17 Facts About Lakshmi Puri

Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri was born on 1952 and is a former assistant secretary-general at the United Nations and the former deputy executive director of UN Women.

Lakshmi Puri's father, Balakrishna Murdeshwar, was a Kannada litterateur and academician; her mother, Malathi, was from a Marathi-speaking family.

Lakshmi Puri studied for her Bachelor of Arts degree in history at the University of Delhi, and her Master's degree at Panjab University.

Lakshmi Puri holds professional diplomas in history, public policy and administration, international relations and law, and economic development.

Ambassador Lakshmi Puri joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1974 and served in Japan, Sri Lanka, and Switzerland.

Lakshmi Puri was appointed ambassador to Hungary in March 1999 and served there until July 2002, while accredited to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Lakshmi Puri served as the Joint-Secretary Economic Division and Multilateral Economic Relations for six years.

Lakshmi Puri was active in negotiating India's many bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral economic diplomacy initiatives such as the Look East policy, Indo-ASEAN Dialogue Partnership, Indian-Ocean Rim Association, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation as well as for the Group of 15 forum.

Lakshmi Puri continued with her trade and economic policy work when she joined the United Nations in 2002 as the director of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's flagship Division on Trade in goods, services and commodities.

Lakshmi Puri was the acting Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD from 2007 to 2009.

Lakshmi Puri was appointed assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and deputy executive director of the pioneering global entity for promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women, UN Women in 2011.

Lakshmi Puri was the recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights in 2016, the Novus Award for Championing the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Millennium Campus Award 2015.

In 2017, for her role in ensuring that a specific gender equality and women's empowerment goal was adopted as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, Lakshmi Puri was recognized for her advocacy and leadership with the inaugural Diwali Power of One award from the Diwali Foundation USA,.

Lakshmi Puri is married to Hardeep Singh Lakshmi Puri, who is an Indian politician and former diplomat.

Lakshmi Puri currently serves as a cabinet minister in the Government of India.

Lakshmi Puri has one older sister, Indira Bhargava, a former Indian Civil Servant and a former chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, whom she credits as a major influence in her life.

Lakshmi Puri is a published author of several reports and research papers:.