Is V K Singh Up For Promotion?

Different ministers of state in the Narendra D Modi ministry were assigned to receive G20 heads of State and government and other world leaders on their arrival in Delhi on Friday, September 8, 2023 to attend the G20 summit.

If one were to read the tea leaves, it looks like General V K Singh (retd) -- the former chief of army staff, now a mere minister of state (for road transport and highways, reporting to Cabinet Minister Nitin Gadkari; and civil aviation, reporting to Cabinet Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia) -- may be due for a promotion.

General Singh was assigned to receive leaders representing the planet's two superpowers -- the president of the United States and the premier of the People's Republic of China.

IMAGE: General Singh with US President Joe Biden. All Photographs: Press Information Bureau

IMAGE: General Singh with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

IMAGE: General Singh also received Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

IMAGE: Middle East watchers will be keen to see if Biden meets Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman.
Or if MBS meets MBZ -- United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan -- with whom he has a much commented on quarrel.

IMAGE: World Bank President Ajay Banga returns to the city where he was educated (St Stephens, where he got a BA in economics, and was in the same class as Chief Justice of India Dr Dhananjay Chandrachud, Supreme Court Justice Sanjay Kaul, Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, Sarita Nayyar (World Economic Forum), Vinayak Chatterjee (infrastructure entrepreneur), civil servant K P Krishnan, diplomat Manjeev Puri, economist Arvind Subramanian and the late Ivan Menezes).