Former Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Thursday took oath as a Cabinet minister in the second tenure of Narendra Modi government. In the absence of former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj from the Union Cabinet, Jaishankar is tipped to take charge of the key ministry.
Mr Jaishankar had served as foreign secretary in the Modi government from January 2015 to January 2018 and was instrumental in heralding truce between Indian and Chinese troops face-off at Doklam in 2017.
He had also served as Ambassador of India to the US and China and it was during his tenure in Washington that Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook a successful visit during the Presidency of Barrack Obama.
After retirement, he took over as the Tata Group’s president of Global Corporate Affairs. His inclusion in the Union Cabinet signals Mr Modi’s preference for taking services of experts and specialists in his team.
