Ranjan Mathai to be next foreign secretary

NEW DELHI: India’s ambassador to France, Ranjan Mathai, was on Monday named the new foreign secretary. A 1974-batch IFS officer, Mathai (59) will take charge from Nirupama Rao, who is widely tipped to be India’s next ambassador to the US, on August 1.

Mathai, who’ll have a full two-year term, was among the frontrunners for the post along with India’s permanent representative to UN Hardeep Puri and Vivek Katju.

Mathai ready to take up ‘challenging assignment’

Ranjan Mathai, who has been named the new foreign secretary , is a post-graduate in political science from Pune University. He has served in Indian embassies and high commissions in Vienna, Colombo , Washington, Tehran and Brussels.

As joint secretary (BSM) from January 1995 to February 1998, he headed the division dealing with India’s relations with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Maldives .

Known to be an accomplished public speaker, Mathai served as Indian ambassador to Israel from February 1998 to June 2001. He held the post of deputy high commissioner of India to the UK in London from August 2005 to January 2007, and, has been serving as India’s ambassador to France since January 2007.

Mathai was quoted as saying in Paris after the announcement that he felt deeply honoured on being named the foreign secretary and that he was looking forward to the “challenging assignment” .