Nirupama Rao, new Indian Envoy to Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 July 2004, 00:01 GMT]
Nirupama Menon Rao, currently additional secretary in charge of administration in the External Affairs Ministry of the Government of India has been appointed as the High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Indian media sources reported. She becomes the first Indian woman to hold this post in Sri Lanka.

Ms.Rao's appointment comes at a sensitive time when India is attempting to define its quiet but important role in helping Sri Lanka's search for ethnic peace.

Ms.Rao succeeds Nirupam Sen, who is appointed as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, reports said.

She was born in Kerala and is the daughter of an army officer.

After joining the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1973, she was posted to Russia, the USA, China, South America and Europe, in addition to countries in the Asian sub-continent. In South America she served as an Ambassador in Lima.

Ms.Rao excelled in graduate and post-graduate levels at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, and Marathwada University, Aurangabad.

Ms.Rao says that she has been writing poetry since she was 12, and recently published her first poetry collection, "Rain Rising."