New Delhi:Venu Rajamony, joint secretary in the finance ministry and an officer of the 1986 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), is all set to take over as the press secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee.
“The name has been cleared. The orders will be issued in a day or two,” a senior officer in know of the development, said.
Handling multilateral institutions such as the International Finance Corp the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in the finance ministry, Rajamony served as the consul-general of India in Dubai between 2007 and 2010.
A topper of his batch in 1986, the career-diplomat has also served the Indian missions in Hong Kong, Beijing, Geneva and Washington as also at his home ground in the Ministry of External Affairs in South Block.
In 1996, he was rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights representing India.
At the Indian Embassy in Washington, he was the official spokesperson and later, back in India, he was named director and chef de cabinet in the office of then foreign minister Yashwant Sinha from 2002-04.
He holds a degree in law from the Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala and a master’s in International Studies from the Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was also Asia Foundation Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in 2001.
Fluent in Chinese, Rajamony has authored a monograph “The India-China-US Triangle: A Soft Balance of Power in the Making” as also a coffee table book “India and the UAE: In Celebration of a Legendary Friendship”.
