NEW DELHI - Seasoned diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla has been appointed as the next ambassador of India to the United States. Shringla, a 1984-batch Indian Foreign Service diplomat will succeed Navtej Sarna. “He is expected to take up the assignment shortly,” the Ministry of External Affairs said on Dec 20th. At present, Shringla is serving as Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh. Senior diplomat Riva Ganguly Das, presently Director General of Indian Council for Cultural Relations,
has been appointed as new High Commissioner to Bangladesh.
A graduate of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi he worked in the corporate and public sectors in India prior to joining the IFS.
After appearing 15th in the All India Civil services, Shringla opted for the Foreign Service and chose French as his foreign language, as a result of that he was posted on two different occasions to Paris.
One of the youngest ever to be appointed as consul general of India at the age of 27, Shringla served in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam in late eighties and early nineties during geopolitical shifts and transitions. He was also Consul General in Durban of South Africa where India has a large Diaspora.
In the course of his diplomatic career spanning over 30 years, Shringla has held a variety of positions in New Delhi and in Indian missions.
He was counselor in India’s mission to Israel at the turn of the millennium. One of Shringla’s specializations has been multilateral diplomacy, having charged at India’s Permanent Mission to UN in New York for over four years, where he made a famous repartee to Pakistan’s then President Parvez Musharraf’s statement critical of India at the UN in September in 2003.
The envoy was assigned briefly as head of the ministry’s UN political division in 2010-11 when India was contesting the UN Security Council non-permanent seat which it won with the maximum number votes ever secured. Shringla’s real abilities were tested during his stint as joint secretary in charge of neighboring Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Maldives from 2011-2014, a time of great transition and tumultuous developments in all four countries.
Sent as Special Envoy to Maldives, Shrilngla was successful in extricating Mohammed Nasheed, former president, from his self-imposed sanctuary in Indian High Commission in Male under an assurance that the political leader would be allowed to contest the forthcoming general elections. Shringla was an instrumental in working out the contours of the settlement of the land and maritime boundaries between India and Bangladesh with his Bangladesh counterparts; the first transfer of 500-MW power from India and the successful implementation of the $ 1 billion line of credit extended in 2010. The diplomat speaks French, Vietnamese and Nepalese. He is married to Hemal Store and they have a son.
A graduate of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi he worked in the corporate and public sectors in India prior to joining the IFS.
After appearing 15th in the All India Civil services, Shringla opted for the Foreign Service and chose French as his foreign language, as a result of that he was posted on two different occasions to Paris.
One of the youngest ever to be appointed as consul general of India at the age of 27, Shringla served in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam in late eighties and early nineties during geopolitical shifts and transitions. He was also Consul General in Durban of South Africa where India has a large Diaspora.
In the course of his diplomatic career spanning over 30 years, Shringla has held a variety of positions in New Delhi and in Indian missions.
He was counselor in India’s mission to Israel at the turn of the millennium. One of Shringla’s specializations has been multilateral diplomacy, having charged at India’s Permanent Mission to UN in New York for over four years, where he made a famous repartee to Pakistan’s then President Parvez Musharraf’s statement critical of India at the UN in September in 2003.
The envoy was assigned briefly as head of the ministry’s UN political division in 2010-11 when India was contesting the UN Security Council non-permanent seat which it won with the maximum number votes ever secured. Shringla’s real abilities were tested during his stint as joint secretary in charge of neighboring Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Maldives from 2011-2014, a time of great transition and tumultuous developments in all four countries.
Sent as Special Envoy to Maldives, Shrilngla was successful in extricating Mohammed Nasheed, former president, from his self-imposed sanctuary in Indian High Commission in Male under an assurance that the political leader would be allowed to contest the forthcoming general elections. Shringla was an instrumental in working out the contours of the settlement of the land and maritime boundaries between India and Bangladesh with his Bangladesh counterparts; the first transfer of 500-MW power from India and the successful implementation of the $ 1 billion line of credit extended in 2010. The diplomat speaks French, Vietnamese and Nepalese. He is married to Hemal Store and they have a son.
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