New Delhi: As the world remains divided by geopolitical tensions, conflicts and competing strategic interests, the successful conclusion of the BRICS 2026 Summit in New Delhi offered India an important opportunity to project its diplomatic message on the global stage.
One of the biggest outcomes of the summit was the joint declaration, which demonstrated the ability of the BRICS grouping to find common ground despite the sharply contrasting positions that define the present international environment.
While heads of government and senior leaders occupied the global spotlight, a younger generation of Indian diplomats worked behind the scenes and at the centre of several critical diplomatic operations. From media coordination and external publicity to high-level interpretation, bilateral engagement and communication, these Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers played important roles in ensuring that India’s diplomatic machinery functioned smoothly during the summit.
Among the officers associated with India’s diplomatic and public-diplomacy ecosystem are Kshitij Tyagi, Ihjas Aslam C. Sheikh, Deepanshu Khurana, Megha Sunny, Vasudev Ravi, Dhruv Mishra, Manoj Madhav Sreekumaran Nair, Abu Mathen George, Asad Zuberi, Vikram Grewal and Sidharth Babu.
Their individual journeys also reflect the diverse talent entering the Indian Foreign Service – from engineers and management graduates to lawyers, designers and professionals who left corporate careers to pursue public service.
Kshitij Tyagi: The IFS Officer Known for His Sharp UN Responses
Kshitij Tyagi is a 2012-batch IFS officer currently serving as Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in Geneva. He has gained considerable public attention for his articulate and firm interventions at the United Nations Human Rights Council, particularly his responses defending India and challenging Pakistan’s positions.
Tyagi’s academic and professional background is notably technical. He studied at IIT Kharagpur, earning a BTech in Mechanical Engineering and an MTech in Thermal Energy and Environmental Engineering. Before joining government service, he worked as a Business Analyst with multinational real-estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle from 2007 to 2010. He subsequently joined the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy as a scientist, serving there for more than two years before moving towards a career in the civil services.
He cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination in 2011 with an All India Rank of 148 and opted for the Indian Foreign Service. His diplomatic career has taken him through several important assignments. After training at LBSNAA and the Foreign Service Institute in New Delhi, he served as Third Secretary at the Embassy of India in Lisbon from 2014 to 2015, followed by a Second Secretary posting at the Embassy of India in Brasília between 2015 and 2018. From 2018 to 2021, he served as First Secretary at the Embassy of India in Cairo. He then returned to the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi as Deputy Secretary and Officer on Special Duty for Press Relations from 2021 to 2023. In 2024, he served as First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN in Geneva before becoming Counsellor there in 2025.
At the UN, Tyagi has been particularly noted for his forceful rebuttals of Pakistan. In his interventions, he criticised Pakistan’s leadership, accused it of acting as a megaphone for what he described as its “military-terrorist complex”, and described the country as a failed state dependent on international handouts. He has also firmly reiterated India’s position that Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are inalienable parts of India.
Ihjas Aslam C. Sheikh: From Designer to Indian Diplomat
Ihjas Aslam C. Sheikh, also known as Ihjas Aslam C.S., is a 2018-batch IFS officer whose journey into diplomacy followed an unconventional beginning in the creative sector. Before joining the diplomatic service, he worked professionally as a designer, bringing an arts and communication-oriented background to his later career in international relations.
He cleared the Civil Services Examination in 2017 and was allocated to the Indian Foreign Service. During the 93rd Foundational Course at LBSNAA, he was recognised as a prize winner. As part of his IFS training, he also underwent foreign-language training in Arabic, with Egypt as his allocated region.
His first major foreign posting came in Bahrain in June 2021. At the Embassy of India in Manama, he initially served as Third Secretary handling Political, Press, Information and Culture portfolios and was later promoted to Second Secretary. During his Bahrain tenure, he was involved in strengthening bilateral engagement and supporting cultural initiatives, including the Indo-Bahrain Dance & Music Festival. He also worked closely with community organisations such as the Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam.
After completing his Bahrain assignment in 2024, Sheikh returned to MEA headquarters in New Delhi. Since 2025, he has been serving as Under Secretary [XPS] in the External Publicity & Public Diplomacy Division. His trajectory from professional design to public diplomacy illustrates the varied professional backgrounds represented within India’s diplomatic establishment.
Deepanshu Khurana: Engineer Who Chose Diplomacy
Deepanshu Khurana is a 2018-batch IFS officer currently serving as an Under Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. An engineer by academic background, he cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination in 2017 with an impressive All India Rank of 120.
Khurana had appeared for the CSE 2016 and reached the Personality Test stage before succeeding in the following attempt. He chose Sociology as his optional subject and prepared under the mentorship of Triumph IAS. His eventual success enabled him to enter the Indian Foreign Service and embark on a career in diplomacy.
During his early training, Khurana also participated in the Ministry of External Affairs’ SAMEEP — Students and MEA Engagement Programme. Through the programme, he interacted with school and college students, explaining India’s foreign-policy achievements and creating awareness about diplomacy and career opportunities in the foreign service.
His subsequent MEA assignments included serving as Under Secretary for Mauritius and Seychelles. He currently serves as Under Secretary [DD] in the MEA Spokesperson’s Office, where he assists with the ministry’s interface with the media. His current assignment places him within the communication architecture through which India presents its foreign-policy positions to the public and international media.
Megha Sunny: Managing India’s Global Communication
Megha Sunny is associated with the Ministry of External Affairs’ External Publicity & Public Diplomacy Division and currently serves as Deputy Secretary in the division. Her career has combined administration, public communication, media operations and foreign-affairs messaging, placing her in an important position within India’s public-diplomacy framework.
Originally from Kerala, Sunny has a scientific and management-oriented academic background. She completed a BSc in Zoology/Animal Biology with distinction from Mar Ivanios College between 2006 and 2009. She subsequently earned an MBA in Marketing with First Class from Rajagiri College of Management & Applied Sciences, Kakkanad, Kochi, between 2009 and 2011.
Her civil-service career included a significant assignment in the Secretariat of the Vice President of India, where she handled high-level administrative responsibilities. She later moved to the MEA and worked in the External Publicity & Public Diplomacy Division, initially serving as Under Secretary [XPD] before moving into her current role as Deputy Secretary.
Sunny also played a role in media operations surrounding India’s G20 Summit hosting, including international press liaisoning, media logistics and communications strategy. In her present position, the XPD office functions as a key interface between the Government of India and global media organisations. Her responsibilities include international press briefings, public diplomacy, addressing misinformation and mentoring civil-service officer trainees in public-diplomacy practices.
Vasudev Ravi: At the Centre of MEA’s Press and PR Operations
Vasudev Ravi is a 2013-batch Indian Foreign Service officer who currently serves as Officer on Special Duty [Public Relations] in the Ministry of External Affairs’ Spokesperson’s Office in New Delhi. He has also served as OSD (Press Relations) at the MEA and has been associated with the logistical coordination, media centres and live digital coverage required for major international diplomatic events.
Ravi is an alumnus of The Emerald Heights International School in Indore and graduated with the school’s Class of 2006. His diplomatic career has included several overseas assignments. In July 2017, he began serving as Second Secretary (Political & Information) in Afghanistan. In August 2019, he moved to the United States as Second Secretary (Political), where he contributed to India-US bilateral engagement.
He returned to MEA headquarters in New Delhi in 2023 as Deputy Secretary (Public Relations). He subsequently took on his current responsibility as Officer on Special Duty [PR] for the MEA Spokesperson’s Office. His experience across foreign missions and headquarters has given him exposure to both conventional diplomacy and the increasingly important communications side of international relations.
At a major summit such as BRICS, public relations and media operations require extensive coordination because diplomatic messages have to reach audiences across countries and platforms in real time. Ravi’s experience in press relations, media centres, logistical coordination and digital coverage places him within this critical operational layer of India’s diplomatic machinery.
Dhruv Mishra: IIT-BHU Graduate Who Excelled in Geography
Dhruv Mishra is a 2018-batch IFS officer who secured All India Rank 109 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2017. He comes from an engineering and management background, having graduated from IIT-BHU before completing an MBA from MDI Gurgaon.
Mishra cleared the UPSC examination on his second attempt and chose Geography as his optional subject. His performance in the subject was particularly notable: he scored 318 marks, making him the second-highest scorer nationally in Geography during his selection year.
His diplomatic career has included assignments within the MEA as well as overseas service. He has served as an Under Secretary in the MEA Spokesperson’s Office under the Press Relations division. He has also held responsibilities as Second Secretary and Head of Chancery, handling Press, Information and Culture operations.
In June 2021, Mishra was posted to the Embassy of India in the United Arab Emirates as Third Secretary dealing with Political and Cyber Security matters. His career therefore spans public communication, cultural diplomacy, political work and emerging areas such as cyber security — a combination that reflects the increasingly broad responsibilities of contemporary Indian diplomats.
Manoj Madhav Sreekumaran Nair: Cracking UPSC While Working a Corporate Job
Manoj Madhav Sreekumaran Nair is a 2020-batch IFS officer who secured AIR 105 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2019. His achievement received attention because he prepared for the examination while working a demanding full-time corporate job.
Nair hails from Kerala and holds an engineering degree from the National Institute of Technology, Calicut. He cleared the civil services examination on his third attempt while working a nine-hour corporate shift in Bangalore. Rather than abandoning his professional career during preparation, he studied for three to four hours on weekdays and devoted longer hours to preparation during weekends.
His preparation was heavily based on self-study. For General Studies, he did not rely extensively on traditional full-time classroom coaching and instead used online test-series platforms such as ClearIAS. Sociology was his optional subject, for which he attended coaching in Kerala. One of his notable preparation techniques was maintaining a “book of wrongs”, in which he recorded and reviewed mistakes made during mock tests. He regarded Prelims as the toughest stage of the examination and used this method to improve his performance.
After joining the MEA, Nair served as Second Secretary at the Embassy of India in Brussels, Belgium. He completed his Brussels tenure in early 2026 and returned to New Delhi, where he currently serves as Under Secretary in the External Publicity & Public Diplomacy [XPD] Division of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Abu Mathen George: Veteran Diplomat With a Wide International Experience
Abu Mathen George is a 2009-batch IFS officer who has built a distinguished diplomatic career through assignments at MEA headquarters as well as Indian missions abroad. His experience includes work in the United States and Saudi Arabia, alongside responsibilities connected with press, political and public-diplomacy matters.
George has an academic background in law and international studies. He studied at the National Law School of India University, where he contributed academic writing, including a law-review article published in the National Law School of India Review in 2004. He later pursued advanced studies at Princeton University.
Early in his diplomatic career, he served as Under Secretary [DD] at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. He was subsequently posted to the United States, where he served as Second Secretary handling Press, Information and Political responsibilities and later as First Secretary dealing with Press, Information and Culture.
In August 2023, George assumed charge as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of India in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. During his 2023–2026 tenure, he worked with Ambassador Dr. Suhel Khan on a range of diplomatic engagements, including higher-education collaborations, regional security and issues concerning the large Indian diaspora in Saudi Arabia. He completed the assignment in August 2026 before moving towards his next diplomatic responsibility.
George is also part of a diplomatic family. He is married to Manusmriti, who is herself a career diplomat from the 2011 batch of the Indian Foreign Service.
Asad Zuberi: From Hero MotoCorp to the Indian Foreign Service
Asad Zuberi is an IFS officer who secured AIR 86 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2022 on his third attempt. Originally from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, he chose Anthropology as his optional subject and eventually achieved his goal of joining the diplomatic service after a journey marked by professional, financial and personal challenges.
Zuberi completed his schooling at Our Lady of Fatima School and AMU Senior Secondary School in Aligarh before graduating with a BTech in Mechanical Engineering from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad in 2019. His father is a retired employee of Aligarh Muslim University, his mother is a homemaker and his brother Fahad Zuberi is an architect.
After graduation, Zuberi worked in the automobile industry with Hero MotoCorp for around one and a half years. He eventually resigned because he wanted to pursue a career in international diplomacy and was dissatisfied with corporate life. His UPSC journey stretched across three attempts. He initially appeared with partial preparation to understand the examination pattern. In his second attempt, he cleared Prelims and Mains and reached the Interview stage, but missed the final selection by only six to eight marks.
The third attempt brought the breakthrough. In UPSC CSE 2022, he secured AIR 86 and entered the Indian Foreign Service. His preparation period was not easy: after leaving his job, he faced financial constraints, while his time preparing in Mumbai brought periods of loneliness and anxiety. Despite these difficulties, he remained supported by friends and family and maintained interests such as playing the guitar and working out.
After training at LBSNAA and the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service, Zuberi moved into operational diplomacy. While posted at the Indian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, he played a critical role during Operation Sindhu in 2025, leading a team that helped evacuate hundreds of Indian citizens stranded amid regional geopolitical conflicts.
Beyond diplomacy, Zuberi has a strong interest in writing and music. He ran a popular Quora blog called “Chai Biscuit”, which was discussed during his UPSC interview. One of his emotional posts dedicated to his mother received wider attention and was carried by The Better India and other media outlets. He is also interested in percussion instruments, music and writing.
Vikram Grewal: The Writer-Diplomat Who Secured AIR 51
Vikram Grewal is a 2019-batch IFS officer who secured AIR 51 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2018. He cleared the examination on his first attempt and was also recognised for securing the country’s highest essay score that year, with 161 marks. Alongside his diplomatic career, Grewal has developed a reputation as an author and blogger.
Born into a military family, Grewal is the son of Brigadier K.S. Grewal. His father’s postings took the family across different parts of India, giving him exposure to multiple regions and helping cultivate what he described as a pan-Indian identity and an interest in representing the country internationally. He completed high school at KC Public School in Jammu in 2014 and later moved to New Delhi, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in History from St Stephen’s College, Delhi University, in 2017.
After graduation, Grewal dedicated himself to civil-services preparation and selected History as his optional subject. His preparation relied on structured self-study, mock tests and rigorous note-making. When the CSE 2018 results were announced in April 2019, he secured AIR 51 at the age of 22.
His rank also carried an unusual coincidence. Article 51 of the Indian Constitution deals with the promotion of international peace and security, while Grewal had secured Rank 51 and was joining the Indian Foreign Service. He regarded the connection as a poetic coincidence with his eventual career in diplomacy.
Following foundation training at LBSNAA in Mussoorie and specialised training at the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service in New Delhi, Grewal worked in the MEA Covid Cell during the initial phase of the pandemic, handling matters concerning Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He subsequently served as Second Secretary dealing with Political, PIC and Commerce at the Embassy of India in Seychelles and also undertook diplomatic assignments in France. He currently serves as Regional Passport Officer in Amritsar, Punjab.
Grewal has also built a parallel identity as a writer-diplomat. His long-running personal blog, “Besan Ka Halwa”, features creative commentary, travel accounts and essays. He has authored three books — The Initiative, Shark Chutney and Essays PTO, the last being a non-fiction compilation intended to guide future UPSC aspirants.
Sidharth Babu: The Mandarin Interpreter Seen With Modi, Putin and Xi
Sidharth Babu, also spelled Siddharth Babu, is a 2017-batch Indian Foreign Service officer who serves as a diplomatic interpreter for Prime Minister Narendra Modi while also holding the position of Deputy Secretary in the East Asia Division of the Ministry of External Affairs.
He came into the public spotlight in September 2026 after photographs from the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi showed him alongside Prime Minister Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. His presence in the high-level interaction highlighted the often-unseen role of professional interpreters in enabling direct communication between leaders whose languages and diplomatic nuances are vastly different.
Babu is originally from Kochi, Kerala, and comes from a private middle-class family. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Mar Athanasius College of Engineering in 2012 and worked in the private e-commerce sector before entering public service.
His UPSC journey was marked by an early setback. He failed to clear the examination in his first attempt but subsequently changed his strategy and adopted what has been described as a balanced and stress-free approach. He cleared the examination on his second attempt, securing AIR 15 in the 2016 examination.
Despite a rank that could have enabled him to join the IAS, Babu deliberately chose the Indian Foreign Service because of his interest in international relations and global diplomacy. After joining the MEA in 2017, he developed specialised linguistic and regional expertise, including advanced training at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, where he trained as a Mandarin interpreter.
Before taking up his current desk assignment in New Delhi, Babu served at Indian diplomatic missions in Beijing, China, where he spent four years, and San Francisco in the United States. His Mandarin expertise has become particularly valuable in his current responsibilities dealing with India’s diplomatic engagements with East Asia, where even subtle differences in language can have significant geopolitical implications.
His high-profile public appearances did not begin with BRICS 2026. In January 2026, during India’s 77th Republic Day celebrations, he was also seen serving as the official interpreter during Prime Minister Modi’s interaction with the chief guest, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
A Young Diplomatic Team Working Behind India’s Global Message
The individual careers of these officers demonstrate how modern diplomacy extends far beyond traditional ambassadorial assignments. Public diplomacy, press relations, digital communication, interpretation, cultural engagement, evacuation operations, cyber security and regional expertise are all now integral to India’s international outreach.
The BRICS 2026 Summit brought many of these responsibilities together. While the joint declaration represented the visible diplomatic outcome of the summit, its successful execution depended on a much wider institutional network working behind the scenes.
For India, the summit was also an opportunity to communicate its position at a time when the international system is being tested by wars, geopolitical rivalries and divisions among major powers. The young diplomats associated with the MEA’s public-diplomacy, press, interpretation and international-engagement ecosystem formed an important part of that effort.
From Kshitij Tyagi’s assertive interventions at the UN and Sidharth Babu’s Mandarin interpretation to the public-relations and media responsibilities handled by officers such as Vasudev Ravi and Megha Sunny, their work represents the less visible but essential side of Indian diplomacy.
The BRICS platform may have placed global leaders at centre stage, but the summit also demonstrated the importance of the professional diplomatic machinery that translates political intent into international engagement.
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