India has appointed senior diplomat Nagesh Singh as the next High Commissioner to Australia, with the experienced Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer set to move to Canberra after serving as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand.
Singh, a 1995-batch IFS officer, is currently India’s envoy in Bangkok. Before taking up that role, he served as Chief of Protocol in the Ministry of External Affairs from July 2018 to October 2022, overseeing high-level visits, state ceremonies and diplomatic protocol for visiting heads of state and government.
Over nearly three decades in the foreign service, Singh has held a series of key postings in New Delhi and overseas that have given him experience across multilateral diplomacy, South Asia, West Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.
In New Delhi, he has worked as:
- Consul General of India in Atlanta (2015–2018), where he engaged closely with the Indian diaspora, US officials and business
- Joint Secretary and Officer on Special Duty to the Vice-President of India (2012–2015)
- Director dealing with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran in the Ministry of External Affairs (2010–2012)
- Private Secretary to the Minister of State for External Affairs (2003–2006)
- Under Secretary handling Pakistan in the ministry (2002–2003).
His overseas assignments have included work at India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, where he handled administrative and budgetary issues at the UN, and postings to the embassies in Paris and Dakar. While in Dakar, he was also accredited to several West African countries, including Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania and The Gambia.
Singh studied economics at the University of Delhi and went on to complete a Master’s degree at the Delhi School of Economics. He speaks Hindi, English and French, and is married to Pragjna Singh; the couple have a son and a daughter.
His posting to Australia comes at a time when New Delhi and Canberra are deepening cooperation in trade, defence, education and technology, underpinned by a large and growing Indian diaspora.
As High Commissioner, Singh will be expected to play a central role in advancing those ties, supporting Indian nationals in Australia and strengthening political, business and people-to-people links between the two countries.
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