Senior IFS officer Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha was appointed as India’s High Commissioner to the UK succeeding Navtej Sarna. Sinha, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of the 1981 batch, is currently serving as India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. Sarna has been appointed as India’s Ambassador to the US.

Earlier this month, the government had appointed 1988- batch IFS officer Taranjit Singh Sandhu as the next High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka to replace Sinha. Sinha, who is expected to take up his assignment shortly, is a seasoned diplomat and in his career spanning 35 years he has handled several important assignments at the MEA and in Indian diplomatic missions in South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, South America and the Permanent Mission of India at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Before coming to Sri Lanka, he was the Additional Secretary heading the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division at the Ministry of External Affairs. He was Ambassador of India to Venezuela from January 2007 to August 2009 and Consul General of India in Dubai from August 2003 to December 2006. Earlier, he served as Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi (UAE) from March 2002 to July 2003.