It’s Official: Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao gets extension till July 2011

INDIA’S foreign secretary Nirupama Rao, a 1973 batch IFS officer, who was to retire on December 6, 2010 is getting a seven months extension thanks to an amendment of existing government rules. The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal to amend Fundamental Rule (FR) 56 (d) to provide extension in service to the foreign secretary “for such period or periods as may be considered necessary in public interest, subject to the condition that the total term as foreign secretary does not exceed two years.”

Already, cabinet secretary, home secretary and defence secretary have two-year tenures, and if the current instance of two-time extension of the cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar is anything to go by, the government can change rules to pave the way for a four-year term for other important secretaries with fixed term tenures.

Rao, who assumed charge as foreign secretary on August 1 last year, will remain in the post till July 31, 2011. The decision was taken as the government felt the assignment of foreign secretary has “increasingly acquired critical dimensions from national security and strategic perspective and the need to ensure continuity and swiftness in the decision-making process”, a government release said.

An MA in English Literature from Marathwada University and fellow at the Centre for International Affairs in Harvard University specializing Asia-Pacific security, Rao was India’s Ambassador to Peru, deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of India, Moscow, joint secretary (external publicity) and official spokesperson of the MEA and Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and then Indian Ambassador to China.

Babusofindia.com has rated Rao as India’s 5^th Most Powerful Bureaucrats, 2010. While releasing the BoI list of 5 Most Powerful Indian Bureaucrats in September this year, Team BoI said, “For over one year now, she has been instrumental in motivating her colleagues to act like economic ambassadors of the nation and paint a good image of the country. Her firefighting in GK Pillai’s “ISI remark” episode which had resulted into the collapse of India-Pakistan foreign minister level talks, was the most remarkable during the recent time. She walked across the road to North Block to have a cup of tea with Pillai demonstrating real-diplomacy inside Raisina Hills!”

(Picture: Rao during PM's recent visit to Tokyo)

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