Nirupama Rao

Her mother, Meempat Narayanikutty, was the first woman college graduate in her family, obtaining a BA Mathematics (Honors) degree from Madras University in 1947.

Her sisters, Nirmala and Asha, are medical doctors by profession.

Nirupama Menon Rao (born 6 December 1950) is a retired civil servant of 1973 batch Indian Foreign Service cadre who served as India's Foreign Secretary from 2009 to 2011, as well as being India's Ambassador to the United States, China and Sri Lanka (High Commissioner) during her career.

She graduated from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, with a BA in English in 1970, topping Bangalore University.

She was a member of the then Mysore government's youth delegation to Expo 70 in Japan, in September 1970.

She then went on to obtain her master's degree in English literature from what was then known as Marathwada University in Maharashtra.

In 1973, Rao topped the All India Civil Services Examination for both the Indian Foreign Service and the Indian Administrative Service, and joined the Indian Foreign Service.

On completion of her training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Musoorie, she served in the Indian Embassy in Vienna, Austria from 1976 to 1977, where she completed her German language training at the University of Vienna.

From 1978 to 1981, Rao served as an Under Secretary on the Southern Africa and Nepal desks, respectively, in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi.

In 1981, Rao was posted as First Secretary in the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka.

Here, she witnessed first hand the devastating ethnic riots of July 1983, which marked the beginning of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

After returning to Delhi, Rao specialized in India's relations with China.

She served in the MEA's East Asia Division for an unprecedented 8 consecutive years, from 1984 to 1992, eventually becoming Joint Secretary of the division in the late 1980s.

In this period, Rao became an expert on the Sino-Indian border dispute and was seen as a key player in the revitalization of Sino-Indian ties.

Her interest in Tibetan affairs was consolidated with visits to the Tibet Autonomous Region, including the leading of a group of Indian pilgrims to the holy sites of Mt. Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in August 1986 and a visit to Lhasa and Xigaze in the summer of 1992.

She was a member of the delegation led by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi when he made his historic visit to Beijing in December 1988.

Rao was a Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University in 1992–93 where she specialized on Asia-Pacific Security.

Following her time at Harvard, Rao served as Minister for Press, Information and Culture at the Indian Embassy in Washington D.C. from 1993 to 1995.

Her paper on the subject, won the 1994 Bimal Sanyal Prize for the best dissertation written by an IFS officer.

Rao's first Ambassadorship was to Peru with concurrent accreditation to Bolivia, serving from 1995 to 1998.

Rao was present at the Japanese embassy in Lima on 17 December 1996, during a reception to celebrate the birthday of the Japanese Emperor.

She left the embassy minutes before it was stormed by a group of Tupac Amaru militants who occupied the embassy for the next four months, holding a number of high-profile hostages.

This followed Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's visit to India in May 1997, the last such visit by a Peruvian Head of State.

On that visit several agreements of mutual cooperation and two business agreements between the countries were signed.

Her tenure saw the first ever visit by a sitting Indian President to Peru, when K.R. Narayanan visited in April/May 1998.

After her tenure in Peru, Rao served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Moscow from 1998 to 1999.

Following this posting, she returned to the United States as a Distinguished International Executive in Residence at the University of Maryland at College Park from 1999 to 2000.

In 2001, Rao became the official spokesperson for the MEA with her appointment as Joint Secretary, External Publicity Division (XP).

Rao was the first, and so far only, female spokesperson for the MEA.

Rao's tenure as spokesperson coincided with several significant events, including the July 2001 Agra Summit between India and Pakistan, and the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament and the subsequent standoff between India and Pakistan.

This was a period during which the spokesperson's office gave frequent live briefings for the electronic and print media, both national and international and also began to post the complete transcripts of briefings on the website of the MEA, a practice that has since become institutionalized.

From 2002 to 2004, Rao served as Additional Secretary, Administration (MEA Chief of Personnel).

During this period she was also Foreign Service Inspector.

In 2003, on the initiative of the then National Security Advisor and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Brajesh Mishra, Rao became a member of the Special Representative's delegation for border talks with China.

In July 2009, she became the second woman (after Chokila Iyer) to hold the post of India's Foreign Secretary, the head of the Indian Foreign Service.

In her career she served in several capacities including, Minister of Press, Information and Culture in Washington DC, Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow, stints in the MEA as Joint Secretary, East Asia and External Publicity, the latter position making her the first woman spokesperson of the MEA, Chief of Personnel, Ambassador to Peru and China, and High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.

Nirupama Rao was born in Malappuram, Kerala.

Her father, Lt. Colonel P.V.N Menon, was in the Indian Army.

Nirmala, pursued a career in the Indian Navy, retiring in 2013 as Surgeon Rear Admiral.

Due to her father's profession, Rao schooled in various cities including Bangalore, Pune, Lucknow, and Coonoor.