An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Madhya Pradesh, Faiz Ahmad Kidwai, will soon take over as India’s new consul general in Jeddah. Kidwai’s name has already been recommended by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), and a formal announcement is expected soon. Born on March 23, 1972, in the Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh, Kidwai joined the IAS in 1996. He is presently serving as director in the President’s Secretariat in New Delhi.
Kidwai will succeed Sayeed Ahmad Baba, also an IAS officer of 1988 batch, whose extended tenure will end next month. It was due to the non-availability of Muslim Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers in director rank that the Ministry of External Affairs had advertised the post to requisition an officer from other services, sources said. Among the various contenders were M.A. Saleem, Shakeel Akhtar (both IPS officers) and Zahoor Rizvi. The post of the Indian consul general is considered significant for handling several key diplomatic assignments besides the Haj arrangements for over 150,000 Indian pilgrims every year. – Arab News
