Former foreign secretary S Jaishankar appointed as Tata Sons’ global corporate affairs president

Jaishankar with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj (File photo)

S Jaishankar, former foreign secretary who had also served as India’s ambassador to China and then USA, was on Monday roped in by Tata Sons as its new president, global corporate affairs. Jaishankar, a 1977 batch Indian Foreign Service officer who retired early this year, will report to N Chandrasekaran, executive chairman of Tata Sons. His remunerations and associated perks are…

not known as yet, but as the former IFS has not completed a year of his retirement — he retired on January 28 this year — he needed to take special permission from the government to join a private entity.

Jaishankar was India's foreign secretary for three years -- between 2015 and 2018. During the UPA regime too, he had played a key role in negotiating the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement.

Tata Sons’ announcement came on a day when one of its group companies, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), crossed the $100 billion mark in market value, becoming the second Indian company after Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to achieve that milestone.

While welcoming Jaishankar, executive chairman of Tata Sons, Chandrasekaran, said that Jaishankar’s extensive experience and knowledge on international affairs would be highly valuable to the group as “we work to reinforce our brand and leadership globally”, according to a statement issued by the salt-to-software conglomerate on Monday. 

Reacting to the announcement, here is what Jaishankar had to say: “The Tata group is an iconic institution known for its value-based leadership as well as India’s most respected brand globally. I look forward to being part of the Tata group and working with key stakeholders to make an impact.”

A graduate of St Stephen’s college at the University of Delhi, Jaishankar is an MA in political science, and MPhil and PhD in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University.