M A I N   N E W S

Chokila new Foreign Secretary
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 23 — India’s Ambassador to Ireland, Ms Chokila Iyer, who has been appointed the new Foreign Secretary, has the distinction of being the first woman to reach the highest job in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Ms Iyer, whose appointment was announced today, will succeed Mr Lalit Mansingh who is going to Washington in place of the Indian Ambassador, Mr Naresh Chandra. Mr Mansingh is expected to take up his assignment early next year, a press note of the ministry said.

A 1964 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Ms Iyer has served on many foreign assignments including in Mexico where she helped strengthen relations between India and Mexico. She was Director (Europe-west, Joint Secretary (Policy Planning), Joint Secretary (Coordination), Joint Secretary (Africa) and Additional Secretary (Passport and Visa).

Ms Iyer, whose mother tongue is Sikkimese is married to former Controller-General of Accounts, Mr G.C. Iyer.

Other women IFS officers, like Ms C.B. Muththamma and Ms Arundhati Ghosh, could not attain the highest office in the past even though they held important diplomatic assignments. Another senior lady diplomat, Ms Savitri Kunadi, currently India’s Ambassador to France, is of the 1967 batch of the IFS.