New Delhi Ajay Bisaria, High Commissioner of India to Pakistan, has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to Canada.He is expected to take up the assignment shortly.Ajay Bisaria is a career diplomat, who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1987. He is currently the High Commissioner of India to Pakistan. Prior to joining the diplomatic service, Bisaria worked briefly with the American Express Bank and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.
He served as Under Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs on the East Europe desk (1991 – 92) when India was engaged in building new relationships with the post-Soviet countries. He then moved to the Ministry of Commerce (1992- 95), in the era of economic liberalization. He contributed to a new trade policy paradigm, using his training in economics and finance as part of a team that managed a complex but successful transition of India’s trade from rupee barter arrangements to a hard currency system.
He was posted as First Secretary in the Indian Embassy in Berlin (1995–1999), where he looked after commercial matters at a time of rising economic engagement between Germany and a liberalizing India. He was also entrusted with the project for the development and construction of the now-iconic building of the Indian Embassy in Berlin in the historic Tiergarten.
Ajay Bisaria was appointed Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of India in 1999, and served in this capacity till 2004. During most of this period, he was aide to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and contributed to various economic, defense and foreign policy initiatives of the period. He attended more than 50 international meets with the Prime Minister.
Bisaria was posted to the World Bank in Washington D.C. as Advisor to the Executive Director for South Asia (2004–2008), where he worked on development projects and aid issues, contributing to corporate governance and multilateral economic diplomacy. He was involved in developing a policy approach to enhance India’s rankings in the Doing Business Reports.
In 2009, Bisaria moved to Delhi to serve as Joint Secretary (Eurasia) in the Ministry of External Affairs (2009–2014). His assignment was to head the Division coordinating overall policy and bilateral relations with the Eurasia region (including Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia). He helped articulate an ambitious policy vision for India in Central Asia (‘Connect Central Asia’) and coordinated India’s approach to six annual Indo-Russian summits. He helped articulate a coherent long-term vision of the India-Russia ‘special and privileged strategic partnership’. He also worked on India’s policy approach to multilateral entities like SCO and the Russia – India – China trilateral dialogue
