Who is Periasamy Kumaran? India’s next High Commissioner to the UK

IFS officer Periasamy Kumaran has been appointed as India’s next High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday. Kumaran is currently serving as Secretary in the Foreign Ministry.

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Kumaran, a 1992-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, will replace Vikram Doraiswami, who was recently appointed India’s ambassador to China.

Over a three-decade career, Kumaran has held a range of diplomatic assignments across regions, beginning with his first posting as Third Secretary in Cairo between 1994 and 1997. He subsequently served in Tripoli and Brussels, before returning to New Delhi as Deputy Secretary (Europe West) in the Ministry of External Affairs from 2003 to 2005.

He later served as Regional Passport Officer in Bengaluru and was posted to Islamabad as Counsellor from 2007 to 2009, followed by a stint in Washington in a similar role. He then served as Deputy High Commissioner in Colombo between 2011 and 2014.

In New Delhi, Kumaran handled consular, passport, and visa matters as Joint Secretary from 2014 to 2016, before moving to Doha for his first ambassadorial assignment as Ambassador of India to Qatar from 2016 to 2020. He then served as High Commissioner to Singapore from 2020 to 2023.

On his return to India, Kumaran took on roles in economic relations and development partnership administration in the Ministry of External Affairs, serving as Additional Secretary and later Special Secretary before assuming charge as Secretary (East) on April 1, 2025.

Kumaran holds a B.Tech in Electronics and Communication from IIT Madras and speaks English, Tamil, Hindi, and Arabic.