'A P Venkateswaran left an indelible impression on Indian diplomacy and made an incredible number of friends, who kept remembering him, more than other Indian diplomats, who served at those posts.' Ambassador T P Sreenivasan salutes a legend of the Indian Foreign Service who passed into the ages.
Meira Kumar was elected Lok Sabha Speaker unanimously on Wednesday.
A look at the past speakers of the Lok Sabha.
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Modi government must push reforms at a fast pace to restore growth.
Foreign Service Officer Robert Orris Blake, Jr, who is currently the United States' Ambassador to Sri Lanka, before which he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in New Delhi from 2003 to 2006, is the top contender for the post of the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, currently held by diplomat Richard Boucher.
'The new order cometh, sweeping out the old,' notes Ambassador B S Prakash.
In its chargesheet, the CBI alleged that Kumar, during his tenure as Director General of ICCR, and Tyagi had entered into a criminal conspiracy with Singh and Sharma to facilitate trafficking of nine individuals to Germany. The modus operandi adopted by the accused was to send nine people to Berlin along with a dance troupe. On arrival, these people disappeared and later filed applications seeking political asylum under changed names.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India's participation in a new global consensus on non-proliferation would strengthen global efforts in this arena.
'R N Kao was a spymaster, an institution builder and a gentleman.'
In a late night development, S Jaishankar, India's Ambassador to the United States, was appointed foreign secretary on Wednesday, replacing Sujatha Singh whose tenure has been abruptly 'curtailed" by nearly 8 months.
Modi, 68, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Nath Kovind at a glittering ceremony at the forecourt of majestic Rashtraparti Bhavan.
India on Monday named Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, senior diplomat and Ambassador to Nepal, as its new envoy to Britain. A 1971-batch officer of the Indian Foreign Services, Mukherjee will succeed Kamlesh Sharma. Mukherjee will move to London after an eventful and successful three-year stint in Kathmandu, during which the Himalayan country witnessed revolutionary changes, resulting in the abolition of monarchy.
The 1980-batch Indian Foreign Service officer will succeed Arun Singh, who is being posted as India's Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington. Sarna is at present joint secretary (External Publicity) in the Ministry of External Affairs, a post he has held since October 2002 to become the longest-serving spokesman of the foreign office.
Their names have been forwarded by the Defence Ministry for the top honour as a tribute to the deceased, sources said in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Having immense experience in dealing with global issues, Sharma has served with distinction at various key positions, including as India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and spokesperson for developing countries in the UNCTAD during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations.
Transition sources said Trump is close to selecting 55-year-old Tellis to be the next US envoy to India to replace Richard Verma who was appointed US Ambassador to India by outgoing President Barack Obama in 2015.
Pakistan on Monday sided with India on the row over the treatment meted out to senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade in the United States and said such treatment should not be meted to any official of another country.
India's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Nirupama Rao was on Wednesday named as the next envoy to China.
US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns will resign, a senior US official said on Friday.
August 7 marks a month since the Indian embassy in Kabul was attacked. Aziz Haniffa mourns the death of Venkat Rao, a star of the Indian Foreign Service, in that attack.
Among the other challenges, the big one is to maintain energy security in tune with the pace at which the country's economy is growing.
The Union Public Service Commission will hold the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2007 on May 20, 2007.
An official of the Indian Foreign Service before joining the UN, Khare's appointment assumes significance as it comes ahead of next year's Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Timor.
'If I get posted to a place, if people engage with me just as an Indian diplomat, I have X amount of leverage.' 'But when they look at me as the high commissioner of India and the author of Slumdog Millionaire, many more people are willing to meet me, more quickly than they would as a pure diplomat.'
'Given his stint in Beijing, as India's longest serving ambassador there and that too through some challenging and interesting times, Jaishankar ought to have been appointed as foreign secretary in 2013 itself,' says Sanjaya Baru.
The summary is presently under review by the Finance Ministry that does not find the Foreign Ministry's proposal convincing enough to be given a serious thought, the newspaper quoted officials as saying.
'This is a historic juncture when the US is in great need of an alliance with India to strengthen its hands in the fierce struggle with China in the Asian theatre,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The nomination of Patterson will have to be approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee headed by Joseph Biden.
Cowsik retired from foreign service and will now settle down in Pune, said Indian High Commission spokesman, Vinod Sachdev. She is being succeeded by R L Narayan, who's currently Indian Ambassador in Kuala Lumpur.
With China expected to overtake the US as India's largest trading partner, Bambawale acknowledged that the "basic rationale for the new Consulate is the burgeoning trade."
'No civilised nation can thrive if it is possessed with the spirit of Hindutva.'
'There is no danger of the suggestion being accepted in a hurry, as we are still discussing the design of an IFS tie and trainee officers are still taught how to handle forks and knives.'
Our relationships at the political level with virtually every country in Africa is stable, it is very positive, says India's consul general designate to Johannesburg.
'It must be rendering Modi, Amit Shah and Adityanath speechless that the Indian diplomat who lifted the Azhar trophy at the UN in New York is also a Muslim. 'Yes, this is the wonder that was India,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'There is no doubt that the US would like all their friends to agree with them. We are not in the habit of doing that,' says former diplomat Arundhati Ghose.
The Union Public Service Commission will hold the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2006, on May 14, 2006.
A former Indian ambassador to Iraq has said this to the ED.
Dogra had indicated that he would return to India by the first week of April. Later, he said he would return by April 15 but did not adhere to his own schedule.
Senior Indian Foreign Service official Rakesh Kumar allegedly involved in case of human trafficking to Germany has been divested of his charge as special secretary, Economic Relations, in the external affairs ministry.
'It is because of Chinese policy that Pakistan is nuclear. So we have to look at it as one unit. If the fissile material of Pakistan is to be controlled, you have to control China,' says former diplomat Arundhati Ghose.
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