Ranjan Mathai

New Delhi, June 27: Seasoned diplomat Ranjan Mathai, India’s envoy to Paris, will be the next foreign secretary succeeding Nirupama Rao.

Mathai, a 1974-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, will assume charge from August 1 for a two-year term, official spokesperson for ministry of external affairs, Vishnu Prakash, said.

In appointing Mathai, the government has gone by the book as he is the seniormost IFS officer.

Mathai, who hails from Kerala, joined the IFS after completing his post graduation in political science from the University of Pune.

Born on May 24, 1952, Mathai has served at the Indian embassies in Vienna, Colombo, Washington, Tehran and Brussels. As joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs from January 1995 to February 1998, he headed the division dealing with India’s relations with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Maldives.

He has also served as Indian ambassador to Israel from February 1998 to June 2001, and was the ambassador to Qatar from August 2001 to July 2005.

Mathai held the post of deputy high commissioner of India to the UK in London from August 2005 to January 2007.

He is currently the Indian ambassador to France, a post he has held since January 2007. He is also concurrently accredited as ambassador to the Principality of Monaco.

His appointment has meant that the government is honouring seniority over any other subjective factors that caused a lot of heartburn during the appointment of the current national security adviser Shivshankar Menon.

Others vying for the top bureaucratic job in the foreign ministry included India’s permanent envoy to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri.

Current foreign secretary Rao has been appointed India’s next envoy to the US. She will replace Meera Shankar.