First Indian woman envoy appointed

By Ajnas •

INDIA has for the first time nominated a woman ambassador to any Gulf state. Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa, currently India's ambassador to Sweden, has been appointed ambassador to the Gulf state of Qatar.
The Gulf states have so far been accepting only men as ambassadors. However, with the changing times and change in the profile of the Gulf states, particularly Qatar, the status of women in the Gulf society has undergone a transformation.
Barring Saudi Arabia, the rest of the Gulf states are modernising at a rapid speed and the share of the women employees has increased manifold.
Qatar has a sizeable Indian population of almost 300,000. A big majority of Indians hails from the state of Kerala.
Gopalan Wadhwa is from Kerala and speaks fluent Malayalam despite being educated in north India.
She belongs to the 1979 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and has served in Beijing, The Hague and Geneva. She has also worked for the International Labour Organisation (ILO), where she was in charge of the UN division.
Incidentally, her husband Anil Wadhwa is at present Indian ambassador to Oman.
“The posting to Doha is a very challenging job. To protect the interests of the Indian community will be my priority apart from strengthening the friendly relations between India and Qatar,” Gopalan Wadhwa told IANS over telephone.
She is likely to join her new assignment in August or September after completing her term in Sweden. – IANS

Source:Gulf-Times

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=206823&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

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10 comments Sort by rating

By Mayasunil• 12 Jul 2008 18:33

Killerbee..

Dont worry, She speaks fluent Hindi too... happy?

By skdkak closed 1708224867• 13 Mar 2008 10:21

Rating: 4/5

Is it

First Indian woman envoy appointed

First Indian woman envoy appointed to ME

????????

By killerbee_qa• 13 Mar 2008 10:14

Rating: 5/5

Actually majority of keralites are clerical staff, work in shops, cafeterias and managers. labourers are usually from places like Bihar and UP. And papers like GT gleefully highlight the ambassador speaks malayalam...

By gypsy gal• 13 Mar 2008 09:52

Rating: 5/5

obviously because 75% of the Indian expat community is from Kerala Not all these laborers can read Englis/Hindi, maybe they can understand basic English.

By killerbee_qa• 13 Mar 2008 09:27

Rating: 5/5

Well and good she's a woman...but it's amazing how India's foreign ministry send amabassdors from kerala. it's more a kerala embassy than indian with a lot of signs up in Malayalam and not the national language...Hindi.

Amazing the embassy also closes for kerala festivals and of course, the national holidays.

By gypsy gal• 13 Mar 2008 09:25

Rating: 5/5

heyyyy we are proud to have a Woman envoy from our Country..especially from my state We also have the first Lady President in India.

Indian Women rocks...

By jauntie• 13 Mar 2008 08:59

Rating: 5/5

Crikey! Eminent heritage for their kids ...

Hmmm Just remembered.. when we were in Oman (where her hub is Indian Ambassador) they had a HUGE tourist industry going on with Sweden (where she will now be the Indian Ambassador).

Interesting, but not really connected with the topic - just interesting :D

By syamsat• 13 Mar 2008 08:53

Rating: 4/5

Good to know. Darude is right. If you can write your version of post, it will be more near for us to understand.

By DaRuDe• 13 Mar 2008 08:34

Rating: 2/5

Thanks for the copy paste

now if you can edit your topic

because its unreadable.

By anonymous• 13 Mar 2008 08:29

Rating: 5/5

inspiration.....

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT TOWARDS GLOBAL COMPETETIVENESS....

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First Indian woman envoy appointed

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