Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Anurag Srivastava, willtake charge as the new spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)today, replacing Raveesh Kumar. Srivastava is currently the Indian ambassador to Ethiopia and African Union and belongs to Indian Foreign Service (IFS) batch 1999. Meanwhile, Raveesh Kumar is expected to be India’s new ambassador to Croatia. The announcement of Kumar's annexation was made a month ago.

Who is Anurag Srivastava?

Anurag Srivastava is from Indian Foreign Service (IFS) batch 1999. Srivastava is currently serving as India’s Ambassador to Ethiopia andAfrican Union. Before heading as ambassador to Ethiopia, he was the head ofFinance Division of MEA which is tasked to administer the ministry’s annualbudget of about US $2 billion. Srivastava has also headed the political wing atthe Indian High Commission in Colombo. Srivastava earlier served at thePermanent Mission of India to the United Nations in Geneva.

Anurag Srivastava's achievements

When he headed the Finance Division of Ministry of ExternalAffairs which is tasked to administer the Ministry’s annual budget of about USD2 billion, more than half of this budget was directed towards supportingIndia’s development partnership objectives all over the world, he wasresponsible for not only managing financial flows to these projects, but alsofor their monitoring and oversight.