Foreign Secretary of India
The Foreign Secretary of India is the top diplomat of India and administrative head of the Ministry of External Affairs. This post is generally held by an IFS officer of the rank of Secretary to Government of India. The current and 33rd Foreign Secretary is Harsh Vardhan Shringla who took charge on January 29, 2020. Shringla is a 1984 batch IFS. He previously served as India's envoy to the United States, Bangladesh and Thailand.
As an officer of the rank of Secretary to Government of India, the Foreign Secretary ranks 23rd on Indian Order of Precedence.
Powers, responsibilities and postings
Foreign Secretary is the administrative head of the Ministry of External Affairs, and is the principal adviser to the Minister of External Affairs on all matters of policy and administration within the External Affairs Ministry.The role of Foreign Secretary is as follows:
- To act as the administrative head of the Ministry of External Affairs. The responsibility in this regard is complete and undivided.
- To act as the chief adviser to the Minister of External Affairs on all aspects of policy and administrative affairs.
- To represent the Ministry of External Affairs before the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament of India.
- Recommends postings of officers under the Ministry of External Affairs of the rank of secretary, additional secretary and joint secretary to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.
- To act as the first among equals among the Secretaries in the Ministry of External Affairs.
Emolument, accommodation and perquisites
The Foreign Secretary is eligible for a Diplomatic passport. The official earmarked residence of the Union Foreign Secretary is 3, Circular Road, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.| Base Salary as per 7th Pay Commission | Pay Matrix Level |
| Pay Level 17 |
List of Foreign Secretaries
| № | Name | Photo | Took office | Left office | Minister of External Affairs |
| 1 | K. P. S. Menon | 16 April 1948 | 21 September 1952 | Jawaharlal Nehru | |
| 2 | R. K. Nehru | 22 September 1952 | 10 October 1955 | Jawaharlal Nehru | |
| 3 | Subimal Dutt | 11 October 1955 | 17 January 1961 | Jawaharlal Nehru | |
| 4 | M. J. Desai | 11 April 1961 | 4 December 1963 | Jawaharlal Nehru | |
| 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 | Swaran Singh, 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 | Swaran Singh, Yashwantrao Chavan | |
| 10 | J. S. Mehta | 1 April 1976 | 18 November 1979 | Yashwantrao Chavan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee | |
| 11 | R. D. Sathe | 19 November 1979 | 30 April 1982 | Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra, P. V. Narasimha Rao | |
| 12 | Maharaja Krishna Rasgotra | 1 May 1982 | 31 January 1985 | P. V. Narasimha Rao, 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 | Bali Ram Bhagat, P. Shiv Shankar, N. D. Tiwari | |
| 15 | K. P. S. Menon Jr. | January 1987 | February 1989 | ||
| 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 | Dinesh Singh, 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 | I. K. Gujral, 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 | Jaswant Singh | |
| 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 | Natwar Singh, Manmohan Singh | |
| 27 | Shivshankar Menon | 1 September 2006 | 31 July 2009 | Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, S. M. Krishna | |
| 28 | Nirupama Rao | 31 July 2009 | 31 July 2011 | S. M. Krishna | |
| 29 | Ranjan Mathai | 1 August 2011 | 1 August 2013 | S. M. Krishna, Salman Khurshid | |
| 30 | Sujatha Singh | 1 August 2013 | 28 January 2015 | Salman Khurshid, Sushma Swaraj | |
| 31 | Subrahmanyam Jaishankar | 28 January 2015 | 28 January 2018 | Sushma Swaraj | |
| 32 | Vijay Keshav Gokhale | 29 January 2018 | 28 January 2020 | Sushma Swaraj, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar | |
| 33 | Harsh Vardhan Shringla | 29 January 2020 | Incumbent | Subrahmanyam Jaishankar |