Hardeep Singh Puri, 65, a 1974-batch Indian Foreign Service officer is considered to have been close to L K Advani during NDA-I. Puri is considered as one of the top diplomats of India and has served as India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013 and was the vice president of the International Peace Institute, New York. Currently, he holds the post of president and chairman of think-tank Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS). He is also the head of Indian delegation to the UNSC, and served as the chairman of the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the UN and president of the UNSC.

In his four-decade career in diplomacy, he served critical roles as India’s ambassador to Brazil and the United Kingdom, and Permanent Representative of India to Geneva. An alumnus of Hindu College, Delhi University, Singh briefly took teaching as a lecturer at St. Stephen’s college, Delhi, before joining IFS. During the JP movement, he actively participated as a student leader.

In today’s Cabinet reshuffle he was inducted as a Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.1

• 1. Source: The Indian Express