraries in Singapore, as well as the national - level Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, maintain sections of books in all four official languages, including Tamil . </P>

Which indian language has official status in singapore