New Delhi. Senior Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Ruchi Ghanashyam has been appointed Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a press statement on August 28.

Ghanashyam, an officer of 1982 batch, is Secretary at present at MEA headquarters in New Delhi.

After successful completion of her assignment as High Commissioner of India to South Africa with concurrent accreditation to the Kingdom of Lesotho (October 2014 – April 2017), Ghanashyam has assumed the charge of the post of Secretary (West) in the MEA on April 17 last year.

During her diplomatic career, she served as Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi heading the Europe West Division. The diplomat officer earlier served as High Commissioner of India in Ghana (March 2008 – October 2011), during which she was also concurrently accredited to Burkina Faso, Togo and Sierra Leone.

Earlier Ghanashyam served as Minister in the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in New York from May 2004 to March 2008. She served as Director (Pakistan) at Headquarters in Delhi from August 2000 to March 2004 having earlier served as Counsellor (Political, Press & Info) in High Commission of India, Islamabad. She also served in the Embassy of India in Brussels, Belgium, Kathmandu, Nepal and Damascus, Syria where she learnt Arabic, and as Under Secretary in New Delhi looking after Audio-Visual Publicity for the Ministry of External Affairs.

The senior diplomat is a Master in Psychology from Bhopal University and is married to AR Ghanashyam, who also joined the Indian Foreign Service the same year. She has two sons.