Nirupama Rao is a former Indian Foreign Service officer. She retired as Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, the senior most position in the Foreign Service, being the second woman to occupy the post (2009-2011). She was the first woman spokesperson (2001-02) of the Indian foreign office. Nirupama served as India’s first woman ambassador to Sri Lanka (2004-2006) and to the People’s Republic of China (2006-2009). She was Ambassador of India to the United States from 2011 to 2013. She has been a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Watson Institute, Brown University where she has taught a course on “India in the World”. She is a staunch believer in the power of social media as an advocacy platform for policy and currently has over one million followers on Twitter.