Foreign Secretary (India) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Foreign Secretary of India
Flag of India
Emblem of India
Incumbent Vikram Misri, IFS since 15 July 2024
Ministry of External Affairs
Reports to	President of India Parliament of India Council of Ministers of India Prime Minister of India External Affairs Minister of India
Residence	3, Circular Road, Chanakyapuri New Delhi, India
Appointer	Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
Term length	Two years, term can be extended.
Inaugural holder	K. P. S. Menon, ICS
Formation	16 April 1948
Website	Ministry of External Affairs

The Foreign Secretary of India is like India's chief diplomat. This person is the main leader and manager of the Ministry of External Affairs. This ministry is the government department that handles India's relationships with all other countries.

The Foreign Secretary is a very important officer from the Indian Foreign Service. This service is a group of trained diplomats who represent India around the world. The current Foreign Secretary is Vikram Misri, who started in July 2024. He took over from Vinay Mohan Kwatra.

The Foreign Secretary holds a high rank in the Indian government. They are considered the top diplomat and also lead a special group called the 'Foreign Service Board'.

What the Foreign Secretary Does

The Foreign Secretary is the main boss of the Ministry of External Affairs. They give important advice to the Foreign Minister about how India should deal with other countries. They also help manage everything inside the Ministry.

Here are some of their key jobs:

• They are the administrative head of the Ministry of External Affairs. This means they are in charge of running the entire department.
• They are the main advisor to the Foreign Minister. They help the minister make decisions about India's foreign policy.
• They represent the Ministry of External Affairs in front of the Public Accounts Committee. This committee in the Parliament of India checks how government money is spent.
• They suggest where senior officers in the Ministry should be posted. These suggestions go to a special group called the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.
• They are considered the "first among equals" among other senior officers in the Ministry. This means they are the most important among their peers.

Salary and Home

The Foreign Secretary gets a special Diplomatic passport. This passport makes it easier for them to travel to other countries for their work.

The official home for the Foreign Secretary is at 3, Circular Road, Chanakyapuri, in New Delhi.

The table below shows the Foreign Secretary's monthly salary:

List of Foreign Secretaries

Many important people have served as India's Foreign Secretary since the position was created. Here is a list of all the people who have held this significant role:

No.	Name	Photo	Took office	Left office	Minister of External Affairs
1	K. P. S. Menon Sr.		16 April 1948	21 September 1952	Jawaharlal Nehru (de jure) V. K. Krishna Menon (de facto)
2	R. K. Nehru		22 September 1952	10 October 1955
3	Subimal Dutt		11 October 1955	17 January 1961
4	M. J. Desai		11 April 1961	4 December 1963
5	Y. D. Gundevia		5 December 1963	18 February 1965	Jawaharlal Nehru
					Gulzarilal Nanda
					Lal Bahadur Shastri
					Swaran Singh
6	C. S. Jha		19 February 1965	13 August 1967
					M. C. Chagla
7	Rajeshwar Dayal		19 August 1967	6 November 1968	Indira Gandhi
8	T. N. Kaul		7 November 1968	3 December 1972	Indira Gandhi
					Dinesh Singh
					Swaran Singh
9	Kewal Singh		4 December 1972	31 March 1976
					Yashwantrao Chavan
10	J. S. Mehta		1 April 1976	18 November 1979
					Atal Bihari Vajpayee
11	Ram Sathe		19 November 1979	30 April 1982	Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra
					P. V. Narasimha Rao
12	M. K. Rasgotra		1 May 1982	31 January 1985
					Indira Gandhi
					Rajiv Gandhi
13	Romesh Bhandari		1 February 1985	31 March 1986	Rajiv Gandhi
					Bali Ram Bhagat
14	A. P. Venkateswaran		1 April 1986	20 January 1987
					P. Shiv Shankar
					N. D. Tiwari
15	K. P. S. Menon Jr.		January 1987	February 1989	N. D. Tiwari
16	Shilendra Kumar Singh		16 February 1989	19 April 1990	P. V. Narasimha Rao
					Vishwanath Pratap Singh
					I. K. Gujral
17	Muchukund Dubey		20 April 1990	30 November 1991	I. K. Gujral
18	J. N. Dixit		1 December 1991	31 January 1994	Madhavsinh Solanki
					P. V. Narasimha Rao
					Dinesh Singh
19	Krishnan Srinivasan		1 February 1994	28 February 1995
					Pranab Mukherjee
20	Salman Haidar		1 March 1995	30 June 1997	Pranab Mukherjee
					Sikander Bakht
					I. K. Gujral
21	K. Raghunath		1 July 1997	1 December 1999
					Atal Bihari Vajpayee
					Jaswant Singh
22	Lalit Mansingh		1 December 1999	11 March 2001	Jaswant Singh
23	Chokila Iyer		12 March 2001	29 June 2002
24	Kanwal Sibal		1 July 2002	30 November 2003	Yashwant Sinha
25	Shashank		19 November 2003	31 July 2004	Yashwant Sinha
					Natwar Singh
26	Shyam Saran		31 July 2004	1 September 2006
					Manmohan Singh
27	Shivshankar Menon		1 September 2006	31 July 2009
					Pranab Mukherjee
					S. M. Krishna
28	Nirupama Rao		31 July 2009	31 July 2011
29	Ranjan Mathai		1 August 2011	1 August 2013
					Salman Khurshid
30	Sujatha Singh		1 August 2013	28 January 2015
					Sushma Swaraj
31	Subrahmanyam Jaishankar		28 January 2015	28 January 2018
32	Vijay Keshav Gokhale		29 January 2018	28 January 2020
					Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
33	Harsh Vardhan Shringla		29 January 2020	April 30, 2022
34	Vinay Mohan Kwatra		1 May 2022	14 July 2024
35	Vikram Misri		15 July 2024	Incumbent

See also

• Cabinet Secretary of India
• Defence Secretary of India
• Home Secretary of India
• Finance Secretary of India
• Minister of External Affairs