Conservative MP Alok Sharma has been appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by Prime Minister Theresa May, adding a new face of Indian-origin to frontline British politics.
Sharma was first elected to parliament in the May 2010 elections and re-elected in May 2015 from Reading West.
He will work with foreign secretary Boris Johnson and is likely to have a role related to India.
Sharma had the role of ”Prime Minister’s infrastructure envoy for India” in the previous government headed by David Cameron , working on the implementation of massive projects announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to London in November 2015.
However, Sandip Verma, the Amritsar-born member of the House of Lords, was dropped from May’s council of ministers. Baroness Verma was the parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department for International Development.
The new secretary in the Department for International Development is Priti Patel, who was appointed to the cabinet-level post soon after May took over as prime minister last week.