Dr. Bhaskar
Balakrishnan, Former Ambassador of India
Dr. Bhaskar Balakrishnan has served as
Ambassador of India to Greece from May 2005 to
Sept 2007. Earlier, from December 2001 to March
2005, he was India’s Ambassador to Cuba,
concurrently accredited to Haiti and the
Dominican Republic.
He headed the Investment & Technology
Promotion Division of the Ministry of External
Affairs concerned with promotion of foreign
investment and technology flows, economic
reforms, energy, and transportation, during Sept
1999 to Dec 2001; and from March 1998 to Sept
1999, he headed the Communications and Vigilance
Division of the Ministry. He was IT manager for
the Ministry, and the Chief Vigilance Officer,
and represented the Ministry in several
interministerial bodies such as the Foreign
Investment Promotion Board, the Genetic
Engineering Approval Committee, Steering
Committee on Biomedical Research, and the Task
Force on Information Security.
He has held diplomatic assignments in Indian
Missions in Geneva(1976-78, 1982-85),
Khartoum(1978-80), Damascus (1986-89),
Lusaka(1989-92) and Vienna (1992-95), as well as
in the Ministry of External Affairs in New
Delhi. He also worked in UNIDO, Vienna as
Special Assistant to the Director General
(1995-98).
His assignments covered a wide area of
international economic relations, science and
technology cooperation, multilateral affairs,
the UN system and its reforms, trade, investment
and technology promotion, energy and
environment, biotechnology, IT, labour, health
and social affairs, development cooperation, as
well as political and administrative affairs,
personnel management, internal oversight, etc.
He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1974,
and is a graduate of the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kharagpur (1963-66), Delhi
University (1966-68), and Ph.D from Stonybrook
University, USA (1968-72) in the field of
Theoretical High Energy and Particle Physics. He
has held teaching assignments at Panjab
University (1972-74) and Stonybrook University,
USA. He also worked for one year at
Massachussets Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachussets.
After retirement in Sept 2007, he
worked briefly as Executive Director of the
Asian Heritage Foundation, New Delhi, which
works for the upliftment of rural and poor
artisans involved in creative and cultural
industries.
He is a regular contributor of
articles on international affairs to the daily
English national newspaper The Hindu Business
Line.
He
has published a book entitled "Technology
and International
Relations: Challenges for the 21 st Century" ,
in collaboration with
the Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA).
He is a Fellow in Science Diplomacy at
the Research and
Information Systems for Developing Countries
(RIS) , New Delhi since 2018. He is the editorof the journal "Science Diplomacy Review" and of the fortnightly newsletter Science Diplomacy News Alerts.
He is the Co Chair of the Gene Therapy Advisory and Evaluation Committee (GTAEC) of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), set up in 2020.
Since 2009, he is an adjucnt
faculty member at the JSS University, Mysore. He
has delivered lectures on special topics such as
biotechnology development, IPRs and access to
drugs, climate change and energy, nuclear
energy, health situation in South Asia, etc. to
students and faculty..
He has conducted
training workshops for diplomats of the
Mauritius Foreign Ministry, under an
Indo-Mauritius bilateral programme. In
January 2011 and May 2015, he conducted training
courses for diplomats of South Pacific Island
countries under a project of the Ministry of
External Affairs. He has been delivering
lectures on special topics as part of
the training programmes conducted by the
Foreign Service Training Institute of the
Ministry of External Affairs for foreign
diplomats including diplomats from Afghanistan,
ASEAN diplomats, and India.
He was a member of India's
16-member National Security Advisory Board
(NSAB) for 2013-2014.
He has been the President of the
Association of Indian Diplomats (AID), for
2015-16, an association of over 250
former Indian Ambassadors.
He speaks French and Spanish. He
is a radio amateur, call sign VU2QV. He is
married with two children.
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Blogs:
Diplomatic
bag
Articles
in media
Media
interviews, videos [ pdf version ]
Scientific
papers
Mahatma
Gandhi
Contact
Recent Articles:
Opportunities for India Taiwan Science and Technology Cooperation, Bhaskar Balakrishnan, Science Diplomacy Review, Vol 3, No. 3, December 2021, p14-26,
China, WHO and the Covid-19 Pandemic Bhaskar Balakrishnan. Institute of Chinese Studies Analysis, No 102, May 2020,
Prospects of India-Taiwan Science & Technology Cooperation, Bhaskar Balakrishnan, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF) policy report on India-Taiwan relations, p 84-91, Feb 2022,
Science, Technology and Innovation - Fighting the COVID-19 Outbreak, RIS Diary 3rd Special Issue on COVID-19, April 2020
WHO's Role in the Covid-19 Outbreak must be Strengthened, RIS Diary 2 nd Special Issue on COVID-19, April 2020
Book Review of "Fire and Fury - Transforming India's Strategic Identity"by Dr Anil Kakodkar, Science Diplomacy Review, Voil 2 No.1, March 2020
Science and Technology Dimensions of Indian Foreign Policy, Indian Foreign Affairs Journal Vol. 14, No. 2, April–June 2019, 165-180
Climate
Change, Paris Agreement and Global Action: A
way foreard , Science Diplomacy Review ,March
2019
Non-Aligned
movement:
Can Vennezuela host the next Summit ? ICWA, 3
Feb 2016
India's
engagement
with the Pacific Islands, IFAJ Oct-Dec 2015
Indian
economy
needs a boost - a reform wish list,
Indiawrites, 20 Jan 2016 [
pdf version ]
India-Africa
Forum
Summit: A Big Leap Forward? Eurasia Revew, 17
Oct 2015; full
version
Diplomatic
impunity,
Indian Express, 28 Sep 2015, full
version.
Greek
elections
pose a new challenge for the third bailout
deal, English version of article published in
Sakal (Marathi), 26 Aug 2015
Forum
for
India Pacific Islands Cooperation moves ahead,
IDSA comments, 25 Aug 2015 [pdf]
Sea
change,
Business Line, 18 Aug 2015 [ pdf
]
India's
outreach
to Pacific Islands: Making a difference,
IndiaWrites.org, 16 Aug 2015
[ pdf
]
Obama’s
Clean
Power Plan Could Have Lessons For India –
OpEd, Eurasia review, 12 Aug 2015 [ pdf
]
Cuba-US
Detente
Opens Up New Possibilities – OpEd, Eurasia
Review, 5 Aug 2015 [ pdf
]
Cuba-US
detente:
the long road ahead, IndiaWrites.org, 28 Jul
2015. [ pdf
]
Role
of
Technology in India's Foreign Relations,
Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, Vol6 No.1
p70-86
Doing
what
it takes to stop a 'Grexit' , Business Line,
29 Jan 2015 [ pdf
]
US-Cuba
thaw:
New Year & New Hopes, Indiawrites.org, 31
Dec 2014 [ pdf
]
Banking
reforms:
How to cure KYC headache?, Indiawrites.org, 7
Dec 2014 [ pdf
]
This
is
not the way to stem brain drain, Business
Line, 22 Nov 2014 [pdf
]
India’s
Foreign
Policy and the New Government, Indian Foreign
Affairs Journal,Jul-Sep 2014 issue p 206-212
Make
in
India - How to succeed, Indiawrites.org, 18
Nov 2014 [ pdf
version]
India
must
become member of CERN, Eurasia Review, 15 Nov
2014 [ pdf
version]
Nuclear
Thorn
in India-Japan ties, 5 Sep 2014 [ pdf
version ]
Palestinian
Unity
can help the peace process, 20 Jun 2014, ICWA
guest article. [ pdf
version ]
Ukraine:
A
new Balkans in the heart of Europe, 24 May
2014, Eurasia Review [
pdf version ]
India's
next
government can boost the economy, Eurasia
Review, 19 May 2014 [ pdf
version ]
India's
leather
exports to take a hiding, Business Line, 5 May
2014 [ pdf
version ]
India's
vote
on Sri Lanka - a responsible choice, 10 Apr
2014, e-International Relations [
pdf version ]
The
Great
indian Election 2014 - Eurasia Review, 6 Apr
2014 [ pdf
version ]
India's
vote
on Sri Lanka - a responsible choice, The
Island, 6 Apr 2014 [
pdf ]
Terrorism
incubator-
the growing terror of foreign jihadists,
Hindustan Times, 25 Feb 2014 [ pdf
version ]
Time
to
end Iran's isolation 1 Dec 2013 [ doc
version ]
Rogue
Vessels
in Indian waters 24 Oct 2013 [
pdf version ]
Syria's
getting
too toxic, 4 Sep 2013 [ original
version ]
Bhutan
-
a tiny, coldneighbour, 16 Aug 2013 [ pdf
version ]
We've
only
just begun, 16 Jul 2013 [
pdf version ]
Pull
out
all the stops on FDI 4 Jul 2013 [ pdf
version
]
Let's
Mend
Fences with Denmark 17 Jun 2013 [ pdf
version ]
Trade
talks
with EU too hush-hush 17 Apr 2013 [ pdf
version ]
Disarm
North
Korea through talks 27 Feb 2013 [ pdf
version ]
Iran
on
nuclear overdrive 18 Jan 2013 [ pdf
version ]
Syria,
an
ever boiling cauldron 13 Nov 2012 [
pdf version ]
Needless
misgivings
on reforms 4 Oct 2012 [ pdf
version ]
ALL ARTICLES
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