The senior diplomat, who is currently serving as ambassador to the US, is likely to take over soon after Republic Day, 2020, reports Times of India.
He will take over from the incumbent, Vijay Gokhale, an expert on China and East Asia, who succeeded S. Jaishankar as foreign secretary in January 2018. Jaishankar was appointed external affairs minister by the Prime Minister NarendraModi in January 2015, and unusually, got a year’s extension in the job.
Shringla, an alumnus of St Stephen’s College and Mayo College, Ajmer, served as ambassador to Thailand and high commissioner to Bangladesh, before taking over as ambassador to the US.
He was also joint secretary in charge of the Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives division, so would have a deeper understanding of the neighbourhood, which is of primary concern to the government.
He will supersede three other officers — RuchiGhanshyam (1982) and Rajeev Chander (1983) and Amita Nair (1983) — when he takes over. Ghanshyam is the current high commissioner to the UK, Chander is the Indian PR in Geneva and Nair is India’s ambassador to Chile.
Unusually too, Shringla would have a few months left over in his civil services career after serving two years as foreign secretary. Shringla’s appointment is likely to be succeeded by appointments to other key capitals.