Ruchi Ghanashyam has been appointed as the new High Commissioner of India to UK. She is the second woman to hold this 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.
Mrs Ghanashyam is a career diplomat, who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1982. Prior to her current assignment as High Commissioner to the UK, she was Secretary (West) in Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), New Delhi from April 2017 to November 2018. In a career spanning nearly thirty-six years after joining Indian Foreign Service, Mrs Ghanashyam's various assignments include serving in the Embassy of India Damascus from May 1984 to May 1987 as Third Secretary, where she also learnt Arabic language.
She was Under Secretary in XAV/Cons, MEA from June 1987-January 1991. She served as Secretary B.P. Koirala India Nepal Foundation at Embassy of India, Kathmandu from 1991-1994 and First Secretary (Info & Culture), HoC in Embassy of India Brussels from 1994-1997. She was Counsellor (P.Info) & HoC and Counsellor (Political) in High Commission of India in Islamabad from 1998-2000. She has served in the Ministry of External Affairs from August 2000 to March 2004 as Director (Pakistan) and Director CNV Division, MEA.
Mrs Ghanashyam was Minister in New York, Permanent Mission of India to the UN from May 2004 to March 2008. Mrs Ruchi Ghanashyam was High Commissioner of India to Ghana concurrently accredited to Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Togo from March 2008 to October 2011. She was Joint Secretary/ Additional Secretary of the Europe West Division, MEA from November 2011 to October 2014. She has also served as High Commissioner of India to South Africa concurrently accredited to Lesotho, from October 2014 to April 2017.
Born in 1960, Mrs Ghanashyam holds a Master of Psychology from the Bhopal University. She is married to A. R. Ghanashyam (a Retd. IFS officer) and have two sons.
