BENGALURU: One of India’s most accomplished and quietly influential diplomats, Ambassador P S Raghavan passed away on November 24 at his home in Bengaluru after a resolute battle with cancer. He leaves behind his wife, their two sons, and a large circle of colleagues, protégés and friends who felt enriched simply by having known him.
Those who met Amb Raghavan rarely forgot the experience. He carried seniority lightly, with an easy graciousness that disarmed even the most nervous visitor. Yet beneath that warmth was a mind of extraordinary precision. He could cut through dense policy debates with a few measured sentences, delivered in his soft, even voice. For journalists in Bengaluru, far from Delhi’s diplomatic bustle, he became an anchor—someone who would listen patiently, then nudge you toward the nuance you had missed. He mentored without fuss, but expected sincerity in return.
Friends recall his dry humour, ability to make complex geopolitics feel almost conversational, and instinctive sense of India’s long-term interests. His understanding of Russia was deep not only because his career began and ended in the region, but because he remained alert to the shifting ground beneath global alignments. He brought that same clarity to every posting—from Czech Republic and Ireland to South Africa, Vietnam and the UK—and later to the PMO during A B Vajpayee’s tenure.
In the Ministry of External Affairs, he earned a reputation for fairness and steadiness. As secretary, he oversaw India’s external economic relations and administrative and security wings with a calm authority. He went on to establish the Development Partnership Administration, which shaped India’s development cooperation across Global South.
He often said he entered the foreign service “by accident”—a physicist from St Stephen’s who had begun research in electronics before discovering diplomacy through friends. But he brought a scientist’s clarity and a scholar’s curiosity to a profession that suited him almost perfectly.
In later years, he remained intellectually active as a Distinguished Fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation and as a member of Academic Council of NIAS, Bengaluru. He continued to write on strategic affairs, including for this newspaper.
Ambassador Raghavan’s passing leaves a quiet but unmistakable void.