New media team for President Pranab Mukherjee

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A new media team was on Thursday announced for President Pranab Mukherjee with Indian Foreign Service officer Venu Rajamony taking over as the new Press Secretary.

Rajamony takes over from Archana Datta who moves to the Information and Broadcasting ministry.

A career diplomat and a 1986 batch IFS officer, Rajamony was Joint Secretary heading the Multilateral Institutions Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance from October 2010 to August 2012.

Press Information Bureau officer Shameema Siddiqui will be the new Deputy Press Secretary replacing Nitin Wakankar who served two Presidents - A P J Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil, an official release said.
After working as a staff correspondent in a newspaper, Rajamony joined the Indian Foreign Service and went on to serve in the Indian Mission in Hong Kong as well as the Embassy of India in Beijing for around nine years.

He worked in the Indian Mission to the UN in Geneva as officer responsible for human rights and humanitarian matters and later in 1996 he was elected Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights representing India.

He has also served in the Indian Embassy in Washington DC as the official spokesperson and in the External Publicity Division of the Ministry of External Affairs.

Rajamony was also the Director (Chef de Cabinet) in the Office of External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha from 2002-2004.