19 Facts About Shivshankar Menon

Shivshankar Menon was born on 5 July 1949 and is a retired Indian diplomat of Indian Foreign Service who served as National Security Advisor of India to Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh.

Shivshankar Menon had previously served as the Foreign Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Shivshankar Menon is currently Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress.

Shivshankar Menon is Visiting Professor of International Relations at Ashoka University.

Shivshankar Menon comes from a family of diplomats; his father, Parappil Narayana Menon, served as the ambassador to Yugoslavia in his last days.

Shivshankar Menon's great-grandfather, Sir C Sankaran Nair, was a president of the Indian National Congress in 1897, so far the only Malayali to hold this position.

Shivshankar Menon started his career in 1972 with the Indian Foreign Service.

Shivshankar Menon served in the Department of Atomic Energy as Advisor to the Atomic Energy Commission.

Shivshankar Menon was then posted to Beijing, the second of three postings he served in China.

Shivshankar Menon has served as Ambassador to Israel and High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Shivshankar Menon was appointed Foreign Secretary in 2006, and was the National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

Shivshankar Menon relinquished office as India's 4th National Security Advisor on 15 May 2014.

Shivshankar Menon is currently a Visiting Professor of International Relations at Ashoka University.

Shivshankar Menon joined the Brookings Institution as a distinguished fellow and serves as chairman of the advisory board of the Institute of Chinese Studies based in New Delhi.

Shivshankar Menon has been a Fisher Family Fellow at the Kennedy School, Harvard University 2015 and Richard Wilhelm Fellow at MIT in 2015.

Shivshankar Menon joined the Institute of South Asian Studies at National University of Singapore as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow in November 2017.

Shivshankar Menon wrote "Choices: Inside The Making of Indian Foreign Policy" that was first published in 2016 and was based on his experience as National Security Advisor of India.

Shivshankar Menon is married to Mohini Menon and has a daughter and a son.

Shivshankar Menon has interests in classical music and the Himalayas.