Gaitri Issar Kumar (born 20 June 1962) is a retired Indian Foreign Service officer from the 1986 batch. Her last posting was as the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom. Prior to that, she served as Ambassador to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

and

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. She also had stints as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Paris, and Counselor in the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva as well as at the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi.

Early life and education

Kumar was born on 20 June 1962 in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

to a Punjabi family. She completed her early education at

Sophia High School Sophia High School is a private school in Bangalore, India. The middle and high schools are girls only, while the primary school is co-educational. History Sophia High School is located on a land in central Bangalore overlooking the Vidhan ...

and her graduation from

Bangalore University Bangalore University (BU) is a public state university located in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The university is a part of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and affiliated by Univers ...

where she studied history, economics and political science.

Professional career

She joined the Indian Foreign Service as part of the 1986 batch of officers . After serving in several roles, including as the social secretary to the President of India in 2012, Kumar was appointed Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union on 14 June 2017. After the retirement of her predecessor Ruchi Ghanashyam, Kumar became the High Commissioner in London in June 2020. As High Commissioner, Kumar prioritized deepening Indo-UK ties and trade post-Brexit.

References

1962 births Living people People from Bangalore High Commissioners of India to the United Kingdom Ambassadors of India to Belgium Ambassadors of India to the European Union Indian women ambassadors {{India-diplomat-stub