Ambassador Nirupama Rao, a former Indian Foreign Service officer, retired as Foreign Secretary to the
Government of India, being the second woman to occupy the post (2009-2011). She was the first woman
spokesperson (2001-02) of the Indian Foreign Office. She served as India's first woman High Commissioner
(Ambassador) to Sri Lanka (2004-2006) and to the People's Republic of China (2006-2009). She was
Ambassador of India to the United States from 2011 to 2013. In retirement she has taught at various universities,
including as a Senior Visiting Fellow in International and Public Affairs at the Watson Institute at Brown
University where she taught an undergraduate seniors course on "India in the World" and as George Ball Adjunct
Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Her book entitled "The Fractured
Himalaya: India – Tibet - China, 1949 to 1962" was published by Penguin India in October 2021. She is a
member of the Council and Court of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, a member of the Advisory
Council of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, on the Board of the Indian Council
for Research in International Economic Relations (ICRIER), and a Councillor on the World Refugee and
Migration Council. She is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the US-India Business Council. She has an
honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (2012) from Pondicherry University. She is a staunch believer in the power of
social media as an advocacy platform for policy and currently has over 1.3 million followers on the social media
platform X. Ambassador Rao is the recipient of a number of awards recognizing her contributions in public
service. She received the K.P.S Menon Memorial Award in 2010, the Sree Chithira Thirunal Award in 2011, the
Vanitha Ratna Award of the Government of Kerala in 2016 and the Citizen Extraordinaire Award of Rotary
International in 2018. She is also the recipient of the Fellowship of Peace Award of the Mahatma Gandhi
Memorial Centre in Washington D.C in 2018. Ambassador Rao is a Founder-Trustee of The South Asian
Symphony Foundation (SASF) - a not-for-profit Trust which is dedicated to promoting mutual understanding in
South Asia through the creation of a South Asian Symphony Orchestra (SASO).
