Union Government has appointed Subrahmanyam Jaishankar as the new Secretary of Ministry of External Affairs (i.e. Foreign Secretary).
His name was cleared by Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He will be replacing incumbent Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh whose tenure was curtailed with immediate effect. She had assumed office in August 2013 and was due to retire in August 2015.
About Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
- He was born 9 January 1955 and is son of Indian foreign policy doyen K Subhramanyam.
- He is Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1977 batch and was one of the key officials who negotiated in the India’s nuclear deal with the US in 2009.
- Before this appointment, he was India’s Ambassador to United States and was appointed in September 2013.
- Previously he had served as India’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China from 2009 to 2013. High Commissioner to Singapore from 2007 to 2009 and Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2001 to 2004.