K. Natwar Singh

Kunwar Natwar Singh, popularly known as K. Natwar Singh (born May 16, 1931, Jaghina, Bharatpur, Rajastan, India) is an Indian politician and former cabinet minister. On November 7, 2005, he was removed from his post as Minister in charge of External Affairs under a cloud of scandal and became a minister without portfolio. Named by the U.N. Independent Enquiry Committee (popularly known as Volcker committee) as a beneficiary of illegal payoffs in Iraqi oil scam, he was forced to resign from the Cabinet on December 6, 2005.

He is married to the daughter of Maharaja Adhiraj Yadavindra Singh, the late Maharaja of Patiala Maharajkumari Heminder Kaur, and is hence brother-in-law to Captain Maharaja Adhiraj Amarinder Singh, the current Maharaja of Patiala and a former chief minister of Punjab.

Education and early life

Natwar Singh attended Mayo College and Scindia School, Gwalior. He was an undergraduate at St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He subsequently studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University and at Peking University in China.

Diplomatic career

Singh joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1953 and served for 31 years. One of his earliest assignments was in Beijing, China (1956–58). He was then posted to New York with the Permanent Mission of India, (1961–66) and as India's representative to Executive Board of UNICEF, (1962–66). Singh served on several important UN committees between 1963 and 1966. In 1966, he was posted to the Prime Minister's...
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