India's longest serving foreign secretary S Jaishankar joins Tata Group as the president of its global corporate affairs. A look at his journey
Subramanya Jaishankar was born on January 9, 1955, in New Delhi, to a prominent Indian strategic affairs analyst K. Subrahmanyam and his wife Sulochana. One of his brothers, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, is a historian; the other is a former rural development secretary S Vijay Kumar. Jaishankar did his schooling from Air Force Central School and graduated from St Stephen's College, before pursuing his Masters in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He also completed his MPhil and PhD in International Relations from JNU with a specialisation in nuclear diplomacy.
He joined the Indian Foreign Services in 1977. He served in Moscow, in the erstwhile Soviet Union, from 1979 to 1981.Between 1988 and 1990, he was the First Secretary in Sri Lanka and political adviser to the Indian Peacekeeping Force. He was appointed as the Counsellor (Commercial) at the Indian mission in Budapest between 1990 and 1993.He has also served as press secretary and speechwriter for the then President of India Shankar Dayal Sharma.He played a major role during the relief operations in 2004 in the aftermath of the tsunami that rampaged the south Indian coastline.In January 2015, he was appointed as the foreign secretary. His tenure ended in January 2018.
Jaishankar has an illustrious record as India's envoy to various countries and is known for his contribution in building bilateral relations with the United States, China and countries in the ASEAN region.He served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Tokyo from 1996 to 2000. He was the High Commissioner to the Czech Republic (2001-04), Singapore (2007-09), Indian Ambassador to the United States (2014-2015), and China (2009-2013).
He was first appointed as the undersecretary (Americas) and policy planning in external affairs ministry from 1981-85.Later in 2004-2007, his role as the undersecretary on the Americas desk in the South Block, especially in negotiating the Indo-US nuclear deal, has been admired by many top politicians, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.Jaishankar had joined the negotiations when the India-US relations had hit a new low after the Devyani Khobragade episode. He had also arranged Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden visit to the US in September 2014 and set up his meeting with President Barack Obama.
He was India's longest-serving ambassador to China, staying in Beijing for almost four and a half years. He played an important role in strengthening economic, trade and cultural ties between the two countries and also helped in solving the Sino-Indian border dispute.In an attempt to promote cultural ties between India and China, he promoted events showcasing Indian culture across 30 Chinese cities and signed an agreement with the Chinese government to introduce Mandarin in Indian schools.During the Doklam standoff, he helped India in containing the conflict, which could have led to a possible military clash.
As the Tata group's president of global corporate affairs, Jaishankar will look into international strategy development and oversee Tata Sons' international interests. With the hiring of a top-notch diplomat of Jaishankar's calibre, it is clear that Tata Group is trying to spread its footprint on the global map.