Ajay Kumar, IFS

Joint Secretary, Development Partnership Administration, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India

Shri A Ajay Kumar joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in the year 2001, and he is currently posted as Joint Secretary (Development Partnership Administration-I).

During 2003-2006, Shri Ajay Kumar was posted as Third Secretary between 2003 and 2005 and as Second Secretary [Info] and Head of Chancery during 2005-06 in the Indian Embassy in Tehran. He learned the Persian Language during this stay in Iran. After that, he returned to India and served in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi as Under Secretary dealing with Pakistan during 2006-08.

He served in the Indian Embassy in Bahrain where he headed the Political Section (2008-2012) and in Tehran (2012-14). He was appointed India’s Ambassador to Iraq in 2014. He played a significant role in rescuing Indian nurses stranded in various hospitals in the crisis-ridden area of Iraq during 2014-15. After the completion of the Iraq assignment, he served as Deputy High Commissioner in Canberra, Australia (2016-17).

He served in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi in the Indian Ocean Region of MEA as Joint Secretary (IOR-II) before assuming his charge as JS (DPA-I).

Shri A Ajay Kumar holds the graduate degree of BA in Political Science and LLB from the University of Calicut in Kerala.