Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, the new High Commissioner of India to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka arrived in Colombo today, the Indian High Commission said in a release.

Mr. Y.K. Sinha is a seasoned diplomat and during his career of 32 years, has handled several important assignments at the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi and in Indian diplomatic missions in the Middle East, Europe, South America and the Permanent Mission of India at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Before coming to Sri Lanka, he was Additional Secretary in the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division at the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi.

He was Ambassador of India to Venezuela from January 2007 to August 2009 and Consul General of India in Dubai from August 2003 to December 2006. Earlier, he served as Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi (UAE) from March 2002 to July 2003.

Before 2003, Mr. Sinha worked in different capacities at Indian Missions in Saudi Arabia, Italy; and in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. In the mid-1990s, he served at Indian Mission in Pakistan and at the Permanent Delegation of India to United Nations, New York.

Mr. Y.K. Sinha was born on October 4, 1958. After post-graduation in History from Delhi University, he joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1981. He was member of the Secretariat of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit, held in New Delhi in 1982 and CHOGM Summit held in 1983. He studied Arabic language at the American University, Cairo from 1983 to 1985.

He is married to Girija, and they have two sons: Ambuj and Vinayak.