Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri (born 1952) is a former

assistant secretary-general An under-secretary-general of the United Nations (USG) is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the secretary-general for a renewable term of four years. Under- ...

at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

and the former deputy

executive director Executive director is commonly the title of the chief executive officer of a non-profit organization, government agency or international organization. The title is widely used in North American and European not-for-profit organizations, though ...

UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women advocates for the rights of women and girls, and foc ...

. Prior to her 15-year stint at the United Nations, she served as an Indian diplomat for 28 years. From 1999 until 2002, she was India's Ambassador to

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, while also concurrently accredited to

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

Personal life and education

Puri was born as Lakshmi Murdeshwar into a family hailing from the town of

Murdeshwar Murdeshwar is a town in Uttara Kannada district in the state of Karnataka, India, It is famous for the world's second tallest Shiva statue, the town lies on the coast of the Arabian Sea and is also famous for the Murudeshwara Temple. The town h ...

in coastal

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. Her father, Balakrishna Murdeshwar, was a

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

litterateur and academician, and her mother, Malathi, born into a

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

speaking family was a home-maker and, according to Puri's own account, a "fierce feminist" who defied her family to marry according to her own wishes. She has one older sister, Indira Bhargava, a former Indian Civil Servant and a former chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Puri studied for her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

(Hons) degree in

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

at the

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

, and her

Master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

's degree at

Panjab University Panjab University (PU) is a collegiate public state university located in Chandigarh, Punjab. Funded through both State and Union governments, it is considered a state university. It traces its origins to the University of the Punjab in Laho ...

. She also holds professional diplomas in history, public policy and administration, international relations and law, and economic development. She is married to

Hardeep Singh Puri Hardeep Singh Puri (born 15 February 1952) is an Indian politician and former Indian diplomat who is currently serving as the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs in the Government of India. He present ...

, who is an Indian politician and former diplomat. He serves as a cabinet minister in the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. His appointment as

Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOP&NG) is a ministry of the government of India responsible for the exploration, production, refining, distribution, marketing, import, export, and conservation of petroleum, natural gas, petroleum ...

began in July 2021, and as

Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is a ministry of the Government of India with executive authority over the formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to the housing and urban development in Ind ...

in September 2017. They have two daughters.

Career

Civil Service

Ambassador Puri joined the

Indian Foreign Service The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is the diplomatic service and a central civil service of the Government of India under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary is the head of the service. Vinay Mohan Kwatra is the 34th and the ...

in 1974 and served in Japan, Sri Lanka, and Switzerland (in

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

). She was appointed ambassador to Hungary in March 1999 and served there until July 2002, while also accredited to Bosnia and Herzegovina. During her term there, she worked closely with the UN peacekeeping operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNPROFOR). At the Ministry of External Affairs headquarters in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

, she served as the

undersecretary Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is al ...

on the Japan and Korea desk and later as undersecretary on the

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

desk. She also served as the Joint-Secretary Economic Division and Multilateral Economic Relations (ED & MER) for six years. She was active in negotiating India's many bilateral,

plurilateral A plurilateral agreement is a multi-national legal or trade agreement between countries. In the jargon of global economics, it is an agreement between more than two countries, but not a great many, which would be multilateral agreement. Use of the ...

and multilateral economic diplomacy initiatives such as the Look East policy, Indo-

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...

Dialogue Partnership,

Indian-Ocean Rim Association The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), formerly known as the Indian Ocean Rim Initiative and the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), is an international organisation consisting of 23 states bordering the Indian Ocea ...

Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations, housing 1.73 billion people and having a combined gross domestic pro ...

as well as for the

Group of 15 The Group of 15 (G-15)Thofficial website adopts the "G-15" orthography (with a hyphen) in order to distinguish an abbreviated reference to this group -- contrasts with other similarly named entities. is an informal forum set up to foster coopera ...

forum.

United Nations

UNCTAD

Puri continued with her trade and economic policy work when she joined the

in 2002 as the director of

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the ...

’s (

UNCTAD The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations Secretariat that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade. It was established in 1964 by the ...

) flagship Division on Trade in goods, services and commodities. She became Acting Deputy Secretary-General of

(2007 to 2009). From 2009 to 2011, she was director of the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-ORLLS) in New York.

UN Women

Puri was appointed

of the

and deputy executive director of the pioneering global entity for promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women -

in 2011.

Recognition and awards

Puri was the recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights in 2016, the Novus Award for Championing the Sustainable Development Goals ( Novus Summit), and the Millennium Campus Award 2015. In 2017, for her role in ensuring that a specific gender equality and women's empowerment goal was adopted as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, Puri was recognized for her advocacy and leadership with the inaugural Diwali ''Power of One'' award from the Diwali Foundation USA, (in partnership with the Permanent Missions of India,

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

, and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

to the United Nations).

Selected publications

Puri is a published author of several reports and research papers: * Driving the Gender-Responsive Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UN Women, May 2016

*

Aid for Trade Aid for Trade is an initiative by the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well as a policy concept in international economic and trade development, concerned with helping developing countries and particularly the least developed countries build ...

: Global and Regional perspectives. UNU-CRIS (editor and author), April 2009

* Addressing the Global Energy Crisis. UNCTAD publication (editor), December 2008. * Interface between Trade & Climate Change. UNCTAD publication (editor), November 2007. * Multilateralism and South-South Cooperation. UNCTAD publication (co-author), September 2004

* Trade and Development Review 2003. UNCTAD publication (author introduction), April 2004

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puri, Lakshmi Living people 1952 births Delhi University alumni Panjab University alumni Indian officials of the United Nations Indian women ambassadors Ambassadors of India to Hungary Ambassadors of India to Bosnia and Herzegovina