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TS Tirumurti is India’s new permanent representative to the UN, to replace Syed Akbaruddin
Tirumurti, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1985 batch and currently secretary (economic relations), will replace Syed Akbaruddin, who is set to retire this month.
India on Wednesday named TS Tirumurti as its next permanent representative to the United Nations at New York as part of string of ambassadorial appointments.
Tirumurti, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1985 batch and currently secretary (economic relations), will replace Syed Akbaruddin, who is set to retire this month.
Tirumurti has played a key role in recent prime ministerial visits and engagements abroad. He has earlier had stints at the permanent mission in Geneva and as director in the foreign secretary’s office and joint secretary (UN, economic and social).
The other key appointment announced on Wednesday was that of Deepak Mittal, an IFS officer of the 1998 batch and currently joint secretary (Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran) as the next ambassador to Qatar.
Mittal, who played a key role in handling the face-off with Pakistan following the suicide attack in Pulwama last year and the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor, is expected to take up his assignment shortly.
The current envoy to Qatar, P Kumaran, is expected to be appointed the new high commissioner to Singapore. JP Singh, currently India’s consul general in Istanbul, is considered a front-runner to replace Mittal in the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran desk as he has served as the deputy high commissioner in Islamabad.
Namrata S Kumar, an IFS officer of the l997 batch and currently deputy director general of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, was appointed as the next ambassador to Slovenia. She is expected to take up her assignment shortly.
India’s current ambassador to the Philippines, Jaideep Mazumdar, an IFS officer of the 1989 batch, was named the next envoy to Austria. He too is expected to take up his assignment shortly.
Piyush Srivastava, an IFS officer of the 1998 batch and currently joint secretary (north), has been appointed as the next ambassador to Bahrain.
The high commissioner to the UK, Ruchi Ghanshyam, who too is set to retire this month, is expected to be replaced by Gaitri Kumar, currently the envoy to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union.
Santosh Jha, currently India’s envoy to Uzbekistan, is tipped to be the new ambassador in Brussels, the people said.
The Covid-19 crisis and subsequent travel restrictions have delayed the movement of several Indian envoys to postings abroad. They are now expected to begin moving out when the nationwide lockdown is eased next month.
