Ruchi Ghanshyam India’s envoy to UK
:Ruchi Ghanshyam, the secretary (west) in the external affairs ministry and the next Indian high commissioner to the United Kingdom, will be the second woman to hold the key post since independence in 1947.
The only woman high commissioner so far was Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, who was in the post during 1954-1961. She was India’s third envoy after VK Krishna Menon and BG Kher, who steered India-UK relations soon after independence.
Ghanshyam's appointment was announced by the ministry in New Delhi this week.
Pandit had the longest tenure of seven years, LM Singhvi was in office for six years (1991-97) and Krishna Menon for five (1947-1952). Four envoys had tenures of less than a year, including the current ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna (10 months).
Others with similar brief appearances were Prakash Mehrotra (July-December 1984), Kuldip Nayar (March-November 1990) and Salman Haider (January-July 1998).
Ghanshyam, an IFS officer of the 1982 batch, will be India’s 27th envoy based at India House in the Strand, central London.
LONDON
She will take over from YK Sinha, who is due to retire later this year after a tenure that saw growing outreach with the 1.5-million-strong Indian diaspora and cultural events during the UK-India Year of Culture in 2017.
Ghanshyam, who was part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official delegation during his visit to London in April for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, will be in the post when the UK is due to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019.
Besides dealing with domestic political issues that resonate in the United Kingdom – such as Khalistan, Jammu and Kashmir and caste – a potential India-UK free trade agreement will be on her agenda, formal talks for which can begin only after Brexit.
members of a family were feared drowned after the car they were travelling in fell into a river in Upper Assam’s Sivasagar district on Saturday evening, police said.
“The search and rescue operation is going on. A team of National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force is on the spot,” said Bolin Deori, additional superintendent of police. Deori was not very hopeful of anybody surviving in the mishap that happened at 5.30 pm on Saturday.
Police said the Guwahatibased family of Haren Bora, a 58-year-old businessman, was visiting their village Dichial in Sivasagar.
“The incident happened right next to the village,” Deori said, adding that the driver of the car seems to have lost control and it fell into Dikhow river.
The car occupants included Bora’s wife Phunu Bora, a government official in Guwahati, daughters Dikhsita Bora, an MBA student, Nikshita Bora, a student of higher secondary first year, and businessman’s 80-yearold mother Punon Bora.
GUWAHATI:Five