Arindam Bagchi may replace Anurag Srivastava as MEA spokesperson

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is likely to get a new spokesperson with Arindam Bagchi, an Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1995 batch, replacing Anurag Srivastava as the Joint Secretary (External Publicity).

Sources said that while Bagchi would take over as the new spokesperson of the MEA, Srivastava would replace him as the Joint Secretary (North) at the headquarters of the ministry.

A formal announcement is expected to be made soon.

Bagchi earlier served at India’s embassies in the capitals of Spain and Peru. He also served as First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations in New York. He was posted at the Prime Minister’s Office from May 2010 to June 2014. He served as India’s Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka from June 2014 to September 2018 and as India’s ambassador to Croatia from November 2018 to June 2020. He returned to New Delhi in June 2020 and took over as the Joint Secretary (North) at the MEA headquarters.

Srivastava, who joined the IFS in 1999, had taken over as the MEA spokesperson in April 2020.