Shashi Tharoor

A renowned novelist, Shashi Tharoor was born in London in 1956. After completing of BA in History, he received his PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He has been a senior official at UN HQ in New York since 1989, in addition to be an executive assistant to UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan. Currently he is serving as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information at the United Nations. The Great Indian Novel', Reasons of State, Nehru, Riot, Show Business, and The Five Dollar Smiles are among his renowned works. He has won numerous journalism and literary awards including Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Excelsior Award. Tharoor was addressed as a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 1998.