New Delhi
30 June 2009
The Government on Tuesday named Nirupama Rao for the post of foreign
secretary. An officer of the 1973 batch of Indian Foreign Service, Ms Rao is currently
India's ambassador to China.
Rao (58) will become only the second woman foreign secretary when she succeeds
Shivshankar Menon on August 1. Chokila Iyer was the first woman to be appointed
foreign secretary in 2001.
Ms Rao has another distinction to her credit: She was the first woman spokesperson of
the Ministry of External Affairs.
"I am a product of education at various places," Ms Rao told this newspaper on the
telephone from Beijing, referring to her early education that took place in cities all over
India on account of her father's career in the Indian Army.
She is an alumnus of Good Shepherd Convent in Pune, St Joseph's School in Coonoor,
and Loreto Convent in Lucknow. She completed her undergraduate degree in Arts from
Mount Carmel in Bengaluru. She also holds a Masters Degree in English Literature from
Marathwada University, Aurangabad.
Ms Rao was born in Kerala on 6 December 1950. She is married to Sudhakar Rao, a
member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) who is currently Chief Secretary,
Government of Karnataka. The couple has two sons, Nikhilesh and Kartikeya.
Ms Rao has been serving as the Indian ambassador to China from October 2006. She
was the High Commissioner of India in Colombo from 2004 to 2006. She served as
Additional Secretary in charge of Administration and Personnel in the Ministry of External
Affairs here and as the first woman spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs
between 2001 and 2002.
She was Distinguished International Executive in Residence at the University of
Maryland, USA, from 1999 to 2000. From 1998 to 1999, she was Deputy Chief of Mission
at the Indian Embassy in Moscow. She was Ambassador of India to Peru from 1995 to
1998 and Minister in charge of press affairs at the Indian Embassy in Washington from
1993 to 1995.
Ms Rao has had extensive experience in relations between India and China, having
served in the East Asia Division of the Ministry of External Affairs from 1984 to 1992,
including as Joint Secretary (East Asia). She was also a Fellow of the Centre for
International Affairs (now the Weatherhead Centre) of Harvard University from 1992 to
1993.
Ms Rao's hobbies include music (Hindustani, Carnatic and Western), theatre and writing.
She is also an accomplished singer in her own right. Her first book of poems "Rain
Rising" was published in India in 2004 and also released in Sri Lanka.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved Ms Rao's name on Tuesday. She
will be the top Indian diplomat for about 17 months as she will attain superannuation by
the end of 2010.
The committee also approved the name of Mr MN Prasad, 1972 batch IAS officer from the
Bihar cadre, as Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, on contract basis, in the rank,
pay and status of Secretary to the Government of India with effect from July 1.
No comments:
Post a Comment