The government on Wednesday appointed senior diplomat Vikas Swarup as Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs. Mr. Swarup, a 1986 cadre IFS officer, served till November as the High Commissioner to Canada.
He was given charge as the Secretary (Consular, Passport, Visa and Overseas Indian Affairs) on November 21 but this post will now go to Sanjay Bhattacharyya, a 1987 cadre officer. Mr. Bhattacharyya will take over soon after handing over charge of his assignment as the Ambassador to Turkey.
The post of the Secretary (West) had fallen vacant after the previous official A. Gitesh Sarma was appointed as High Commissioner to Australia in October. Secretary in-charge of economic relations T.S. Tirumurti was holding the additional charge of Secretary (West) since the transfer of Mr. Sarma.
Both Mr. Swarup and Mr. Bhattacharyya served in the External Publicity division. Mr. Swarup, also a well-known author, was the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs from April 2015 to February 2017. Mr. Bhattacharyya served as OSD (PR) during 1997-’98.
