Pressed into action

[ANIL TYAGI]

VENU RAJAMONY, Joint Secretary in the Finance Ministry and topper of the 1986 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), is the new Press Secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee. He is among the few top appointees in Pranab’s first list.  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 (JNU). Rajamony is said to be very close to Omita Paul, 63-year-old Secretary to the President. Rajamony is an experienced officer and has handled  work relating to the International Finance Corp, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in the Finance Ministry. He served as the Consul-General of India in Dubai between 2007 and 2010. He has also served in the Indian missions in Hong Kong, Beijing, Geneva and Washington as also in the Ministry of External Affairs in South Block. 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’. In 1996, he was rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights representing India. Before joining the IFS, he served as a reporter in Kerala with the Indian Express. He was also a very active student leader in JNU and got elected as Vice-President as the candidate of ‘Free Thinkers’ defeating the Students Federation of India (SFI).  At the Indian Embassy in Washington, he was the official spokesperson and  back in India, he was named director and chef de cabinet in the office of the then External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, from 2002-04. g