Meet Sidharth Babu, the IFS officer who stood alongside Modi, Putin, and Xi at BRICS

A photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping became one of the defining images of the BRICS Summit. In the same frame, another Indian official was helping Modi follow Xi’s remarks.

The official is Sidharth Babu, a 36 year old Indian Foreign Service officer who serves as Deputy Secretary in the East Asia Division of the Ministry of External Affairs. A 2017 batch IFS officer, he has spent several years working on China and speaks Chinese, experience that placed him alongside the leaders during the interaction.

From engineering to diplomacy

Originally from Kochi, Kerala, Sidharth studied mechanical engineering at Mar Athanasius College of Engineering from 2008 to 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Before joining the civil services, he worked in the e-commerce sector. His first attempt at the Civil Services Examination was unsuccessful, but he secured All India Rank 15 on his second attempt and opted for the Indian Foreign Service.

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His diplomatic career began in New Delhi as an officer trainee in December 2017.

His first overseas assignment took him to Beijing, where he served as Third Secretary from August 2018 to June 2020 and Second Secretary from June 2020 to July 2022.

Those four years in China gave the young diplomat experience in dealing with Beijing and helped him develop the language skills that would later become important to his work at the foreign ministry.

From Beijing to California

After his China posting, Sidharth moved to the United States, serving as Consul in Monterey County, California, between August 2022 and June 2024.

At the same time, he pursued a Master of Arts in Language Interpretation and Translation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. According to his profile, he studied there from September 2022 to May 2024.

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He returned to New Delhi in June 2024 and spent seven months as an Under Secretary. In January 2025, he took over as Deputy Secretary, the position he currently holds.

The BRICS Summit was not the first time the IFS officer had been seen assisting Modi during an important diplomatic engagement.

During India's 77th Republic Day celebrations in January, Sidharth was positioned on the VIP podium and interpreted a conversation between Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.