Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Vikas Swarup was on Thursday appointed High Commissioner of lndia to Canada, officials said.
An officer of the 1986 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Swarup has been serving as the spokesperson since April 2015 when he replaced Syed Akbaruddin, who is now India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York. Prior to that, Swarup was Joint Secretary in-charge of the United Nations Division in the ministry. Swarup has previously served in Turkey, the United States, Ethiopia, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Japan.
He is best known as the author of the novel Q & A, adapted in celluloid as Slumdog Millionaire, the winner of Best Film for the year 2009 at the Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards and BAFTA Awards.