Mukherjee, Bhaswati: - A career foreign service officer, Bhaswati Mukherjee has a well deserved reputation as one of the most experienced diplomats on Indo-EU relations. She has headed, for the longest time ever, the Indian Foreign Ministry's department specialising in the EU affairs. During this period she piloted institutional linkages like annual Indo-EU Summits to give greater gravitas and stability to the relationship. In a distinguished career of over 38 years, she has been the Indian Ambassador to The Netherlands as well as India's Permanent Representative to UNESCO in Paris. Her international expertise was honed by her earlier work at India's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York and a 6-year tenure with the UN Human Rights Commission and the first High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. Her public interface started young. Being elected as the President of Miranda College's Student's Union gave her the confidence to pursue her passion for human rights and women's rights and later, disarmament and strategic issues as well as heritage and culture. Bhaswati Mukherjee is a trained vocalist. An excellent public speaker, she is an important voice in the Indian media on foreign policy and strategic affairs.