India appoints new permanent representative to UN in Geneva

NEW DELHI: lndra Mani Pandey, an IFS officer of 1990 batch and presently additional secretary in the MEA, will be the next Ambassador/Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva, including WHO and UN Human Rights Council where Pakistan has sought to target India for the reorganisation of JnK.
In his nearly three-decade career, Pandey has served in Indian missions in Damascus, Cairo, Islamabad, Kabul, Muscat and Geneva. A fluent Arabic speaker, he has also served as joint secretary in the Disarmament and International Security Affairs division of the MEA in Delhi.
Pandey will lead India's efforts to blunt Pakistan's campaign to vilify India for alleged human rights abuses in JnK in the wake of the reorganisation last August of the state into 2 separate union territories. Pakistan has continued to allege at the Council that India is trying to change the demographic composition of JnK.
In a response last month, India described as unfortunate the fact that Pakistan continued to maintain its track record of misuse of the Human Rights Council and its mechanism. "It's a matter of serious concern that Pakistan being the only country in South Asia of effecting a state-sponsored genocide would have the audacity to accuse others of it," it said.
While in Delhi at the MEA, he served in various capacities in West & North Africa Division, Consular Division, Counter-Terrorism Cell, Americas’ Division and the Division dealing with Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
Pandey is expected to take up the assignment soon, the government said in a statement.