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T. S. Tirumurti

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His Excellency[1]
T. S. Tirumurti
Tirumurti in 2018
Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations
In office
19 May 2020 – 30 June 2022
PresidentRam Nath Kovind
Preceded bySyed Akbaruddin
Succeeded byRuchira Kamboj
Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs
In office
5 February 2018[2] – 30 April 2020
Preceded byVijay Keshav Gokhale[3]
Succeeded byRahul Chhabra
High Commissioner of India to Malaysia [5]
In office
20 December 2013[4] – 4 February 2018
Preceded byVijay Keshav Gokhale[6]
Succeeded byMridul Kumar[7]
1st Representative of India to the State of Palestine[8]
In office
1 January 1996 – 1 January 1998
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byP. Harish
Personal details
Born (1962-03-07) 7 March 1962 (age 62)[2]
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
SpouseGowri Tirumurti[2]
RelativesRamanathan Krishnan (Father in-law)
OccupationIFS
ProfessionCivil Servant

T. S. Tirumurti (born 7 March 1962) is a retired Indian civil servant (Ambassador) of the Indian Foreign Service cadre.[9] His diplomatic career spanned 37 years (1985-2022). He served as the Secretary to Government of India and later as Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in New York when India became a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 8th time.[10] He was also the President of the UN Security Council for August 2021.[11]

After his retirement from the Indian Foreign Service, Tirumurti has been appointed as Distinguished Professor in Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai.[12] He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar.[13]

Personal life

[edit]

Tirumurti was born in Coimbatore.[14] He completed his schooling at the Vidya Mandir, Chennai. He secured his Bachelor of Commerce degree from Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Chennai. The teachings of Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna and the Holy Mother have since guided him in his life. He subsequently completed his LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University in 1985.[2] He is the grandson of Dr. T. S. Tirumurti who was the Principal of Stanley Medical College, Chennai and Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University.[15]

He is married to Gowri Tirumurti and they have two children - a daughter and a son.[2] Tirumurti's wife Gowri is the daughter of the retired tennis player Ramanathan Krishnan.[16][17] Gowri was the Indian National Juniors Champion in 1982 and competed in French Open Juniors.[17] She is currently a Partner in an Intellectual Property Law firm, Delhi. Their son Vishwajit and daughter Bhavani are also tennis players.[14][18]

Career

[edit]

Ambassador T. S. Tirumurti joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1985. He served in Indian diplomatic missions in Cairo, Geneva, Gaza, Washington, D.C., Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. He has served at the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India in New Delhi as Under Secretary (Bhutan), Director (Foreign Secretary's Office), Joint Secretary (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Maldives) as well as Joint Secretary (United Nations Economic and Social Division).[2]

Tirumurti was the first Representative of India to the Palestinian National Authority.[19][20][8] He was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Jakarta and the Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia.[2] He served as Secretary of Economic Relations in the Ministry of External Affairs, India, handling the Economic Relations portfolio (which included, inter alia, the Gulf and the Arab World, Africa, and India's Development Partnership).

Being an Arabic language speaker, and also having served in Egypt and Palestine, and having dealt with the Gulf and the Arab world as Secretary in Delhi, Tirumurti is widely recognised as an expert on the Arab world.

United Nations

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On 19 May 2020, he took over as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations succeeding Syed Akbaruddin.[21]

While he was Permanent Representative to the United Nations, India was elected to the UN Security Council in July 2020.[22] India entered the UN Security Council for a two-year term on 1 January 2021. India was also elected to the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for 2021-2025 and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) for the term 2021–2023.[citation needed]

He served as the Chair of the UN Security Council's Taliban Sanctions Committee (also called as 1988 sanctions committee), Libya Sanctions Committee (also called as 1970 Sanctions committee) in 2021-2022 and the Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee in 2022.[23]

In accordance with the monthly rotation policy, he was President of the UN Security Council for August 2021.[24] An important resolution passed under his presidency was the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2593 on Afghanistan (passed on 31 August), which took into account "collective concerns" in particular on terrorism, where it has noted the "commitment of the Taliban not to allow the use of the Afghan soil for terrorism, including from terrorists and terrorist groups designated under resolution 1267." It was important since it was the first resolution to be passed after the Taliban announced its government in Afghanistan.[25]

In December, after several decades, for the first time India voted against the United Nations Security Council's draft resolution on Climate Change and Security. Tirumurti underlined that UNSC was not the forum for discussion on climate, and called the resolution a motivated attempt to evade responsibility from the appropriate forum. India felt strongly that climate change should be dealt within UNFCCC where all countries of the world participate in the decision making on climate change.[26]

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Tirumurti explained India's abstentions from the UN Security Council vote after Russia militarily intervened in Ukraine.[27][28] Out of the Council's 15 members, 11 voted in favor, 1 (Russia itself) voted against, and 3 (China, India, and the United Arab Emirates) abstained; the resolution thus failed due to Russia's use of its veto power.[28]

Again in May 2022, Tirumurti was in the news when he replied to a tweet by the Ambassador of the Netherlands to the UK and Northern Ireland who stated that India should not have abstained from voting in the UN General Assembly's session on Ukraine. In the tweet, the Dutch envoy, Karel van Oosterom, said to Mr Tirumurti "You should not have abstained in the GA. Respect the UN Charter." He replied saying "Kindly don't patronize us Ambassador, we know what to do".[29]

Environment and Climate Change

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Tirumurti has been a negotiator for climate change for several years, right from his stint in Geneva with the Permanent Mission of India to the UN (1993) and later as Joint Secretary and Head of Division of UN on economic and social matters at Headquarters. Along with the Ambassador Burhan Gafoor of Singapore, he is credited with coining the term “Nationally Determined Contribution” at the Warsaw Conference of Parties of Climate Change in 2013.[30] He has handled various environment-related issues, including biodiversity, desertification etc. He was also in charge of the International Solar Alliance as Secretary in the Ministry and helped organize its first meeting in New Delhi in 2018. Along with 9 other countries cutting across regions, Tirumurti drafted and read out an important statement on “Global Net Zero” at the UN during World Environment Day in June 2022.[31]

Publications

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Tirumurti has authored the following books-

  • Kissing the Heavens: The Kailash - Manasarovar Yatra (1999)[32]
  • Clive Avenue (2002)[33]
  • Chennaivaasi (2012)[34]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "H. E. Ambassador T. S. Tirumurti". United Nations.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "MEA - About MEA : Profiles : Secretary (ER)". 20 February 2018. Archived from the original on 20 February 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ Diplomat T S Tirumurti Appointed Economic Relations Secretary News18. Retrieved 29 August 2021
  4. ^ "Welcome to High Commission of India, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)". 20 February 2018. Archived from the original on 20 February 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ "Vijay Gokhale, T S Tirumurti rise on Malaysia experience". The Times of India.
  6. ^ "Know Your Diplomat: India's new ambassador to Germany Vijay Keshav Gokhale". www.babusofindia.com.
  7. ^ "Indian Mandarins is Exclusive News, Views and Analysis News portal on Indian bureaucracy, governance, PSUs and Corporate".
  8. ^ a b "Welcome to Representative Office of India, Ramallah, Palestine". www.roiramallah.org.
  9. ^ Indian Foreign Service [@indiandiplomats] (1 July 2022). "IFSA bid fond farewell to Mr T S Tirumurti, PR at UN, New York..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  10. ^ "T S Tirumurti appointed India's Permanent Representative to the UN". gulfnews.com. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  11. ^ "Ambassador T. S. Tirumurti (India) on the programme of work for the month of August - Security Council Media Stakeout | UN Web TV". webtv.un.org. 2 August 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  12. ^ "Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, India". IIT Madras. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Board of Governors | Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology". www.daiict.ac.in. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  14. ^ a b A. Subramani (5 May 2020). "Proud to be from Chennai, says civil servant made India's representative to UN | Chennai News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  15. ^ "INSA :: Deceased Fellow Detail". insaindia.res.in. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  16. ^ "Ramanathan Krishnan". prtraveller.blogspot.in. 21 March 2015.
  17. ^ a b Frederick, Prince (25 April 2014). "How the Krishnans brought Wimbledon home". The Hindu – via www.thehindu.com.
  18. ^ "College Tennis Teams - University of Denver - Team Roster - Bhavani Tirumurti". www.collegetennisonline.com.
  19. ^ "Shodhganga : a reservoir of Indian theses @ INFLIBNET" (PDF).
  20. ^ "The Telegraph - Calcutta : Opinion". www.telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 17 November 2004.
  21. ^ "TS Tirumurthy will permanent representative of India to UN to replace Syed Akbaruddin, | NewsCrab". www.newscrab.com. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  22. ^ Chaudhury, Dipanjan Roy. "India wins 184 out 192 votes to enter UN Security Council". The Economic Times. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  23. ^ "Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee | Security Council - Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC)". www.un.org. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  24. ^ "India set to take over as President of UN Security Council for month of August". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  25. ^ "India's envoy Tirumurti calls for inclusive dispensation in Afghanistan at UNSC". WION. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  26. ^ Haidar, Suhasini (18 December 2021). "Explained | Why did India reject UNSC draft on climate?". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  27. ^ Bengali, Shashank; Bigg, Matthew Mpoke (25 February 2022). "Live Updates: Kyiv Rocked by Explosions for Second Night". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  28. ^ a b Security Council Fails to Adopt Draft Resolution on Ending Ukraine Crisis, as Russian Federation Wields Veto, United Nations (25 February 2022).
  29. ^ ""Don't Patronize Us Ambassador": India's UN Envoy On Tweet Over Ukraine". NDTV.com. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  30. ^ "How four Tamilians rescued Warsaw climate talks that led to Paris pact". Moneycontrol. 19 November 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  31. ^ "Cross- Regional Joint Statement on Global Net Zero Delivered by Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations". pminewyork.gov.in. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  32. ^ "Book review: T.S. Tirumurti's 'Kissing The Heavens'". India Today. 31 May 1999.
  33. ^ "The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum - Literature". www.tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  34. ^ "Tirumurti's 'Chennaivaasi' is a charming read". 8 June 2012.
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