Smita Purushottam (d.o.b. 19.10.57) served as Ambassador to Venezuela (Jan 2012 – Jun 2015), Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Holy See (Aug 2015-Oct 2017); as Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India in Berlin; Minister (Political) at the High Commission of India, London; Counsellor for Economic and Commercial Affairs at the Indian Embassy in Beijing and Brussels, and Second Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, New York and the Embassy of India, Moscow.
She served also as Joint Secretary at the Foreign Service Institute (MEA), New Delhi; Joint Secretary in the Integrated Defence Staff Headquarters; Director/Under Secretary (East Europe/Russia/Soviet Union) and SAARC, Deputy Secretary (United Nations Economic) and Under Secretary (Bhutan) in MEA. She was one of the very few Indian foreign office officials who predicted that Glasnost and Perestroika would lead to the unwinding of Communist Party rule in the USSR.
In Brussels in the early 90s she handled responsibility for economic and commercial affairs and helped to launch the first Indo-Europe software alliance with Shri Dewang Mehta, President of NASSCOM; she worked on business development and aid projects like the ISO TQM project, upgrading quality standards in the auto components sector, and many others. She focused on these areas although the potential of these sectors was not recognised even in India, while abroad, India’s emerging excellence in these sectors was virtually unknown.
As Counsellor for Economic and Commercial Affairs in Beijing, she learnt about China’s progress and economic reforms first hand. She made friends, cultivated extensive contacts, handled many commercial delegations, and analysed key aspects of China’s development experience which she relayed back to interested departments and industry associations in India. She was the only female member from a developing country of a diplomatic officers group dedicated to analysing the Chinese economy. The assignment led her to focus on decoding China’s development trajectory in later years.
As Min (Pol), London, she handled responsibility for political affairs and participated in the think tank community. She cultivated key allies in the British Parliament which helped to turn sentiment in favour of India. As DCM, Berlin, she handled responsibility for the political and administrative wings, interacted with German MPs and think tanks, and handled several high-level/ VVIP visits during Germany’s Presidency of the G-8, the EU and Chairmanship of the NSG. She played a key role in transmitting the German Foreign Office’ advice which led to the NSG finally granting a waiver enabling full civil nuclear cooperation with India on September 6, 2008.
In Venezuela, she tried very hard to promote India’s interests but despite great efforts there was limited scope to achieve creative results. She was able to facilitate some forms of cooperation. In Switzerland, she transformed a sleepy bilateral relationship into a robust partnership with the world’s leading country in innovation, international competitiveness, vocational education, and environmental performance, with 3 Summits held in quick succession. Concrete progress was achieved on critical matters, including addressing black money and garnering Swiss support for India’s Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) candidature. Additionally, her diplomatic efforts attracted investment commitments from high-tech Swiss firms. She worked with utmost diligence, imagination, empathy and integrity throughout her career.
Her hobbies are reading, Russian literature, amateur science, social work, writing, walking, swimming, painting, theatre, movies and ballet. She is committed to environmental causes and has planted several trees at different locations in Delhi, India, Caracas and Berne; she has donated to NGOs planting trees in India and is looking to join an NGO dedicated to preserving the environment. During her younger days she acted in college plays, participated in inter-college, inter-university debates and quizzes, trekked in Kashmir and wrote several articles for her college magazine and The Statesman on various topics – philosophy, social work, youth issues and literature. She also did some social work. She speaks Russian, French and Hindi and once upon a time could read limited Spanish.
Ms. Purushottam did her schooling in New Delhi, Moscow, and Geneva. Ms. Purushottam earned a Master’s degree (1st class) in History from Delhi University in 1979. She taught History briefly at Jesus & Mary College, Delhi University and joined the M.Phil. program at Delhi University – both in 1979. She won a Fellowship for a PhD in European History at Cornell University in the same year that she qualified for the Indian Foreign Service (1980), which she joined. She was selected in 1984 for a panel of Judges for books qualifying for the Hunger Media Awards awarded by a non-profit NGO affiliated to the United Nations.
She spent a year as Fellow at Harvard during 2000-2001 where she prepared a paper “Can India Overtake China?” (2001), in which she compared the two economies and their respective reform experiences, and recommended building a strong high-tech manufacturing sector like China. She emphasised the importance of embedded technology, now called the IOT, and predicted the success of the telecom sector reforms in India.
She joined the Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi in 2010, as Senior Fellow where she focused on the Chinese innovation eco-system and Russia. The Eurasia cluster at IDSA launched and headed by her revived studies on Eurasia. She pointed out the urgency of matching Chinese advances in science & technology; her publications/ predictions regarding the increasing gap between India and China and need for action have been validated by current developments. She also started the High-Tech Defence Innovation Forum at IDSA, since renamed as SITARA. The Forum provided a platform for discussion on issues relating to developing advanced technologies in India.
She attended courses at the National Defence University, Washington in July-August 2002, and the Workshop on the Relationship Between National Security and Technology in China at the University of California, San Diego, in July-August 2013. She also attended the High-Performance Leadership course at IMD, Lausanne in May 2017. Earlier she had attended management classes at VUB, Brussels.
Ms. Purushottam has been published in reputed journals and newspapers in India and abroad.
Multiple occasions (not in official capacity)
Occasional appearances on TV on Russia, ICT security and India’s space program