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Tharoor, 50, has worked for the United Nations for the last 28 years, serving initially with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
in Singapore.

In 2006, he was nominated as India's candidate for the
post of Secretary General of the United Nations.

Later on, however, Tharoor pulled out from the race saying South Korea's Ban Ki Moon is a clear winner.

Since 1989, Tharoor has been a senior official at UN headquarters in New York, where, until late 1996, he was responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia.

Educated in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and the United States, Tharoor, who hails from the southern state of Kerala, received his doctorate at the
age of 22 from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts
University. For nearly a year-and-a-half, Tharoor was appointed as executive assistant to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan before taking his assignment as director communications and special projects in the office of the Secretary-General in July 1998.

Four years back, he was confirmed as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information.