Mohan Kumar

Mohan Kumar is dean, Office of International Affairs & Global Initiatives, and professor of diplomatic practice at OP Jindal Global University. He also serves as chairman of the Delhi-based policy think-tank, Research and Information System (RIS), for developing countries.

Kumar received his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Madurai (India) and his master's degree in business administration from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. He went on to complete his doctorate (PhD) from Sciences Po, Paris.

Kumar was a member of the Indian Foreign Service for thirty-six years until he retired in July 2017 as India's ambassador to France. Kumar cut his diplomatic teeth in 1982 in Geneva at the then UN Human Rights Commission. Thus began his journey in multilateral diplomacy, which was to take him back to Geneva again and again in the 1990s. His first close involvement with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was in 1992 and continued till the establishment of the WTO (World Trade Organization). From 1995 to 2005, he was again associated with the WTO. Finally, as India's ambassador to France, Kumar was actively associated with the climate change negotiations that culminated in the Paris Accords of 2015.