New Delhi : Seasoned diplomat Parvathaneni Harish was appointed as India's next ambassador to the United Nations in New York on Wednesday.
Harish, a 1990-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, is presently serving as India's ambassador to Germany. His appointment comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's likely visit to New York next month primarily to attend the Summit of the Future being hosted by the United Nations.
Harish is expected to take up the assignment shortly, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a brief statement. The position of India's ambassador or permanent representative to the UN has been lying vacant since Ruchira Kamboj retired in June.
Harish assumed charge as India's ambassador to Germany on November 6, 2021. Previously, he was the additional secretary (economic relations) in the MEA.
In that capacity, he led the MEA's Economic Diplomacy Division that deals with India's bilateral economic relations with other countries. He also led the Multilateral Economic Relations Division and was the Indian Sous Sherpa for G20, G7, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa).
Harish served in the Indian missions in Cairo and Riyadh and also as India's representative to the Palestinian Authority. He also worked in the East Asia and External Publicity Divisions in the MEA.
For a period of five years since 2007, Harish was the joint secretary and officer on special duty to the vice president of India. He was the consul general of India in Houston from July 2012 until March 2016. Harish was India's ambassador to Vietnam from April 2016 to June 2019.
