Ambassador Tanmaya Lal, 56 years of age, has served as an Indian diplomat for more than three decades. He joined as Ambassador in Stockholm in December 2020.
His previous two assignments were as High Commissioner to Mauritius (2019-2020) and as Ambassador / Deputy Permanent Representative of India to UN at Permanent Mission of India, New York from 2016-2018. Prior to this he headed the UN Economic & Social (UNES) Division and the East & Southern Africa (E&SA) Division at headquarters.
He served as the Deputy High Commissioner and Deputy Permanent Representative(DPR) in Nairobi and Deputy Chief of Mission and DPR in Bangkok. Prior to New York, Tanmaya Lal has served in the Indian Missions in Bonn 1993-1996; Tehran 1999-2002; Vienna (also accredited to Slovenia) 2002-2005; Bangkok 2007-2010 and Nairobi (also accredited to Somalia and Eritrea) 2010-2013.
Besides heading the E&SA Division (2015-2016) and the UNES Division (2013-2015), he has served as Director (2005-2007) and Under Secretary (1997-99) for the West Europe Division (engagement with EU and 12 west European nations) and as the Regional Passport Officer for Delhi (1996-97).
He has worked extensively on multilateral aspects of India’s engagement as Ambassador/DPR in New York, as the Head of the UNES Division at headquarters and earlier at the Indian Missions in Vienna, Nairobi and Bangkok. His portfolio at the headquarters included the Climate Change negotiations at the UNFCCC, Agenda 2030, Human Rights Council, UN agencies, maritime issues, and the Arctic Council among others.
His work experience includes India’s engagement in its extended neighbourhood (Mauritius, Iran, Southeast Asia and East & Southern Africa) and west Europe, as also regional groupings (EU, ASEAN, AU, BIMSTEC, IORA and IOC). As the Head of E&SA Division, his portfolio included work relating to the AU and 20 African countries as also the 2015 Third India-Africa Forum Summit that saw an unprecedented scale of high-levelparticipation. In Mauritius he engaged with the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and Indian Ocean Commission (IOC).
In Mauritius, he was also engaged in work on implementation of a range of large India-assisted infrastructure projects. Three of these high-profiledevelopment projects - Metro Express, ENT Hospital and Supreme Court building - were jointly e-inaugurated at Prime Ministerial level during his tenure. Coordination of assistance during Covid19 pandemic, MV Wakashio oil spill and repatriation of stranded Indians was also organized. There were three visits by PM of Mauritius to India during this phase.
Tanmaya Lal received the S. K. Singh Award in 2013 for Excellence in the Indian Foreign Service.
He did his schooling in New Delhi and holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master's degree in Biological Sciences from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani.
After graduating in 1987, he worked with two Indian Public Sector Undertakings : the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) from 1988-1991 and the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) from 1987-88 before joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1991.
He speaks English, Hindi and German and has some working knowledge of French.
He is married to Sumita Lal and the couple has one son.
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April 2022
