Ms Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa has been a distinguished career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. She was the first Indian woman to be appointed Ambassador to the Gulf State of Qatar and later Japan. She has also been India’s Ambassador to Sweden, Latvia and Republic of Marshall Islands. Earlier, she served twice in China, besides stints in Switzerland and Netherlands. She was instrumental in the active promotion of India’s economic interests in the areas of trade, technology, investments and energy security. While with the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, she has held the charge of Joint Secretary responsible for Indian relations with the United Nations and its agencies, including development related programmes of UNICEF, ILO, UNDP, WHO etc. in India. She worked extensively on issues relating to human rights, disarmament and environment, and continues to have an abiding interest in these subjects. A graduate from Madras University, she has an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and post graduate degree in English Literature. She joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1979. Hailing from the state of Kerala in India, but domiciled in Tamil Nadu, Ms Wadhwa speaks English, Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi. She also has conversational skills in Mandarin. Her husband, Mr Anil Wadhwa, was also a career diplomat who has served as Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, and till recently, was India’s Ambassador to Italy.