Ajai Malhotra becomes first Indian Chairperson of the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council

Ajai Malhotra. (Source: Russia Beyond)

Ajai Malhotra has become the first Indian to be elected as Chairperson of the Advistory Committee of the Human Rights Council (HRC), ANI reported on February 15.

Ajai Malhotra becomes first Indian to be elected as the Chairperson of the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council: Permanent Mission of India at United Nations, Geneva

— ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2021

Ajai Malhotra holds an MA in Economics from the Delhi University. According to the information on website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Malhotra first joined the Indian Foreign Services in 1977.

He has also served as the Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation till his retirement in 2013.

After retirement, he served from 2015 to 2019 as Independent Director of India’s public sector oil and gas company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), as also of ONGC Videsh (2017–2019).

Malhotra has been on the Indian team negotiating issues such as biological diversity, climate change, desertification, education, energy, forestry, health, human rights, human settlements, intellectual property, international law, labour, ozone depletion, sustainable development and trade.