NEW DELHI: Sujatha Singh was told at least three months ago of the government’s intention to replace her with S Jaishankar as foreign secretary . But it had to be done by January 31, 2015 when Jaishankar was due to retire from service.

Under the rules of service, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer cannot be appointed foreign secretary once he/she is past the official retirement age of 60. As FS, Jaishankar now gets a fresh two-year tenure.

The new Modi government came in with its own set of priorities and policies, which included a belief that India’s foreign policy had to be tweaked in keeping with new global realities and a sharper edge in its economic diplomacy.

Some of the new priorities were very different from what MEA had been used to or practised.