Asian Window

Nirupama Rao, currently India’s Ambassador to China, has been named the country’s next Foreign Secretary. She will succeed Shiv Shankar Menon.

From the Hindu: Prior to becoming India’s woman in Beijing, she was High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. Her other diplomatic jobs included being Ambassador to Peru, deputy head of the Indian embassy in Moscow, and Minister (Press) at the Indian embassy in Washington, DC. At the headquarters, she ran the East Asia desk for several years but her most high-profile assignment was as spokesperson of the MEA, a job she performed with distinction and flair during a difficult period in the bilateral relationship with Pakistan: the Agra summit of 2001 and the military stand-off of 2001-02. More:

From Hindustan Times: Our foreign secretary designate’s many accomplishments don’t end with poetry. Trained in Carnatic music, she prefers Western classical. Mother of two sons, Nikhilesh (31) and Kartikeya (21), and wife of Sudhakar Rao, currently chief secretary in Karnataka, Rao appears to have found work, family, poetry and music an easy juggle. More:

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