New Delhi
31 July 2009
Nirupama Rao, who takes over as Foreign Secretary on Saturday, will have a
peculiar problem of plenty in her in-tray.
For the top Indian diplomat heading a Ministry which complains of a shortage of
diplomats, Rao will have to take a decision on how to accommodate the at least a dozen
joint secretary (JS)-rank officers who are expected to return to the Headquarters to serve
a mandatory stint here.
As per rules, diplomats who joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) after 1980 and have
risen to the rank of joint secretary, have to serve at least two years at the Headquarters
to become eligible for promotion. Unless anyone chooses to forego promotion, the JS-
rank officers returning here would either have to be adjusted against vacant posts, if
any, or accommodated by moving officers, serving here, on foreign postings.
Accordingly, a hunt is on for new Joint Secretary in charge of the PAI (Pakistan,
Afghanistan and Iran) division and Joint Secretary (External Publicity), among others.
The current JS (PAI), Mr TCA Raghavan, is expected to be named the new Indian
ambassador to Singapore. The Ministry is also likely to get a new spokesman in place of
JS (External Publicity) Vishnu Prakash.
A 1973-batch IFS officer, Rao will preside over a revamped Headquarters as many senior
diplomats are expected to return home from foreign postings or take up ambassadorial
positions over the next few months. Indian Ambassador to Thailand Latha Reddy is
tipped to succeed N Ravi as Secretary (East) at the Headquarters. Mr Ravi is due to
retire by the year-end.
The post of Secretary (West) is expected to go to Vivek Katju, who is currently Special
Secretary (Political and International Organisations) here. Katju will succeed Nalin Surie,
who has been named the new Indian High Commissioner to London. Parbati Sen Vyas,
who is Special Secretary (Public Diplomacy) and Appellate Authority (Right to
Information), is likely to be elevated as Secretary (Economic Relations).
A slew of ambassadorial announcements are expected to be made in the coming weeks,
including that of Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty as the
new Indian ambassador to Thailand. Mr Debrata Saha, who is currently Indian
ambassador to Ukraine, is understood to be in the longlist of envoys who will replace Mr
Chakravarty as the Indian envoy in Dhaka.
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