Vikas Swarup to The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has cleared the appointment of career diplomat Vikas Swarup as the Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs.
He is current Secretary (Consular, Passport, Visa and Overseas Indian Affairs).
This order of the ACC suppresses its previous order appointing him as Secretary (CPV and OIA) earlier this year in July.
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He will be handling the country’s relations with the powerful European bloc amongst other nations.
Swarup is an officer in the Indian Foreign Service belonging to the 1986 batch. He had earlier served as the country’s envoy to Canada. He is also a best- selling author. He graduated from the University of Allahabad in Psychology, History and Philosophy.
Another career diplomat Sanjay Bhattacharyya, an Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1987 batch replaces Swarup as the Secretary (CPV and OIA). He is currently serving as the country’s envoy to Turkey and has managed to steer the relations to safer grounds during turbulent times that have threatened to rock the relations in recent times.
In recent times, the changing Geo-political situations around the world have necessitated a robust policy related to the welfare of the Indian diaspora. India has been active in securing the interests of its citizens abroad and is considered to be a challenging task.
He has also served as the country’s envoy to Egypt. He has graduated in Economics from the St Stephens college and the Delhi School of Economics. He is known to be fluent in Mandarin.