Meera Shankar is next US ambassador

The government today announced Meera Shankar will become the next Indian ambassador in Washington, succeeding Ronen Sen. Shankar is currently India's ambassador to Germany. After Vijayalakshmi Pandit, who served in Washington from 1949-1951, Shankar will be the second woman to be India's lead diplomat in the US.

The 1973-batch IFS officer, Shankar was posted to Germany in December 2005. Shankar has served as additional secretary (UN, disarmament and international security) from 2003-2005, joint secretary (Nepal-Bhutan, SAARC) from 1997-2003. She also had a stint in the Prime Minister's Office from 1985-1991, most notably when Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister. Shankar is not new to Washington. From 1991-1995, she was Minister (Commerce) in the Indian embassy.

The top post in the Indian embassy at Washington is usually kept for "political appointments". While career diplomats like Lalit Mansingh or Ronen Sen have served as Indian ambassador there, Nani A Palkhivala (1977-1979), Karan Singh (1989-1990), Siddharth Shankar Roy (1992-1996) have been appointed in this key post. Sen, too was appointed ambassador in 2004 after his retirement from the Indian Foreign Service. Mansingh, however, got the appointment while he was in service but subsequently was given an extension by the NDA government.