Nirupama Menon Rao is a public policy professional with a forty-year career in Indian diplomacy. She played a pioneering role as the first woman spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of India, and as the first Indian woman High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the first Indian woman Ambassador to China. She was appointed Foreign Secretary in 2009, serving until 2011, and subsequently served as Indian Ambassador to the United States from 2011-2013.
Throughout her diplomatic career, Ms.