Dr Shashi Tharoor
Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs

Dr Shashi Tharoor is a recognised authority on India and is currently serving his fourth term as a Lok Sabha MP representing the constituency of Thiruvananthapuram. He has previously chaired the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Information Technology as well as the Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilisers.

He has also served as Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. Before entering Indian politics, he had a nearly three-decade-long career at the United Nations. There, he served as a peacekeeper, refugee worker and administrator at the highest levels, including as Senior Adviser to the Secretary-General and as Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information during the leadership of Mr Kofi Annan.

Dr Tharoor, a prominent human rights advocate, also served as International Adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva from 2008 to 2011.

Dr Tharoor is an award-winning author of over twenty-five books, both fiction and non-fiction. He has won numerous awards, including the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award and the Sahitya Akademi Award.

He has also been awarded the Encomienda de la Real Order Española de Carlos III, Spain’s highest civilian honor, by The King of Spain and the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the Government of France, their highest civilian distinction.