Jaishankar was Manmohan Singh's first choice, but Sujatha was appointed by Sonia Gandhi

It is learnt that Jaishankar was frontrunner to become foreign secretary in 2013, and was a personal choice of former PM Manmohan Singh. However, Manmohan could not have his way as Sonia Gandhi had the last word with Sujatha Singh's appointment.

Singh's father was former IB chief TV Rajeshwar, an old Congress party loyalist.

An officer of the 1977 batch of the Indian Foreign Service, Jaishankar is the son of strategic guru K Subrahmanyan, a former consulting editor with The Times of India. He was ambassador to China and before that ambassador to Singapore and the Czech Republic.

Jaishankar's appointment promises sweeping changes to the ministry of external affairs. In the past six months, no ambassadorial appointments have been cleared by the government. The MEA had sent in recommendations but they were not cleared by the PMO, partly because the PM wanted to make the changes at the helm first.